Supervisor's Toolkit

The greatest asset of an organization is its people. A hiring manager plays a critical role to ensure that the best people are hired by an organization. To make this a reality, the hiring manager must complete the Hiring Process steps accurately and thoroughly. Additionally, we created many resources to help guide hiring managers throughout the process.

Still have questions?

Please contact your servicing Human Resources Specialist and they will be happy to assist.

Resources

• Hiring Process (Step by Step)
• Candidate Ranking Options
• Shared Certificates Program
• Hiring Assessments
• Increasing Federal Employment of People With Disabilities
• Reemployed Annuitant Hiring
• Shared Certificates
• Time to Hire (T2H) Reporting
• Veterans Hiring
• SES & SL/ST Hiring

• WTTS/EODS Supervisor/Manager Instructions
• USAS Hiring Manager Quick Reference Guide
• USAS Instructions to Register your PIV Card
• IBC HR Systems Access Request Form

In organizations where some employees are part of bargaining units, you as a supervisor may have opportunities to interact with the bargaining units or unions. If you have questions or require further assistance/consultation, please contact your servicing Human Resources Specialist.

Once an employee is onboard, it is important that the supervisor maintain open lines of communication with employees and assist employees when challenges in the work environment arise. Below are some resources that will assist you in addressing employee performance and conduct. Although addressing these is part of the supervisor's responsibility, you are not expected to address these alone. If you have questions or require further assistance/consultation, please contact your servicing Human Resources Specialist.

Resources

The following information is DOI specific. For agency specific information, guides, and content, please contact your ER/LR Specialist directly.

Performance

• Departmental Manual (DM) Chapter 370 DM 430 Performance Management System
• DOI Performance Appraisal Handbook
• Employee Performance Counseling Guidance for Supervisors and Managers
• DI-3100 Form
• DI-3100S Form
• Job Aid: Performance Plan Development (USA Performance)
• HR Guide - Generating Performance Award Actions

Conduct

• Departmental Manual (DM) Chapter 370 DM 752 Discipline and Adverse Actions
• PB 18-07 Changes to 370 DM 752
• Departmental Manual (DM) Chapter 370 DM 771 Administrative Grievance Procedures

If your organization is proposing a reorg/realignment, a thorough review of the proposed changes will be completed by the servicing HR Specialist and the HR FPPS Security Point of Contact (SPOC). Any concerns or issues will be discussed with you before proceeding with processing the reorganization.

To ensure that the organizational changes are accurate, timely and within legal compliance, we will also provide you with the required reorg documents needed in order to process this request. Organizational changes impact HR across all branches; therefore, close coordination is required.

Required Reorg Documents Include:

• Reorganization Crosswalk: This document will identify affected employees’ current organizational information and the new organizational information. This document should indicate all employees and contractors for the organization.
• IBC HR Systems Access Form: This form is used for new users that are requesting access to HR systems or users that need access terminated.
• Current and Proposed Organizational Charts: This document should display the structure or relationship of hierarchy all within one page for current org structure and one page for proposed org structure.
• Approved and Signed Reorganization Documentation: This document should contain reasoning for and the description of proposed changes to the organization. In addition, the org/agency will need to provide our office (and the union, if applicable) with the final documentation indicating higher level approval of the reorganization with signature.
• Reorganization Memorandum: This sample document can be used to create a reorg memorandum. A reorg memorandum is not required but can be an option for documenting the approved and signed reorganization.
• Organizational Entity Definitions: Review this document closely to assign the proper naming convention for each organizational code.
• Org Code Numbering Scheme: Utilize this document to identify the appropriate way to develop the new organizational code(s).
• FBMS Cost Center Codes (DOI Customers ONLY): Contact FBMS Helpdesk to establish and input new codes.

Please identify a Point of Contact (POC) for your agency that will work closely with the HR FPPS SPOC and HR Servicing Team throughout the process and ensure that the required documents are received by the due date(s) identified.

Upon receipt of all required documents, the HR FPPS SPOC will proceed with the organizational changes and the HR Servicing Team will keep the POC updated throughout the process. The Human Resource Operations Division (HROD) requests that all reorg documents are completed and turned in to HR at least 6 weeks prior to the effective date.  

If there are any questions, do not hesitate to contact your servicing HR Specialist.

Supervisor Actions for Career Ladder Promotions

A career ladder promotion is a promotion to the next higher grade level to which an employee advances without competition, up to the full performance level (FPL) of their position. For example, if a position is classified at the GS-11/12/13, and an employee is hired at the GS-11 level, promotion to the GS-12, and then to the GS-13, are considered career ladder promotions.

To be eligible for a career ladder promotion, the following eligibility requirements must be met: employees must meet time-in-grade, possess the appropriate level of specialized experience, and have an official rating of record of at least fully successful. It is important to remember that a career ladder promotion is not an automatic entitlement and can be delayed. Other factors to consider in determining if an employee will receive a promotion include verifying there is an adequate amount of available work at the next higher grade level, funding, and whether or not the employee has demonstrated the ability to perform the higher graded duties. An employee may meet all of the eligibility requirements, but may not yet have the ability to perform the higher graded duties. In this case, it may be appropriate to delay the promotion until the employee displays the ability to perform at the next higher grade.

If an employee meets all requirements and will be promoted, supervisors must authorize the FPPS action and forward it to the servicing personnel office (SPO) prior to the effective date of the promotion. HR Recommends that supervisors authorize and forward these actions to SPO well in advance of the effective date in order to avoid any issues. Promotion actions cannot be made retroactively because a supervisor fails to authorize and forward the action timely.

If the promotion will be delayed, the rationale for the decision should be well documented and discussed with the employee, along with a strategy or plan that will help the employee make the improvements necessary for the promotion to be granted. Promotion actions should be authorized and forwarded to the SPO as soon as the employee meets all of the criteria.

HR encourages supervisors to provide timely, fair, and specific feedback to employees throughout the year. Supervisors should not wait until the progress review or end-of-year performance review to inform an employee of problems or concerns that may lead to a decision to delay the promotion. Timely feedback will allow an employee to make changes to improve.

The decision to delay a promotion should not come as a surprise to an employee at the time of the promotion determination.

When a supervisor has provided positive feedback to an employee throughout the year, and perhaps rated them “fully successful” or higher, but subsequently decides to delay the promotion, the decision can appear to be in conflict with the prior feedback given. This can make defending the decision troublesome. This situation is further complicated when an employee has received an award during the same time frame.

Contact your servicing Employee Relations Specialist for guidance related to performance concerns, or contact your servicing Staffing and Classification Specialist for general questions related to career ladder promotions.

Writing Position Descriptions (PDs) are a vital part of a supervisor's responsibilities. Properly documenting the duties of a position is very important, and it is the supervisor who is in the best position to do this since s/he is the subject matter expert. If the position description is for a position pending recruitment, please see Hiring an Employee to ensure all appropriate steps are completed.

To learn more about roles and responsibilities for each step throughout the writing / updating a position description process, please review the Writing/Updating a Position Description Process Roles and Responsibilities page.

Questions?

Please contact your servicing Human Resources Specialist.