Agencies determining how many Senior Executive Service, Senior Level and Scientific or Professional positions they need for the next two years will get a few extra months to figure it out.
Federal statutes require agencies to evaluate their SES needs in even-numbered years and submit them to the Office of Personnel Management. The initial fiscal 2018 and 2019 reports were due to OPM by Dec. 30, 2016, followed by detailed justifications that were due on June 15, 2017.
But because of the Trump administration's agency reorganization executive order, OPM extended the deadline for those justifications until Sept. 30.
Given the substantial shifts that are expected because of both the executive order and the resulting reorganization plans due to the Office of Management and Budget at the end of the month, OPM said agencies should have more time to craft their justifications.
The memo said that agencies looking for additional allocations must first consider the following:
- Moving or requesting to convert existing allocations, as needed, to accomplish the agency’s strategic mission and goals.
- Filling at least 90 percent of the agency’s existing allocations, based on the agencies’ data within the Executive and Schedule C System (ESCS); the vacancy rate should not be greater than 10 percent.
- Ensuring alignment of any request for additional allocations, or changes to current allocations, with the agency’s own reform plan that will be due to OMB in support of the executive order. OMB will concurrently review and verify alignment between an agency’s request relating to allocations and the agency’s reform plan.
- Agencies considering the elimination of programs or the use of workforce reduction flexibilities to address changes in budget or agency should refrain from requesting additional allocations.
"OPM will process all requests on a first-come, first-served basis," the memo said. "If the agency determines in fiscal 2018, that additional changes are needed to its executive allocations based on their transformational changes, agencies may submit an out-of-cycle allocation request to OPM."
Officials added that any out-of-cycle requests would be completed in a first-come, first-serve basis after the biennial requests have been processed.
