Federal employees would have a greater say in executives' performance evaluations, under draft regulations the Office of Personnel Management plans to publish in the next few weeks.
The regulations, obtained by GovExec.com, would establish three primary criteria for rating executives: employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and business results. Business results are defined as goals in agencies' long-term strategic plans and annual performance plans under the Government Performance and Results Act.
The so-called balanced measure approach to performance management is already being used in some parts of the government, including the Internal Revenue Service and the Education Department's Office of Student Financial Assistance.
"By institutionalizing the use of balanced measures, the government acknowledges what its best executives have always known: Leading people and building customer coalitions are the foundation of organizational success," the draft regulations say.
OPM also plans to rewrite much of the regulation dealing with Senior Executive Service performance evaluations in what an OPM official said is an effort "to move the focus from the process to what we want to achieve, which is an executive corps that is diverse, in touch with customers' needs and employees' interests and produces results Americans want."
The OPM official said agency officials should adhere to general principles, such as tying executive ratings to organizational goals. But they should also have the flexibility to tailor their own performance evaluation processes, depending on their agencies' missions and cultures.
For example, OPM is proposing to eliminate a requirement that agencies appraise executives every 120 days. Instead, agencies can set their own appraisal cycles, with a minimum appraisal period of 90 days.
The performance evaluation change is part of an SES improvement package that OPM initially proposed in 1998. Another piece of that package, changes to regulations governing executive selection, was finalized in the May 25 Federal Register. OPM issued additional guidance to agencies on those changes in a May 22 memorandum to agencies from OPM Director Janice R. Lachance and a May 11 memorandum from K. Joyce Edwards, director of OPM's Office of Executive Resources Management.
The OPM official said other pieces of the improvement package are still under consideration, including a proposal to split the Senior Executive Service in half, with one half consisting of high-level professionals such as engineers, attorneys and scientists, and the other made up of management executives.
Under OPM's current plans, that proposal would not be resurrected until 2003, the official said.
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