Is the Officer Efficiency Report realistic in rating an officer in today's military? Is it still inflated?

2016-04-27T22:00:58-04:00

Are raters still using catch words and phrases?

Response by CPT Mark Gonzalez made Apr 27 at 2016 10:35 PM

2016-04-27T22:35:48-04:00

Still inflated and based on year groups the ratings inflate even more as they try to secure promotions. All of the language is inflated and I would even recommend to the absolute best writers that they protect how they word things as certain language spreads to the point that the phrases become meaningless. If anyone wants to argue that ratings are not inflated I would just ask HRC to run the data on the % of newly promotable and junior year group officers that are given a center mass compared to the % during their bz and primary look. Same caliber officers, but hard for the junior guys to get the top blocks as the officers going into zone suck them up.

Response by MAJ Jim Steven made Apr 27 at 2016 10:40 PM

2016-04-27T22:40:18-04:00

I have limited experience with the new OER....but you get so many lines to write whatever you want - well, you probably write what you know (buzzwords and quantifiable data.
How do I, either as a rater, or in helping my rater write my OER...convey that someone is truly better than most officers of the same grade and TIS?? I would think, to a large extent...we are either all close to average...or, as written, we are all stellar and did a bunch of cool stuff and the military is so lucky to have such a fine, upstanding citizen....
in other words, do we really train raters and SR's on how to IDENTIFY and COMMUNICATE that his particular officer is truly a top 10% army wide (not just was really liked at current job by current evaluator).

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 28 at 2016 10:04 AM

2016-04-28T10:04:27-04:00

"Grade Inflation" will be a problem in ANY evaluation system...there isn't a truly objective way to evaluate something as subjective as "leadership" or "performance".

I got "Fitness Reports" as a Marine NCO, and have received OERs as an Army Officer since 2004...while the current report isn't perfect, it is forcing both the rater and senior rater to numerically decide who is in the top 50% of the officers they rate, and who isn't. I think that forcing function alone will help the report be more objective.

Just like the awards system, you (the person being evaluated) are at the mercy of those that are above you; both in their subjective opinion of you and in the quality of their writing. That being said, this system ties the hands of the evaluators more, and forces them to be more objective.