General Questions
Questions and answers
Yes. Writing a performance standard for a non-critical element at the
Fully Successful level and appraising that element at only two levels
(e.g., Fully Successful and Unacceptable) has been done for some time
and results in an employee being appraised as Unacceptable for that
element. When a non-critical element is appraised at the Unacceptable
level, it usually causes the summary rating of record to be lowered from
what the appraisal on only the critical elements would merit. However, a
non-critical element appraised at the Unacceptable level cannot lower
the summary level to Level 1 or be the basis for a performance-based
action under parts 432 or 752 of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations.
Also, the Office of Personnel Management encourages agencies to change
the focus of their non-critical elements to more effectively use them to
set goals and results-measures that distinguish among higher levels of
performance above Fully Successful or equivalent.