Federal HR Office Moves to Curb High Scores for Senior Staff

Federal agencies can limit the number of high-scoring evaluations awarded to top-paid workers under a rule finalized by the US Office of Personnel Management.

The final rule, published Friday, will curb grade inflation for members of the Senior Executive Service by allowing agencies to adopt forced distribution evaluation systems. Under the rule, managers may be required to assign a fixed percentage of workers to each category of performance ranking, much like grading on a curve. The practice was previously prohibited for federal workers.

The OPM rule notes that 96% of SES members received top ratings in 2023, while less than 1% were rated below “fully successful.” A Government Accountability Office report similarly found that 85% of SES workers received “outstanding” or “exceeds fully successful” ratings from 2010 to 2013, while less than 1% were given the lowest ranking.

The report recommended that OPM change the evaluation system to “promote meaningful distinctions in performance.”