{"id":141230,"date":"2025-08-13T02:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141230\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T02:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T02:25:09","slug":"only-high-performers-should-receive-awards-agencies-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141230\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Only High Performers\u2019 Should Receive Awards, Agencies Told"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\tOPM: An employee\u2019s performance expectations, \u201cat least one critical element should clearly align to an organizational goal or Trump Administration priority.\u201d\t\t\t\t\t Image: Douglas Rissing\/iStock
\n\t\t\t\tBy: FEDweek Staff<\/a><\/p>\n

Agencies are to assure that \u201chigh performers\u2014and only high performers\u2014are rewarded appropriately\u201d through monetary and other awards, OPM has said, while stressing that recently revised performance rating standards<\/a> (that are to reflect compliance with Trump Administration policies) should result in fewer employees being rated in that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgencies must ensure awards, both monetary and non-monetary, support a culture in which only those individuals who have demonstrated genuinely exceptional individual performance and contributions to the agency receive the largest performance awards and pay adjustments. Thus, awards must be commensurate with the employee\u2019s annual summary rating or rating of record (as applicable)\u2014meaning that employees who have received ratings above \u201cFully Successful\u201d should receive the largest bonuses,\u201d says a memo on chcoc.gov.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often, inflated and subjective performance ratings have resulted in dollars available for performance awards being distributed broadly across the majority of employees, thereby diminishing the provision of meaningful bonuses and awards to reward the most deserving employees,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

The guidance applies to awards policies the general changes in performance ratings policies for most federal employees set by a June memo. That memo did not set a desired distribution pattern for ratings\u2014unlike a parallel earlier policy for the SES<\/a> that explicitly advocates for \u201cforced distributions\u201d to limit the number rated at the highest levels. However, it said that agencies \u201cshould seek to ensure that a disproportionate number of employees are not rated at the highest performance levels\u201d<\/p>\n

It further said that in an employee\u2019s performance expectations, \u201cat least one critical element should clearly align to an organizational goal or Trump Administration priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new guidance says that under those changes, \u201cbeginning with the closeout of the FY 2025 performance cycle, agencies should see an increased normalization of ratings, resulting in fewer Level 4 and Level 5 ratings . . . the award amounts for Level 4 and Level 5 ratings should increase significantly as the largest bonuses will now be appropriately distributed to only the highest performers.\u201d<\/p>\n

What will be a larger share of employees rated at Level 3 \u201care essential members of the federal workforce and agencies should consider rewarding a \u2018fully successful\u2019 rating, but in a way that makes meaningful distinctions among the rewards of all rating levels and reserves the largest bonuses for the highest performers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAgencies are also reminded that tolerating low performance results in a lack of trust between employees and supervisors, and supervisors are expected and obligated to identify unacceptable performance via the appropriate performance rating. This increased rigor in the assessment of individual and organizational performance will provide for a larger pool of funds from which the high performers\u2014and only high performers\u2014are rewarded appropriately,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

\n

Several Federal Agencies Disavow Union Contracts, with More Likely to Follow<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018Only High Performers\u2019 Should Receive Awards, Agencies Told<\/a><\/p>\n

OPM Quietly Ends Its Role in \u2018Five Things\u2019 Reporting<\/a><\/p>\n

COVID Vaccination Data to Be Deleted from Federal Personnel Records<\/a><\/p>\n

Numbers, Impact of Federal Job Cuts Draw Increasing Scrutiny<\/a><\/p>\n

OPM Limits Length of Paid Leave in Reorgs\u2014Starting Next Year<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

See also,<\/strong><\/p>\n

What to Know About the New Federal Application Process<\/a><\/p>\n

Top 10 Provisions in the Big Beautiful Bill of Interest to Federal Employees<\/a><\/p>\n

A Pre-RIF Checklist for Every Federal Employee, From a Federal Employment Attorney<\/a><\/p>\n

Work Longer or Take the FERS Supplement Now: Which is Better?<\/a><\/p>\n

Doubling Your TSP (C Fund vs G Fund)<\/a><\/p>\n

Primer: Early out, buyout, reduction in force (RIF)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

2025 Federal Employees Handbook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OPM: An employee\u2019s performance expectations, \u201cat least one critical element should clearly align to an organizational goal or…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,255,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-141230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-personal-finance","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115019089344230701","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}