U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

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OPM Approves New Agency Performance Appraisal Systems

As the Performance Management and Incentive Awards Division has begun approving new agency performance appraisal systems, we've observed that each agency is designing its system in a way that best suits its own organizational culture and priorities. A number of agencies have had systems approved since OPM's new regulations went into effect September 22, 1995. As this issue goes to press, systems have been approved for the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Transportation, and Treasury, as well as the Agency for International Development, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and the Social Security Administration. In addition, several other systems are under review, and a number of agencies are working on the redesign of their systems.

Key differences among agency systems emerge primarily in the areas of decentralized program responsibility and in the patterns of summary rating levels that the systems permit. Some large departments permit their subcomponent organizations maximum flexibility to design programs within very broad parameters including allowing them to use any one of the eight available patterns. Others have a more centralized system and permit only one pattern agency-wide. Smaller agencies tend to use anywhere from three to five summary rating levels rather than pass/fail.

A number of agencies planning to have only one program have established systems with enough flexibility to allow them to make future program changes without having to seek OPM approval. This eliminates the administrative inconvenience of repeated requests to OPM for relatively small program changes.

Appraisal periods are usually specified as 1 year, although allowances are being provided to establish programs with periods of another length to cover employees for whom some other timespan is more appropriate. Minimum periods allowed in all agencies are typically 60-120 days, although there are some exceptions. Several agencies have not placed an upper limit on the number of days for the minimum period.

A number of agencies are limiting the number of levels at which performance elements may be appraised. Where such limits exist, they tend to match the maximum number of summary levels allowed.

As more and more systems are developed, and as we learn more about agency success with new regulatory flexibilities, we will provide you with information that may be useful as you design and revise your own systems.

Originally published on February 1996.