Summary: The manner in which the Department of Defense (DOD) recruits, selects, develops, and uses its civilian personnel determines its ability to provide an effective defense work force and maintain ongoing military readiness. The Automated Career Management System (ACMS), a computer-based civilian personnel inventory, appraisal, and referral system, has unrealized potential as an information tool for managing the defense civilian work force.
GAO found that employee and managerial complaints about the present and future uses of ACMS have made it a subject of controversy. Several problems noted were: (1) questionable objectivity of the ACMS appraisal instrument; (2) doubtful reliability of the rating system; (3) unknown validity of the appraisal and promotion process; (4) no assurance that the evaluation and selection of candidates for promotion referral is job related; and (5) supervisors' insufficient understanding and training in the ACMS rating and ranking process. Under the present procedures, getting consistent ratings from different raters may be more a matter of chance than of real performance or potential. Since DOD has no clearly defined performance benchmarks, supervisory ratings tend to be inconsistent and difficult to compare. Research indicated that the relevance, objectivity, reliability, and validity of supervisory appraisals are increased when supervisors are trained to make appraisals and avoid common rater errors.
