The Foreign Service Journal, September 2012

deflation, the rated Marine’s numeri- cal score is adjusted based on this pro- file. So, if a Marine is rated by an RS who traditionally inflates his or her grades, that rating will be adjusted au- tomatically in proportion to the tradi- tional margin of inflation. The reverse is true for those Marines who are rated by an RS who traditionally deflates his or her grades. Reporting Seniors are repeatedly reminded that inflating their grades will only do a disservice to Marines who are truly exceptional, as their high marks would then be deflated and the Marine would not stand out as he or she should. The Reviewing Officer gives the rated individual a single overall rating from “Unsatisfactory” to “The Emi- nently Qualified Marine,” with an in- tended distribution shaped like a Christmas tree (see figure on p.18). If the review is either the lowest or high- est mark (either of which are ex- tremely rare), the RO must give a specific justification. The RO’s career reviews are also tracked, and listed in a breakdown on the review itself, to make clear where the rated Marine falls in relation to his peers in the RO’s historical review scores. There is a short, 13-line narrative rating statement written by the RS and a nine-line narrative review state- ment by the RO. If either the RS’s rating or the RO’s review is deemed to be adverse, the rated Marine is given the option of making a state- ment. The beauty of the Marine Corps system is that it produces a quantita- tive, numerical rating for each officer, yet also guards against grade inflation by adjusting for the rater or reviewer’s historical grading. In doing so, it gen- erally allows those who have the most engagement with, and observation of, the rated Marines to effectively rank them against their peers. The Marine Corps evaluation sys- tem is simple and occupies only a fraction of the time the current EER process takes. One Foreign Service colleague who served as an officer in the Marines before joining the State Department estimates that it takes, on average, two person-hours to craft an entire Marine Corps Fitness Report. That includes both the rater and re- viewer sections, by the way. Reducing the time spent on each EER from 15 hours to two would give productivity a huge boost, freeing up more than 78 working years of time annually to focus on the challenges the State Department was created to address. Fixing the System It is past time to rethink the way in which the Foreign Service evaluation process works. We need and deserve a better system, one that cuts down on our workload and enhances our ability to promote the very best officers into the upper ranks of the Service. To- ward that end, I propose adopting a model that allows supervisors to quan- titatively rate their employees, along the lines of the current practice in the Marine Corps. Our metrics could be the very same ones our system purports to use right now, the six precepts for the Foreign Service. For each of the pre- cepts (leadership, management, in- terpersonal, communication, intellec- tual skills and substantive knowledge) we could use two or three subcate- gories. Each supervisor would rate the employee in each category on a scale of one to 10, with the total being the employee’s overall score. A short nar- rative could also be included, but not more than a paragraph or two. In turn, again cribbing from the Marine Corps, we should track the ratings his- tory of each supervisor and either ad- just the ratings automatically or note it clearly on the rating. The reviewing officer’s section could then be changed to a singular ranking, akin to those given by Marine Corps ROs. This system would give supervisors the ability to compare employees against their peers in a clear and di- rect manner. In addition, good em- ployees would no longer be put at a disadvantage by the poor drafting ability of their boss. Finally, this approach would also force supervisors to rethink their propensity for grade inflation, a key obstacle to any honest evaluation sys- tem, and severely reduce the staff hours needed for a review. The end result would be improved morale, enhanced efficiency and a better, stronger State Department. Tyler Sparks, a political officer in Managua, entered the Foreign Serv- ice in 2005. He previously served in Lilongwe and San Jose. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 19 S P E A K I N G O U T This system would give supervisors the ability to compare employees against their peers in a clear and direct manner.