THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2025 25 new raters’ scores to departmentwide means, gradually phasing out as a rater’s sample size grows. Promotion boards would see a rater/ reviewer’s record size, relative rankings, and cohort norms, helping them base promotion decisions on a comprehensive picture. The reviewer’s validation of a rater’s score forces them to work directly with raters to align scores with organizational norms. Most important, the department would provide practical training to reviewers, raters, promotion board members, and rated employees on grade expectations and organizational norms. Promotion board review. The quantitative rating system is not designed to reduce promotion decisions to blindly selecting candidates with the highest “GPAs.” Just like the Marine Corps’ system, the promotion board’s subjective review of the “whole employee” remains critical to promoting the best candidates. While job performance is integral to promotion decisions, boards should also consider breadth of experience, career progression, and job responsibilities over time. Time for Change Is Now Change is difficult, especially in an entrenched bureaucracy as large and old as the Department of State. However, organizations unwilling to adapt to realworld changes or reflect on their own shortfalls are doomed to stagnate and fail. I have yet to meet an FSO of any rank who thought our EER system was a fair and accurate assessment of performance or potential—even among those who have clearly benefited from it. Facing emerging technologies like AI and a major restructuring of how we conduct diplomacy, we must change how we recruit, promote, and retain our employees. The proposed reforms would empower leaders to honestly evaluate and develop their subordinates, enable promotion boards to identify top performers across all posts and positions, and address the real challenges AI presents in undermining our already negligibly useful self-narrative framework. While no perfect evaluation system exists, we can—and must—do better. By adopting a more quantitative framework, the department will create a fairer, more effective, resilient system that recognizes exceptional talent and puts leaders in a position to best lead and develop their staff. n
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