CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The Noncommissioned Officer Evaluation Report received a major overhaul this year, and is slated for use starting in January 2016.
NCOERs are used to mentor and develop subordinates, as well as identify Soldiers for promotion and positions of greater responsibility.
“The Department of the Army found that the current evaluation was being overinflated as a whole,” said Sgt. Maj. Michael Strasser, Wyoming Army National Guard personnel sergeant major. “They wanted a way to better reflect the Soldiers' performance and potential for boards at the DA level.”
The new system will force rating chains to show only the “best of the best” on the evaluations, which will reflect to promotion and retention boards, said Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Hill, Joint Force Headquarters Readiness NCO. Hill and Strasser were among the Wyoming National Guard Soldiers who attended training to prepare for the launch of the system.
The new NCOER aligns with the three different levels of leadership identified in Army Doctrine Publications 6-22 Army Leadership:
Direct Level – Soldiers in the rank of sergeant will fill out a single form focusing on technical proficiency.
Raters will assess the Soldiers on five performance standards: presence, intellect, leads, develops and achieves. Each standard will include a "met" or "did not meet" standard along with blocks for written assessments of each category.
Senior raters will evaluate the Soldier's promotion potential as "most qualified," "highly qualified," "qualified,” or "not qualified" and will have to justify their evaluation with written comments.
Organizational Level – staff sergeants, master sergeants and first sergeants will fill out a two-page form focusing on organizational processes and systems.
The Soldier will be rated on the same five performance standards listed for Direct Level evaluations, but will be judged on a scale of "far exceeded," "exceeded," "met standard" or "did not meet" the standard.
Senior raters will determine promotion potential based on the same standard as the direct level.
“However, unlike the Direct Level evaluation, the senior rater will be constrained to give the ‘most qualified’ selection to less than 50 percent of the NCOs they senior rate in that grade, like the OER system, helping to ensure rating the best of the best,” said Hill.
Strategic Level – This level evaluates the ranks of sergeant major and command sergeant major. It will focus on organizational and strategic initiatives, Hill said.
Raters and senior raters will judge in narrative format the Soldier’s knowledge and leadership abilities. Senior rater rating selections will be constrained the same as the Organizational Level evaluation.
Under the new system the raters will solely focus on performance, while senior raters will focus on potential for promotion and future service. Within the current system, the roles are not clearly defined, said Hill.
“While currently the NCOER support form is a requirement per (Army Regulation) 623-3, the new format will help the use of it,” Hill said.
The form will allow the Soldier to clearly see what they need to do for promotion and other aspects to improve their career, Hill said. The support form will identify Structured Self Development and Noncommissioned Officer Education System requirements for the next grade, and have a senior rater comments block.
Raters and senior raters will use the online program, Evaluation Entry System, to create the evaluations. The program consolidates the data and tools needed to write the evaluations.
“This allows for a real time, single point of storage for regulations, support forms, and NCOERs for the rating chains,” said Hill. “It no long requires numerous emails back and forth.”
EES will also be able to track the status of the evaluation all the way through the process.
“This will allow for ease of use for everyone from the full-time staff, to the rating chain, to the rated Soldier,” Hill said.
Although there are many changes, a few aspects will remain the same. The Soldier’s performance will be evaluated, said Strasser. Soldiers will still be counseled quarterly and the report processed annually or as needed, including when raters or senior raters change.
“Learning a new system and format will take some time and patience,” said Hill. “This is a major culture change for our organization.”
| Date Taken: | 07.06.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 07.06.2015 17:29 |
| Story ID: | 169176 |
| Location: | CHEYENNE, WY, US |
| Web Views: | 86 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Soldiers face evaluation evolution in 2016, by SFC Ashley Motley, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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