The Office of Personnel Management announced that changes to the performance appraisal system for senior government personnel will be implemented next year. The changes, which were announced in a memo to federal agency leaders from OPM Acting Director Margot Weichert, are designed to reduce the agency burden in certifying appraisal programs for high-ranking leadership throughout the federal government.
“We believe these improvements will reduce agency burden by removing procedural hurdles, and will better position OPM as a strategic advisor to agencies on improving employee performance management,” Weichert wrote in the memo. “The majority of agencies now have extensive experience with SES and SL/ST certification and have well-established policies and procedures that operationalize the certification criteria. Therefore, the changed process focuses less on verifying operational compliance and more on the results of agencies’ appraisal systems, thereby saving time and resources.”
The Senior Executive Service (SES) certification includes most managerial, supervisory, and policy positions classified above General Schedule (GS) grade 15.The changes will be implemented on Jan. 7.
Changes to the performance appraisal system certification process:
- Automatic renewal of fully certified appraisal systems based on OPM/Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review of annual data submission to determine ratings, pay and awards decisions comply with statute and regulation
- Agencies are no longer required to submit performance plans with certification requests
- Agencies will have greater flexibility to demonstrate pay differentiation using the combination of performance-based pay adjustments and performance awards, which will be referred to as “annual performance-based compensation”
ICYMI: DHS Will Shore Up Cybersecurity for America’s Infrastructure
