Managing Senior Professional Performance

The Office of Personnel Management is proposing to create a new subpart in Part 430. Coverage of Senior Level (SL) and scientific/professional (ST) employees (senior professionals) would be separated from general schedule employees to align with proposed amendments to the regulations for the Senior Executive Service. The new subpart would remove the prohibition of a forced distribution of performance rating levels. Currently, agencies are prohibited from establishing quotas or limits on the number or proportion of the various rating levels assigned, meaning that each senior professional can potentially receive any rating based on their performance, irrespective of how other senior professionals perform within the agency. However, governmentwide SL and ST ratings data have consistently shown that virtually all SL and ST employees receive the highest rating levels (i.e., levels 4 and 5) despite documented reports of failings. Removing the prohibition on forced distribution would allow agencies to establish and enforce limits on the highest SL and ST rating levels, thereby increasing rigor in the SL and ST appraisal process and leading to a more normalized distribution of SL and ST ratings across the Federal Government.