The Coast Guard is overhauling the Officer Evaluation Report (OER) for the first time in over 35 years, and the Officer Personnel Management division (OPM) wants to hear your constructive feedback. The Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2018 mandated that the workforce be solicited for their input on how OER system be updated to streamline the processes and text, eliminate redundancies, optimize usability, and decrease preparation and processing times.
After reviewing thousands of pieces of feedback from the field, OPM identified three major concerns in the current OER from the officer corps:
- Inconsistency
- Inflation
- Inefficiency
To address these issues, the Assistant Commandant for Human Resources (CG-1) chartered an Officer Evaluation System Change Action Team to develop recommendations.
The first major change is replacing the 18 performance dimensions with 10 appraisal dimensions which directly align with the new Leadership Development Framework and Basic Criteria of Board Selection Process: Performance, Professionalism, and Leadership, COMDINST M1000.3A 6.A.3.b. The 10 new appraisal dimensions and their definitions are:
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Performance
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Proficiency
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Demonstrates knowledge, qualifications, and technical skills in all assigned duties, achieving positive results.
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Decision Making
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Demonstrates knowledge, qualifications, and technical skills in all assigned duties, achieving positive results.
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Goal Realization
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Ability to develop, support, prioritize, and/or achieve organizational objectives and produce desired results aligned with organizational priorities.
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Bias for Action
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Ability to demonstrate initiative, identify problems, and implement innovative solutions that influence mission and/or organization.
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Professionalism
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Communication
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Ability to actively listen and use appropriate messaging to receive and deliver accurate, timely information clearly across various mediums and contexts.
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Collaboration
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Ability to engage with others, build partnerships, support teams, and establish professional relationships, internally and externally.
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Leadership
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Performance Management
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Ability to positively influence others through effective management of talent, resources, and finances. Ability to act ethically and take ownership of actions and behaviors of self and others.
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Readiness
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Ability to effectively balance competing missions and personnel demands to equip and empower others to perform at optimal levels. Held self and subordinates accountable to organizational standards, policies, and rules.
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Emotional Intelligence
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Ability to exercise self-awareness, manage emotions and biases. Ability to understand others’ emotions and appropriately manage relationships to positively influence the development of others.
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Inclusivity
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Ability to create a respectful, productive work environment which fosters growth by leveraging diversity of thought. Ability to collaborate with awareness of individual differences and obstacles in pursuit of a shared mission.
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Each assessed dimension will have a four-choice scale of acceptable performance:
- Distinguished Performer
- Superior Performer
- High Performer
- Satisfactory Performer
There will also be a single “Does Not Meet” choice for officers performing below the satisfactory standard. The “Satisfactory Performer” is where most well-performing officers should expect to be assessed. Each dimension will have different written expectations for each of the four scale choices for paygrades O-1 to O-2, CWO & O3 to O-4, and O-5 to O-6. Reporting officers (ROs) will have an additional choice of “Best Officer in Grade” on their overall impression scale. ROs may only choose one “Best Officer” per paygrade per assessment cycle.
Promotion recommendations will be simplified to three options:
- Promote
- On Track for Promotion
- Do Not Promote
Additional commentary in the RO narrative section regarding promotion recommendation will be limited to the “Do not promote” selection. This incorporates workforce feedback on confusion when RO comments do not align with promotion scale selection. “On Track for Promotion” should be viewed similarly to the “Not Ready” selection on the Enlisted Evaluation Review.
The new OER will standardize recommendation options to eliminate confusion. The options will include at least the following four choices:
- On Track For
- Recommend
- Highly Recommend
- Must Select
Ultimately, this change will help facilitate more meaningful dialogue between reported on officers (ROO) and rating chains and ensure ROOs understand expectations to earn recommendations for positions of greater leadership and responsibility.
Additionally, OPM’s Officer Evaluation branch (OPM-3) is developing a modernized system to track all assessment data. This system will walk users through the assessment and save responses to iPERMS. This system will also allow ROs to collect and analyze metrics and generate tailored dashboards at the unit, program, and service levels for decisions and general awareness. Stay tuned for more information about the new system!
Together, these changes will reshape officer evaluations to meet workforce needs. While the system framework is in development, now is the time to familiarize yourself with the new assessment content and provide feedback.
OPM-3 wants to hear from you! To submit your thoughts and have your voice heard, click here. If you are interested in joining a focus group on the new evaluations, please sign up here.
If you are interested in learning more or would like to schedule a briefing for your unit, please contact OPM-3.
To view a full list of the appraisal dimensions and written expectations, please visit OPM-3's SharePoint Page.
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