Division of Commissioned Personnel Support Important Update: 2019 COER Guidance

***External Email***

IHS Commissioned Officers,

The Commissioned Officers’ Effectiveness Report (COER) was made available to officers on 18 October 2019.  Below are reminders from the Division of Commissioned Personnel Support (DCPS) to assist Officers, Raters, and Reviewing Officials in completing the COER, as referenced by the COER Personnel Operations Manual (POM) and policy.  Please forward this guidance to your Rater and Reviewing Official.

Officers

Raters

Reviewing Officials

Officers

• Know if you are required, in accordance, with policy to complete the annual COER
• Ensure the COER is in your eOPF and scores are visible on the Promotion Information Report (PIR) by 31 DEC 2019. Failure to do so may impact promotions, awards, details, or special pays.
• Know who your rater and reviewing official (RO) are and ensure they are properly assigned for the purposes of completing the COER:
  • Officers assigned to Federal sites: your Rater is your direct supervisor and your RO is typically the second line supervisor (your supervisor’s supervisor)
  • Officers detailed to a Tribal Organization through MOA: your Rater is your direct supervisor, and your RO is your Federal Supervisor
  • USU Resident:  your Rater is the Residency Program Director, and your RO will be CAPT Angela Mtungwa, Director, Division of Commissioned Personnel Support
  • Temporary Duty Assignment (TDY)
    • For a TDY that was completed on or after 1 July 2019, the agency supervisor and RO for the position of record will complete the COER with input from the TDY supervisor.
    • For a TDY that was completed prior to 1 July 2019, the TDY Supervisor may complete an Interim COER as the Rater on the PDF version of the COER form, upon completion of the TDY. An Annual COER must still be completed by the Agency supervisor and RO as outlined in section 2.g.1 in the 2019 COER Instructions.
• If Eligible for Promotion:
  • Provide your Reviewing Official (RO) with a draft Reviewing Official Statement (ROS) or bullets that address the three sections of the document: Promotion Readiness, Leadership Attributes, and Contribution to the Agency Mission.
    • Use 10 pt Courier New font, with a maximum of 45 lines or 3600 characters, to mimic the actual font size and line limits of the online system.
• For 2018 and 2019 online COERs, the ROS will be page 5 of your COER.
• Transfer COERs
  • If the rating period ended on or after 1 July 2019, you will not complete the online COER as the transfer COER will stand as your 2019 COER. You will need a PDF version of the ROS completed.  Submit the ROS to your Regional Liaison once complete in accordance to the Promotion Year 2020 Checklist.
• Transmit the COER to the Rater as soon as possible by selecting “Release to Rater.”

 Raters

• Once the officer releases the COER, the Rater will receive an email with log-in instructions.
• If the time supervised is less than 6 months, the Rater will be prompted to select either a Detailed COER, where scores will be required for the eight performance elements, or a Narrative COER, where only strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance will be addressed.
  • A Detailed COER should only be selected if the Rater has supervised the officer long enough to comfortably rate the officer on the eight elements.
  • If a Detailed COER is completed, when the time supervised is 3 months or less, the Rater will be contacted about the selection.
• Ensure Rater comments are objective, accurate, and completed within the specified time frames, and that comments are congruent with the scores. COERs that do not will be reset or returned to the supervisor.
• The system will automatically assign the overall rating, by averaging the individual scores:

1.00 to 1.99 = Unsatisfactory

2.00 to 3.99 = Marginal

4.00 to 7.00 = Satisfactory

• After completing your rating, release the COER to the officer to allow sufficient time for him/her to review and transmit (i.e., concur or disagree with) it to the RO no later than 11 November 2019

• After assigning the Reviewing Official, Raters must complete the additional step of releasing the COER to the officer for concurrence or disagreement.
• The scores for the eight elements must accurately reflect the officer’s performance and be congruent with the Rater comments.

 Reviewing Officials

• In accordance with the guidance, review the COER for completeness, provide comments and concurrence no later than 13 December 2019.
• For promotion-eligible officers:
  • The RO must enter remarks that address the officer’s:

1) promotion readiness; 2) leadership attributes; and 3) contribution to the Agency mission.  Comments should focus on Agency (not Corps) contributions.

• • • If the officer’s position would be hard-to-fill, if vacated, enter remarks stating so, under “contribution to agency mission” section
  • The ROS no longer provides a drop-down menu for a recommendation for promotion, so the RO should start his/her comments with a statement of whether the officer is recommended for promotion or not.
  • Ideally, a blank line will separate each section of the ROS to make the text easier to read for promotion board members.
  • DCPS will return the COER to the RO, if the ROS does not address the three (3) bullets above for promotion-eligible officers.
• For officers who are not eligible for promotion:
  • The ROS replaces the small RO comment box previously found at the bottom of Page 1 of the former COER version.
  • The RO should enter brief comments into the ROS.
  • Once the RO hits Submit, the COER will route automatically to the IHS DCPS/Commissioned Corps Liaison Office for concurrence and finalization, or for return to the RO, Rater, or Officer, if corrections are needed.

Feel free to direct additional questions to the IHS Division of Commissioned Personnel Support (DCPS)/Commissioned Corps Liaison Office at IHSCorpsInquiries@ihs.gov.

V/r,

CDR Michael Verdugo

Deputy Director, Division of Commissioned Personnel Support

Office of Human Resources

Indian Health Service HQ

5600 Fishers Lane

Mail Stop 11E86

Rockville, MD 20857