Federal agencies can now stop giving all senior managers top performance ratings

The US Office of Personnel Management wants to let federal agencies limit how many senior executives get the highest performance ratings. Right now, almost all senior federal managers get top marks, even when they fail; this change would let agencies force a more realistic distribution.

Senior federal managers have almost always received the highest possible performance ratings. This made it hard to tell who was actually performing well and who was not. The proposed rule would let agencies cap the number of top ratings, which could force more accountability and more honest evaluations for the government's most senior staff.