Evening star., 1924-11-08
PERSONNEL BOARD
0.K.'SNEW RATING
PLANF0R WORKERS
SimpIified System of Measur-
ing Efficiency to Affect
$4,000 Here.
SCOPE MAY BE WIDEkED
BEYOND CIVIL SERVICE
Departmental Chiefs and Review
ing Board Will Use Scheme in
Adjusting Salaries.

By a unanimous vote the Personnel
classification Board today approved
in its completed form a new efficiency
rating, prepared by the Bureau of
Efficiency, which will be used in rat
ing all employees in the Civil Service
dn the District of Columbia, for pro-
-motion, demotion or dismissal
The new system supplants all
previous efficiency rating systems in
use by the Government. 1t will first
be placed in use November Is, when
employees will be judged on the basis
OF their past six months performance.
$4,000 Are Affected.
At first the efficiency rating will
affect about $4,000 Government en-
ployes here. but there is a possibility
that certain branches of the Gov
ernment which are under the Per-
sonncl Classification Board but not
in the Civil Service may adopt the
new plan.
Much more simple than any prior
efficiency rating, this new scheme was
approved by unanimous vote of the
Classification Board. Guy Moffett
member of the board from the Civil
Service Commission, who has object
ed to the fundamental plan of reclas-
Sification adopted. Joined this time
in voting with Chairman F. J. Bailey
and Harold y. Graves. representative
OF the Bureau of Efficiency on the board.
The system is based on a simple
graphic rating scale, an affair of
one page.
For Salary Adjustments.
1t is for use of the Government
departments and establishments in
moving the personnel up and down
the scale of salaries provided in the
classification act. The rating ap-
proved by the board. will not be
used by the board, but by depart
mental chiefs and reviewing boards.
In the old efficiency rating promul-
gated by the bureau of efficiency and
now revoked. all employees of a Gov
ernment unit We're listed on one
sheet of paper, of which three sep
arate copies were made and which
resulted in Il more complicated syS-
TEN than the new one nov effective.
Under the present scheme there is
one sheet, a graphic rating scale, for
each individual, a facsimile of which
is reproduced in The Star today. His
or her name is placed at the top of
this sheet by board of review of
the bureau in which the person is
of review of the bureau or depart
ment checks off the service ele-
ments" upon which the individual is
to be rated.
Number of Elements Varies,
The number of elements to be used
in rating an employe varies from
four to ten, being usually five or six.
the exact number depending in all
cases upon the nature of the duties
performed
On the graphic rating scale it will
be noted there are Is elements, with a
sixteenth place left blank for an ad
ditional one. Each of these elemental
scales is calibrated into five positions.
The rating officer will receive from
the board of review a pile of sheets
upon which will be written the names
of all the persons he is to rate, and
check marks opposite the service ele-
ments by which he is to rate his en-
ployes. The rating officer will then
rate each employe by check marks
somewhere along the calibrated
scales, where, in the best of his judg-
ment, the efficiency of the person
should be indicated.
reviewing officer will assemble
all the sheets according to the in
structions printed on the back of the
graphic rating scale, and will care
fully compare the markings assigned
by the different rating officers under
his supervision, with a view to noting
such corrections on the various sheets
as may be necessary to secure rea-
sonable uniformity and accuracy in
the element markings for the entire
group for which he is responsible
This will involve not only the cor
rection of markings in individual
cases, but in soma instances a gen.
eral revision upward or downward of
the markings assigned by particular
rating officers"
Submitted for Review.
After the reviewing officer has re-
viewed and marked the sheets with
his red ink check marks, he will sign
and date all sheets and submit them
to the board of review, which in
most instances will probably be in
charge of all sheets of single bu-
reau. In some departments or estab-
lishments however, it is probable
there may be a single board of review
for the entire department or estab-
ment.
One of the duties of the board of
review will be to translate the check
marks into percentage terms and into
a final single percentage term.
In doing this it uses comprehen-
sive system worked out in detail by
the Bureau of Efficiency, which shows
the relative weight of each element
for each kind of employe in the whole
Government scheme. Each element is
thus given weight" and each part
of each element as indicateds on the
calibrated scale is given a percentage
The weights" of the various ele-
ments for each person total 100, and
the total percentage of each cali
brated scale is 100 per cent.
The calibrated scale is read from
the first position at the left to the
right. Thus, according to instruc-
tions prepared by the Bureau OF
Efficiency and approved by the
classification board, "the graduations
between the first and second, and
second and third positions have a
value Of 1 per cent each. Between the
third and fourth positions the gradua-
tions have a value of per cent each,
and between the fourth and fifth posi-
tions a value of S per cent each.
After the final markings have been
translated into percentage terms fol
the various service elements con-
tinue the instructions, leach element
rating will be multiplied by the
weight assigned to that particular
element, and the weighted average
determined by totaling the weighted
element ratings and pointing off two