Addressing & Resolving Poor Performance

Technically, the within-grade increase determination is based on the most recent rating of record as long as it was issued within the last year. However, the regulations provide that a supervisor, in making an "acceptable level of competence" determination, may issue a new rating if the most recent rating does not reflect the employee's current performance.

Consider the case where an employee's within-grade increase is due in 3 weeks, the last rating was Fully Successful, and the employee was given an opportunity to improve that began last month. You would need to decide whether the employee's current performance has come back up to Fully Successful, and if so, you would approve the within-grade increase. However, it is more likely that the current performance is still below the acceptable level, in which case a new rating needs to be issued to support the denial of the within-grade increase.