MSPB Report: WGI Denials Related to Performance Rating Structure, Type of Work, and Agency Culture

The frequency of within-grade increases (WGI) is related to agency appraisal systems, the nature of an employee’s work, and the agency’s performance management culture and guidance, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) recently reported.

This month, the MSPB published “Determining an Acceptable Level of Competence for Step Increases,” a report on the agency’s research on WGI denials. The MSPB reports that more than one in four supervisors believes they have at least one employee who is not at an acceptable level of performance, the threshold requirement for an employee to receive a WGI. If each supervisor had 10 employees, that would suggest a WGI denial rate of at least 1 in 40. Yet, personnel action data reflects a much lower actual rate of just over 1 in 1,000.

All agencies who responded to MSPB’s survey indicated they use the “fully successful” rating to determine if a WGI should be granted. But, only four of the eight OPM-approved performance appraisal systems includes a rating between “fully successful” and unacceptable. The systems that have such a rating often categorize it as a Level 2 rating labeled “needs improvement” or “minimally successful.” Appraisal systems without a Level 2 rating do not allow agencies to clearly indicate performance is less than fully successful yet not so poor as to warrant demotion or removal.

An employee in an agency with a rating appraisal system that includes a Level 2 rating option is four times as likely to be denied a WGI as an employee in a system that does not. Still, such ratings are not common. MSPB reports that only 0.2 percent of employees under systems with a Level 2 are rated at that level.

The nature of work also correlates to the frequency of WGI denials. Occupations that are easier to measure for timeliness and quantity, such as those centered on case work, also tend to have higher rates of WGI denials. As an example, MSPB reported that Department of State employees in the “Passport and Visa Examining Series” were denied WGIs approximately ten times more frequently than the rest of the department’s employees.

A performance measurement culture with established metrics is the final factor MSPB reported as correlated to WGI denials. MSPB highlighted collective bargaining agreements with “detailed structures for recognizing performance” and “continuously documenting performance” as relevant performance management culture practices. MSPB added that continuous documentation is not inherently negative for employees, noting that it “helps supervisors to think through how the employee is really performing and spot issues early” and aids supervisors in explaining performance evaluations to employees.

The report additionally addressed survey results on factors supervisors and agencies believed played a role in employees failing to meet critical performance elements. For additional information, MSPB referred readers to a prior research brief, “Remedying Unacceptable Employee Performance in the Federal Civil Service.”