Head Staff's Guide to Federal Jobs Part 10B Merit Promotion Climb Every Mountain, Ford Every Stream

Tips

All right, we’ve gone over the area of consideration and categories of who may apply under merit promotion. Now it’s time to move to the next step – qualifications and ranking and referral- the same steps as in competitive examining, but with some differences.

Qualifications:

One of the restrictions about the competitive service is that OPM establishes the qualification standards and how they are used. (Excepted service agencies have more flexibility).

But for merit promotion announcements, agencies have the option to modify qualification standards for in-service placement. I don’t know if this is limited to agency only announcements, but it is how I have always seen it. Required education cannot be waived, but agencies can, for example reduce the amount and type of specialized experience needed. This cannot be used for promotion, but can be used for reassignments (including reassignments with promotion potential). Read the announcement carefully, if there are two announcements- one internal and one external, the qualifications may be slightly different. If you are eligible for both, apply for both.

Time in Grade-

Time in grade has been beaten to death- you can read about it in other guides or posts. But one seldom used exception to time in grade is advancement of an employee under a training agreement. The agreement and training program has to be set up in advance. One of my former agencies routinely used this for entry level GS-5 employees and they were promoted to the GS-7 after 9 months of intensive classroom training. Again, read the announcement. (See 5 CFR 300.603(b)(6))

Rating and Ranking-

This is where we see the most difference among agencies. The requirements in 5 CFR 335.103 are very broad. I am going to summarize them here-

b) Merit promotion requirements -

(1) Requirement 1. Each agency must establish procedures for promoting employees that are based on merit and are available in writing to candidates. If you are currently working at a Federal agency, your agency has a plan. Find it, read it. It may be part of your collective bargaining agreement. There may be multiple plans based on bargaining unit status, professional status, geographic location ( headquarters vs field), etc. If you don’t work for an agency, then you might be able to find the plan by googling- but most of the information you need will be in the announcement. READ THE ANNOUNCEMENT

(2) Requirement 2. Areas of consideration must be sufficiently broad to ensure the availability of high quality candidates, taking into account the nature and level of the positions covered. Note there is nothing in this section that requires an agency to announce an opening to the public. It baffles me how people complain that an agency posts a public announcement but they really wanted an insider. If they wanted someone who already works there, they can just do an agency only announcement. Agencies may have requirements that certain higher grade levels be open to the public, but far more common for bargaining unit jobs are restrictions that certain jobs must be announced internally to the agency first.

3) Requirement 3. To be eligible for promotion or placement, candidates must meet the minimum qualification standards prescribed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Methods of evaluation for promotion and placement, and selection for training which leads to promotion, must be consistent with instructions in part 300, subpart A, of this chapter. Due weight shall be given to performance appraisals and incentive awards. Wait- didn’t you say that agencies could modify qualifications standards for internal placement? Yes modification of the standards is part of the standards. A rose is a rose is a rose. In case you were wondering why you have to submit an appraisal, here it is. Some merit promotion plans add a certain number of points (3 for outstanding, 2 for exceeds etc.) Others add points only if there are job elements in the appraisal that match the KSAs. Most common is to just include the appraisal with the application and the hiring manager can give what weight she deems suitable.

(4) Requirement 4. Selection procedures will provide for management's right to select or not select from among a group of best qualified candidates. They will also provide for management's right to select from other appropriate sources, such as reemployment priority lists, reinstatement, transfer, handicapped, or Veteran Recruitment Act eligibles or those within reach on an appropriate OPM certificate. In deciding which source or sources to use, agencies have an obligation to determine which is most likely to best meet the agency mission objectives, contribute fresh ideas and new viewpoints, and meet the agency's affirmative action goals. Pretty self-explanatory, no one likes to hear it- but management always has the right to non-select. There can be a whole OPM certificate full of disabled vets and they can select from merit promotion.

(5) Requirement 5. Administration of the promotion system will include recordkeeping and the provision of necessary information to employees and the public, ensuring that individuals' rights to privacy are protected. Once you are a federal employee, usually your series, grade, duty station and salary are public. When you are a candidate, they are not public.

As we go through the rest of this section, I am going to be using NIH’s Merit Promotion Plan, found at https://policymanual.nih.gov/2300-335-1

I am not claiming to be an expert on the plan and there may be supplemental material that is not available to me, but I want to use it as an example. (It’s an interesting plan because it specifically addresses accretion of duties and promotion based on desk audits) Note the plan state you must meet the requirements within 30 days of the closing date.

Let’s look at the evaluation of applicants section-

The method(s) used to evaluate applicants must be identified in the vacancy announcement. The evaluation process assures that the selection is made from the best qualified applicants. Evaluations must be based on job-related requirements and applied fairly and consistently. Evaluation methods may include the use of assessment questions, and/or other assessment tools such as structured interviews and performance exercises.

*The evaluation process will be performed by a HR Specialist (or Assistant)**.*The HR Specialist will review each applicant’s background to assess the degree to which the applicant meets the qualifications of the position. In doing this, they must consider the applicant’s quality and type of specialized work experience, education and training, awards and accomplishments, and related outside experience. Based on this review, an overall rating is ultimately assigned to each applicant. When there are 10 or fewer basically qualified applicants per grade level, formal rating and ranking is not required, and all qualified applicants will be referred in alphabetical order to the selecting official for equal consideration among all of those referred.

A Subject Matter Expert (SME); or a Qualifications Review Board (QRB), Search Committee, and/or Evaluation Panel may be used when required by a collective bargaining agreement. Union agreements may include a requirement for convening a QRB, Search Committee, or Evaluation Panel for certain occupations. Therefore, in merit promotion actions falling within the scope of an applicable collective bargaining agreement, the union agreement must be reviewed and followed for this requirement.

It's not super specific you -will need to read the announcement to see exactly how you will be evaluated. It could be the answers on a questionnaire, it could be a panel review, it could be a writing sample a structured interview- but it should be specified in the announcement.

Note what I have bolded- if there are 10 or fewer per grade level- everyone gets referred. If a job is open federal wide, this might not happen, but internally, very possible.

Referral-

The plan says best qualified will be referred for competitive actions, but it doesn’t say what the cutoff is for best qualified. Presumably this is contained in another document somewhere. Some plans refer everyone above a certain score, others the top 10 , others to what is called the “natural break” in scores- either way there will be some method to determine best qualified.

Applicant Referral:

Competitive Applicants: Applicants must be listed in alphabetical order without their scores unless the bargaining unit agreement covering the position indicates otherwise. A separate certificate must be issued for each grade level and geographic location advertised unless it is an interdisciplinary position. VEOA candidates will always be in this group.

Non-Competitive Applicants: Applicants eligible for non-competitive consideration will be identified without their scores on a referral certificate/listed separately from the list of promotion applicants.

Note this plan makes a distinction between competitive and non-competitive applicants. Not all do- some require every one to compete. By compete, we mean going through a ranking process, If an agency allows non-competitive actions, usually everyone in that category gets referred. You still have to meet qualifications.

This is the reason for all the Harry Potter magical sorting hat questions you see in announcement where they ask you if you have held this grade or what the promotion potential of your job is. They are used for referral, not to assign points.

This plan has the following as non-competitive actions-

Competitive procedures do not apply to the following actions:

A promotion resulting from a position, which has been upgraded, without significant change in the duties and responsibilities, due to issuance of a new classification standard or the correction of an initial classification error;

A position change permitted by reduction-in-force regulations (see 5 C.F.R. Part 351);
A promotion when at an earlier stage an employee was selected under competitive promotion procedures for a position below the full performance level. Note: The promotion potential position must be documented and recorded on the OF-8, SF-50, and vacancy announcement. (See Records Retention and Disposal Section);
A promotion following non-competitive conversion of a Pathways Program employee, Veteran’s Readjustment appointee, Presidential Management Fellow, or under another authorized program;
A promotion from a trainee position when the employee was selected for the target position under competitive procedures;
A non-competitive temporary promotion or detail to a higher grade of 120 calendar days or less; all details to higher grade positions and temporary promotions, to same position, held during the preceding 12-month period are counted in the calculation of the 120-calendar day total;
A promotion to a grade previously held on a permanent basis in the competitive service (or in another merit system with which OPM has an interchange agreement) from which an employee was neither separated nor demoted for performance or conduct reasons;
A promotion, reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, reinstatement or detail from one position to another having no higher promotion potential than that of the position the employee currently holds or previously held on a permanent basis in the competitive service and did not lose for performance or conduct reasons;
A promotion of an applicant not given proper consideration in a competitive promotion action;
A promotion as a result of a negotiated settlement of a complaint (e.g., Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint or administrative grievance);
A promotion based on accretion of duties (this is a non-competitive action that must be supported by a desk audit).

Agencies have discretion on what actions they wish to use non-competitive authorities for. They should always be spelled out in the plan. So if g or h applied to you and you applied for a job and were found qualified, you would be referred not matter what your score.

This plan says nothing about required interviews, just like open, competitive examining, there is no requirement for interviews. Bargaining unit plans sometime do require interviews for internal candidates.

I cannot think of much more to say, it’s a very complicated subject because agencies have a lot of leeway on how they will rate and rank applicants and decide on referral.

Comments and questions always welcome and suggestions on how to better organize this material.

I will try to do one last guide on excepted service and then that should be it.

Posted Mar 10, 2023, 5:01 AM UTC · edited

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