Poor Performers

How They Are Identified and Dealt With in the Social Security Administration Gao ID: GGD-89-28 January 27, 1989

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on how the Social Security Administration (SSA) identified and dealt with employees who performed their jobs poorly.

GAO found that the SSA performance management system required supervisors to: (1) establish performance plans specifying employees' job tasks and expected performance levels; (2) periodically monitor employee performance against performance expectations; and (3) inform employees who were performing poorly of their deficiencies and provide them with the opportunity to improve. GAO also found that SSA supervisors: (1) used the system effectively when they identified poor performance; (2) were not always able to identify poor performance and did not always use the performance management system; (3) cited concerns about the quality and applicability of performance standards and the lack of sufficient authority or management support; (4) were not monitored by SSA in their use of the system; and (5) were limited in the actions they could take regarding employees they rated as minimally satisfactory.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Team: Phone:


The Justia Government Accountability Office site republishes public reports retrieved from the U.S. GAO These reports should not be considered official, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Justia.