Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Charles Ezell issued a memo on June 17 titled “Performance Management for Federal Employees,” aimed at driving a “high-performance, high-accountability” culture in the federal workforce. The memo outlines new standards across the government for performance management, awards programs, and resolving poor performance.

“For many decades now, performance management across the federal workforce has fallen short of what the American people should expect,” Ezell wrote. “Too often, this has resulted in a lack ofaccountability and inflated performance ratings. Federal employee performance ratings should be normalized and reflect individual contributions to organizational results and outcomes.”

To view the full memo, click here.

The new rules are part of the Trump Administration’s effort to end inflation of employee performance ratings, hold employees accountable, and prevent and address unacceptable job performance, and the memo requires all agencies to transition to this performance appraisal cycle by October 1, 2026 – the beginning of the Fiscal Year 2027.

Among the key policy changes are:

• Revised Employee Performance Ratings – Requires clear distinction about what is required to achieve performance at various levels, including “fully successful”
• Supervisory Accountability – a new and critical element on holding employees accountable, requiring all managers and supervisors receive initial and ongoing training on performance management, including employee recognition and awards, hiring/firing, and discipline. The memo cites examples such as: establishing clear expectations; regular performance check-ins; effective use of the probationary period, and more. OPM is ordering all agencies to implement this new performance metric by July 17, 2025.
• Agencies should review and update their performance and disciplinary policies to ensure poor performers can be swiftly removed, reduced in grade, or reassigned.
• Using bonus and award authorities to reward high performance

The memo includes several appendices with additional detail on the changes to performance management, the mandatory supervisory critical element and performance standards, a template for a performance appraisal system and additional guidance.