Work memo says reductions in force to be based on performance

In the face of future reductions in force, the Pentagon will make civilian workforce retention determinations based on performance -- a "substantial" change from prior decisions that were based "primarily on factors other than performance," according to a new memo by Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work.

The Jan. 19 memo establishes the policies called for in the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which instructed the defense secretary to create procedures "to provide that, in any reduction in force of civilian positions in the competitive or excepted service, the order of retention will be based primarily on individual employee performance."

"As to reduction in force initiated in the Department of Defense after the date of this memorandum, the attached policies and procedures will apply to ensure that employee performance is the primary retention factor," Work wrote. "It is therefore imperative that supervisors accurately rate employee performance and that employees strive to sustain the highest caliber performance."

The memo applies to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military departments, the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Staff, the combatant commands, the office of the inspector general, the agencies and field activities.

The procedures laid out in the memo went into effect immediately.

These policies include establishment of competitive areas and levels, according to the memo. Those competitive service employees and excepted service employees will be based on separate retention lists. In addition, those employees with a period of assessed performance less than a year will be in a different category than those employees with more than a year of assessed performance.

Retention factors include average score, as well as rating of record, which is "the average of the ratings of record drawn from the two most recent performance appraisals received by the employee within the four-year period preceding the 'cutoff date' established in the RIF, except when the rating of record in the employee's most recent performance appraisal is 'unacceptable,'" according to the memo. If the rating is unacceptable, only that rating is considered.