Forced Distributions for All Coming for Current Ratings Cycle, Kupor Says

As with the SES policy now in place and the preview of a government-wide expansion, Kupor termed performance ratings inflated. Image: Pasuwan/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek Staff

OPM plans to require government-wide forced distribution of performance ratings in the current (fiscal 2026) evaluation cycle, director Scott Kupor has said, while adding that there will not be a requirement for rating a certain percentage of employees below the “fully successful” level 3.

Kupor earlier had previewed plans for applying forced ratings distributions government-wide, citing as a model policies OPM made effective for the 2026 cycle for senior executives that limit to 30 percent the number who can be rated in the top two levels, 4 and 5.

“We are working on similar guidance for other members of the federal workforce that we anticipate will also be in place for the FY26 cycle; but those have yet to complete their full regulatory review processes,” he said in a posting. “For now, we have simply told agencies that they should seek a more normalized distribution of performance ratings.”

“In no case has OPM implemented a forced rating percentage of ‘below satisfactory’ ratings, and we do not have any plans to do that . . . to be clear, OPM is not requiring or suggesting any forced ratings distributions at these levels,” he wrote.

He added: “However, I don’t think many people would argue that 0.3% [rated below 3] accurately reflects the expected level of underperformance in a two-million-person workforce (most organizations of that scale are likely to see 5-10% underperformance in any given review cycle).”

As with the SES policy now in place and the preview of a government-wide expansion, Kupor termed performance ratings inflated, a message OPM later highlighted in launching a revised federal workforce data site. It showed that government-wide, 30 percent of employees rated under a five-level rating system were rated at level 5 in 2025, 18 percent at level 4, 51 percent at level 3, and less than 1 percent at levels 1 or 2. (Figures OPM had used in the announcement regarding the SES showed 96 percent rated at one of the top two levels and less than one-half of 1 percent below level 3.)

OPM previously had not set a time frame for applying forced distributions government-wide, nor had it addressed the prospect of requiring that a certain share of employees be rated as a level 1 or 2, which can lead to agency moves to fire employees. Kupor had, however, raised the prospect of combining those two levels, an issue not part of the latest posting.

He acknowledged that forced distribution of ratings “is different from how things were being done in the previous administration and perhaps in a different environment than one may have signed up for.” But he said that there is “no shame” in a fully successful rating because it reflects that an employee “is achieving all expectations for their position and is contributing in a meaningful way to the agency’s success in meeting its goals.”

“Outstanding or exceptional work is something completely different,” he wrote, while “nothing reduces morale more than a performance management system where virtually no one gets a low performance rating, and where poor performance is not met with any consequences.”

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