Performance Management Performance Management FAQs

Yes. Cash and time-off awards given to an individual or to a group must be reported to the EHRI. When submitting dynamics files, agencies must submit the award gross amount to EHRI for each record affected.

Whenever an agency proposes to change its performance appraisal system to modify a provision that is subject to a regulatory requirement, the agency must submit the changes to OPM for review and approval prior to implementation.

An agency may not hold an employee accountable for work that does not get done because of an absence for which the employee is on any type of approved leave. If there is a specific performance standard for the appraisal year, it may be prorated for the amount of time the employee was at work.

Agencies must look at the nature of the work done by various organizations and determine what length of time is appropriate as the basis for measuring employee performance.  Agencies are encouraged to designate a single appraisal period (i.e., 1 year) as the standard appraisal period throughout the agency, with the built-in flexibility to accommodate individual or mass transitions between programs.  Otherwise, an agency system must define any limits (maximum length, minimum length, or acceptable range) within which it will permit appraisal programs to select their appraisal periods.

Additional performance-based credit can be applied only to ratings of record put on record (i.e., given to the employee with all appropriate reviews and signatures and available to the office responsible for establishing retention registers). Many agencies establish a cut-off date after which no new ratings of record will be put on record for use in a specific reduction in force.

Technically, no. However, agencies need to consider carefully the effect that switching to a different pattern of summary levels may have on employee expectations regarding performance appraisal results and their related consequences. Such expectations are established at the beginning of the appraisal period.

No. The number of summary levels is an exercise of management rights and not subject to collective bargaining. However, where the agency system permits some flexibility in deciding about a program's pattern of summary levels, employee involvement could play an important role in program acceptance.

No. The awards statute only authorizes granting awards to and recognition of Federal employees. An agency may have other authorities for recognizing the contributions of private citizens.

The agency will have to determine the modal rating based on the rating of record information it has available. The Office of Personnel Management recommends that the modal rating, which is based on the most recent ratings of record, be tabulated for the specific competitive area undergoing a reduction in force whenever possible, and that larger aggregations of agency population be used only when the rating of record information is not available for the specific competitive area itself.

Yes, so long as the employees the agency excludes are covered by another performance appraisal system (unless the employees are in the excepted service and the agency has obtained, from OPM, a separate approval for their exclusion).

If neither the performance standards nor the retention level communicated to the employee at the start of the PIP have changed, the agency should be able to proceed with the opportunity period or PIP. However, a substantive change in standards or the retention level would require that the current PIP end.

Non-critical elements are not required but, if used, they must be expressed as elemenst and standards, be included in the employee's performance plan, and be used in assigning a summary level for the rating of record. However, non-critical elements cannot be used as a basis for taking a performance-based action. Other features of non-critical elements:

• they cannot be used in two-level appraisal programs (i.e., pass/fail)
• they can be given more weight than critical elements when assigning a summary level above "Unacceptable" (Level 1)
• they must have a performance standard written for at least one level, the written standard need not describe the "Fully Successful" or equivalent level

No. Only ratings given by Federal Government entities can be used and only when they meet the requirements for equivalent ratings of record as specified in the performance management regulations.

No, the agency may only vary credit if the competitive area includes employees with ratings of record being credited for this reduction in force that were received under more than one summary level pattern. If all ratings being credited were given under a single pattern, the agency must use the 12/16/20 system regardless of the pattern used.

As a general principle, when an agency has discretion over a condition of employment of bargaining unit employees, and that discretion is not reserved to management by law, there is a duty to bargain on how the agency will exercise that discretion. Even when the decision is reserved to management, there is a duty to give notice to the union and, upon request, bargain on the impact and implementation of the otherwise protected decision.

No. Rating-based cash awards are based on the rating of record, which is the written justification for the award.

Yes. Even if an agency uses a single summary level pattern, if there is any employee with one or more ratings of record being credited in the reduction in force that were given under a different summary level pattern, the agency has a mix of patterns.

No. In giving agencies some discretion on performance crediting, the reduction in force regulations make clear that any decisions must be uniformly and consistently applied throughout the competitive area. Since competitive areas normally also include non-bargaining unit employees, there is no obligation to bargain on otherwise negotiable proposals that are aimed at the entire competitive area. Management is not required to negotiate with the union the conditions of employment of non-bargaining unit employees.

No. Governmentwide regulations require a rating of record of at least Level 3 (Fully Successful or equivalent) as the basis for the acceptable level of competence determination. There is no provision to consider anything other than the rating of record.