The Trump administration on Thursday ordered all federal departments and agencies by March 7 to submit lists of employees who received less than “fully successful” job performance ratings in the past three years.
The order from the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management said that “OPM is developing new performance metrics for evaluating the federal workforce,” and requires agencies to identify any barriers to making “meaningful distinctions” between employees’ job performance relative to one another.
The memo also orders agencies to identify any barriers to an agency having “the ability to swiftly terminate poor performing employees who cannot or will not improve.”
Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell said the new performance metrics will align “with the priorities and standards” in recent executive orders by President Donald Trump.
No later than Friday, March 7, 2025, each agency should report to OPM the following information:
1. All employees who received less than a “fully successful” performance rating in the past
three years. With respect to each employee:
a. Name, job title, pay plan, series, grade, agency, component, and duty station;
b. Whether that employee is under or successfully completed a performance improvement plan within the last 12 months;
c. Whether the agency has already proposed and issued a decision under Chapter 43 or 75, or equivalent procedures, and the outcome of any such decision; and
d. Whether the action is currently appealed or challenged and under what procedures (e.g., U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, grievance-arbitration, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, etc.), and any outcome.
2. Any OPM regulations, agency policies, or terms of collective bargaining agreements applicable to the agency that would impede:
a. agency performance plans from making meaningful distinctions based on relative
employee performance; or
b. the agency’s ability to swiftly separate low-performing employees.
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