Performance-Based
Actions FAQs
A performance-based action is the reduction in
grade or removal of a Federal employee based on
unacceptable performance. A few of the most frequently
asked questions about performance-based actions in
regards to performance appraisal programs include:
?
|
Did
the 1995 changes to the Federal performance
management regulations make any changes to the
procedures for taking performance-based actions? |
| No. The only change
to part 432 of title 5, Code of Federal
Regulations, was to make a conforming change to
the definition of "critical element." |
 
?
|
What
happens to a performance-based action if an
agency changes its appraisal program while the
action is still in progress? |
| If a notice of
proposed action has been given to the employee, a
change to an appraisal program should have no
effect on the action. Section 430.201(b) of title
5, Code of Federal Regulations, contains a
specific provision, called the "savings
provision," that safeguarded administrative
procedures pending on September 22, 1995, from
being disrupted by the implementation of new
programs covered by these regulations. The Office
of Personnel Management's system approval
procedures require agency appraisal programs to
have a similar provision to safeguard pending
administrative procedures when programs change.
(See this question for impact of a
program change on an opportunity period.) |
?
|
What
should an agency do with any opportunity period
or performance improvement plan (PIP) that is in
progress when a program is changed? |
| An opportunity
period, or a PIP as it is often called, provides
a reasonable chance for the employee whose
performance has been determined to be
unacceptable in one or more critical elements to
demonstrate acceptable performance in the
critical elements(s) at issue. What an agency
should do with a PIP that is in progress when a
program is changed depends on the nature of the
changes between the old program and the new one.
If neither the performance standards nor the
retention level communicated to the employee at
the start of the PIP have changed, the agency
should be able to proceed with the opportunity
period or PIP. However, a substantive change in
standards or the retention level would require
that the current PIP end. For example, if an
agency goes from a program that provided for an
appraisal level between Fully Successful and
Unacceptable to one that does not, it
should amend the opportunity period or PIP
specifying that performance now must be improved
to the Fully Successful level, which is
now the retention level. Additional time may need
to be given to the employee to allow the employee
sufficient time to demonstrate improved
performance at the new retention level. This
example still presumes that the Fully
Successful standard has not been changed. If
the performance standard has changed, the
employee has to perform for the agency's minimum
period under the new standard before a
determination of unacceptable performance can be
made and a new opportunity period or PIP started. |
?
|
Do
the appraisal regulations require an agency to
give an unacceptable employee an opportunity to
improve before proposing an adverse action? |
| The regulations
addressing the requirements for taking
performance-based actions are found in part 432
of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, not in
the appraisal regulations at part 430. The law
and regulations require agencies to assist
unacceptable employees to improve, and, if the
provisions at section 4303 of title 5, United
States Code, and part 432 of title 5,
Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), are going to
be used in proposing and taking an adverse action
based on unacceptable performance, an opportunity
to demonstrate acceptable performance must be
provided. The regulations at 5 CFR
430.207(d) refer more generally to taking an
action based on unacceptable performance. This
action could be pursued either under the
provisions of 5 United States Code, chapter 43 or under
the adverse action provisions of 5 United States Code, chapter
75, which has no specific requirement for an
opportunity period. |
|
