The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued new performance plans for members of the Senior Executive Service (SES), Senior Level (SL), Scientific and Professional (ST), and Senior Professional (SP) employees. This new initiative enhances government-wide standards for performance management, awards programs, and resolving poor performance for all remaining federal positions.
Under this new directive, federal employee performance ratings will be normalized and reflect individual contributions to organizational results and outcomes.
Framework for Change
General provisions for performance appraisal systems within the federal government are outlined in Subchapter I of Chapter 43 of Title 5, United States Code. This subchapter establishes the framework for how agencies assess and manage employee performance.
Key aspects include establishing updated performance appraisal systems, taking actions based on unacceptable performance, and the OPM’s responsibilities in overseeing these systems.
Acting OPM Director Chuck Ezell said. “These reforms will ensure that strong performers are rewarded, and poor performers are addressed, and the American people receive the effective and efficient service they deserve.”
Time Table
Agency supervisors will now be required to complete new performance management training, and agencies must transition to a government-wide performance appraisal cycle by Fiscal Year 2027.
This initiative is designed to reform employee performance management across the Federal government and ensure that it rewards individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work.
All Executive agencies must transition to a standardized government-wide performance appraisal cycle for all non-SES/SP employees, on a fiscal-year cycle, beginning on October 1, 2026, consistent with any bargaining obligations.
Performance Reform
The intent is to end the current system’s inherent inflation of employee performance ratings and implement new required supervisory critical elements and training.
Under this new system, employee performance plans will clearly define what is needed to achieve performance at various levels. Supervisors will be provided with the training and tools necessary to assess performance and take required actions to address poor performers.
According to OPM’s June 17, 2025, memo, “A fully successful rating must reflect that the employee is achieving all expectations for their position and is contributing in a meaningful way to the agency’s success in meeting organizational goals.”
It states, “Agencies must also define performance beyond the fully successful level for each performance standard. Ratings above fully successful must reflect performance that far exceeds the position’s responsibilities.”
A mandatory critical element for supervisors is designed to ensure:
- Subordinates’ commitment to efficient work execution
- Subordinates are held accountable for high-quality results
- Supervisors recognize, support, and reward excellent work from employees
- Poor and mediocre performance is addressed in a timely manner
- Appropriate actions up to the removal of poor performers are taken, and
- Supervisors take appropriate action when employees report concerns of illegal conduct or waste, fraud, or abuse
Regular Performance Check-Ins
Supervisors typically had an initial performance review at the beginning of the year and another at the end of the rating period. This new process requires regular performance check-ins with supervised employees, ranging from monthly to quarterly and more frequently, to address questions or concerns in real time.
Summary
The current performance rating system has similar characteristics and was tasked with achieving comparable results. The new system clarifies what meets and exceeds performance for specific occupations and how to fast-track addressing poor performers. It goes on to address:
- Tools for preventing and addressing unacceptable job performance
- Agency policy changes
- Rewarding high performance
- A new required supervisory performance element
- Fully successful and outstanding performance
- Rating formulas
- Incentive awards programs
Performance appraisals are among the most demanding supervisory tasks, and they significantly impact the organization as a whole. They also provide employees with a clear and concise understanding of how their organization’s fully successful and outstanding performance is measured.
Supervisors often ask employees for input for annual appraisal reviews; many ignore the request. These same individuals ask why they were only rated as fully successful. Motivated workers compile lists of their accomplishments and present them to their supervisor for end-of-year reviews. It often is the deciding factor for an exceptional or outstanding rating.
