OMB chief calls for overhaul of SES performance rating system

The performance rating system for senior managers in the federal government is not taken seriously and does not reward true performers, Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels said Thursday. The current performance rating system for senior executives doesn't encourage people to strive for excellence, because it is not being used in a way that recognizes hard work or extraordinary accomplishment, he said. According to Daniels, only two of 4,617 Senior Executive Service members were rated unsatisfactory last year in performance evaluations. Governmentwide, more than half of the SES corps was rated outstanding. At OMB, 83 percent of SES employees were rated outstanding. "If you were to accept the data we find today, you'd say there's no problem [in government performance] at all," Daniels told an audience of federal managers at the Excellence in Government conference in Washington. "[Outstanding performance] is defined as consistent performance at exceptional levels," continued Daniels. "Well, obviously, what's exceptional right now is anybody who is not outstanding. It's not that good at Lake Wobegon," he joked. A world where everyone is outstanding is one that no one can take seriously, said Daniels. Painting all employees with an outstanding rating makes it harder to distinguish those people who really deserve that label and provide them with the recognition that comes along with it, he said. Federal officials need to answer for the lack of accuracy in the ratings process, he said. "Federal leadership has to face the reality that excellence in decision-making is constrained at every turn. We have procurement rules and personnel rules, which make it very hard to organize people and to sort the best from the non-performers," Daniels said. "We have to make substantial changes in this direction." The Excellence in Government 2001 conference, co-hosted by Government Executive, runs through Friday at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington.