BOP Program Statement 3430.09 § 6

Common job elements and performance standards have been developed for all Bargaining Unit

occupations within the Bureau of Prisons. Elements and standards are issued to employees for

review and acknowledgement. Rating officials must review these standards and indicate any

element that is not applicable to a particular position.

A job element is an aspect of the position consisting of one or more duties or responsibilities

that is sufficiently important that inadequate performance of the element would result in

unacceptable performance in the position. All job elements are critical.

A performance standard is a statement of the expectations or requirements established by

management for an element at a particular rating level. A performance standard may include

factors such as quality, quantity, timeliness, and manner of performance.

Tasks are examples of job duties that are representative of a job element under the performance

standards. Not all tasks described under an element are applicable to all occupations covered

by that performance standard. The tasks described in the standards are examples of typical

duties that would be performed in that job element.

The performance appraisal program allows for rating individual elements, as well as overall

performance, at one of five levels (i.e., Outstanding, Excellent, Successful, Minimally

Satisfactory, and Unacceptable). The performance standards and tasks are only described at

three levels. Further descriptions of these three levels can be found in the standards. Rating

officials may infer performance at one of the levels not described by comparing the

employee’s actual performance to the levels that are described. For example, if an employee’s

performance is better than the examples given for the Successful level, but does not meet the

examples given for the Outstanding level, the employee’s performance should be rated at the

Excellent level.

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