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

Additional Resources

• Reference Manuals
• Web Tools
• Agency Examples Under Special Authorities

Reference Manuals

• The Delegated Examining Operations Handbook provides operating procedures for agencies with delegated authority to conduct examining for positions in the competitive civil service, except for administrative law judge.

Web Tools

• OPM's Category Rating Information Page. Provides category rating resources such as Statutes & Regulations and recent presentations on category rating.
• The USA Staffing software system is a cost-effective means of getting the best-qualified candidates for public sector hiring in a single, integrated software solution. The complex staffing process of the public sector is simplified with this user-friendly, Web-enabled software that completely automates the recruitment, assessment, referral, and notification processes.

Agency Examples Under Special Authorities

Many agencies have successfully used a category rating approach under special authorities granted to them prior to passage of the Chief Human Capital Officers Act of 2002. This section presents a summary of the activities of some of these agencies.

• Department of Defense (DOD). Under the DOD Civilian Acquisition Workforce Personnel Demonstration Project (AcqDemo), the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base, CA, faced recruitment and retention challenges, particularly for engineers. The Air Force Flight Test Center joined the AcqDemo and introduced a host of complementary human resource management flexibilities, one of which was category rating. While the specific AcqDemo provisions for category rating are somewhat different than those under the Chief Human Capital Officers Act, the application of the concept is similar. Instead of placing applicants in categories with names (e.g., good, better, best), applicants are given 70, 80, or 90 points. Veterans' preference points are added to an applicant's score. This method of applying veterans' preference differs from the procedure authorized by the CHCO Act.

  Select this link to access the Federal Register Notice, Operating Procedures, and regulatory provisions for category rating under the AcqDemo.

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). NRC, which operates under an excepted service personnel system, has used category rating since its inception as an agency. NRC's category rating process is documented in its operating regulations and reflects the needs of NRC. The process used is very similar to the provisions contained in the Chief Human Capital Officers Act. NRC uses three categories: A, B, and C. Preference-eligible candidates for professional and scientific positions at the grade 9 level or higher rise to the top of their respective category. For all other positions, veterans who are 10 percent or more disabled must be considered before any other candidates, regardless of their qualifications category. A complete description of the NRC process can be found in its Management Directive 10.15, Merit Staffing Program, February 1996.

  Select this link to learn more about NRC's Management Directive 10.15, Merit Staffing Program.

• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA has been a leader in the use of category rating since a 1990 demonstration project gave them the authority to use category rating in two agencies: the Agricultural Research Service and the Forest Service. Category rating replaced the numerical rating and the ranking process. Due to the project's success, category rating is currently used in the Agriculture Research Service and in the Forest Service for all positions GS-1 through GS-15, with the exception of administrative law judges and Luevano Consent Degree Positions.

  Select this link to learn more about USDA's use of category rating.

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