US Office of Personnel Management sets out federal workforce reforms to build ‘high-performance culture’

Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

The US government has set out the pillars of a revised performance management regime for civil servants with the aim of building a “culture of excellence” in the federal workforce.

The memorandum for performance management for federal employees is intended to meet the priorities that US President Donald Trump has set to establish what it calls “a high-performance federal workplace culture”.

The changes announced by the Office of Personnel Management focus on three pillars:

• Reform of federal performance management.
• Available tools for preventing and addressing unacceptable job performance.
• Changes to agency policies to improve performance management.

“Federal employees should be held to the highest standards of performance and accountability,” said acting OPM director Chuck Ezell “These reforms will ensure that strong  performers are rewarded, poor performers are addressed, and the American people receive the effective and efficient service they deserve. OPM is proud to implement the presidentʼs direction to create a culture of excellence throughout the federal workforce.”

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Aim to ‘end inflation in employee performance ratings’

To reform performance management, the OPM set out a need to “end inflation in employee performance ratings”. According to the document, performance management across the federal workforce “has fallen short of what the American people should expect” for decades. It instructs agencies to ensure “that a disproportionate number of employees are not rated at the highest performance levels” and to “make meaningful distinctions based on relative performance”.

Agencies should also ensure that the distribution of performance ratings aligns with the overall performance of the agency or relevant agency sub-unit. Agencies are instructed to hold employees accountable through “recognising, supporting and rewarding excellent work” and address poor and mediocre performance of employees, “including seeking appropriate action up to removal from the federal service”.

The memorandum sets out key tools supervisors can use, including:

• Establishing clear expectations
• Regular performance check-ins
• Using probationary periods
• Designating officials to be part of the schedule policy/career reforms – the new classification of employees that will mean a number of existing nonpartisan career civil servant roles will be exempted from civil service protections related to adverse action procedures or appeals
• Post-appointment suitability checks, including post-appointment misconduct or negligence in federal employment, criminal conduct, and dishonest conduct.

The new standards apply to all non-senior staff, and federal agency supervisors will now be required to complete training to implement the new performance management approach. Agencies must transition to a new government-wide performance appraisal cycle by the end of the 2026-27 fiscal year.

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