We must change how we rate our civil servants

A performance management and development system was introduced into the civil service in 2000. Annual assessments were based on a five-point rating scale for each of the 36,000 members of staff.

A written answer to a parliamentary question on October 9, 2013, stated that: “Although there has been some movement towards greater alignment with the expected statistical distribution, there remain relatively high levels of awards of the higher categories of ratings overall and very low levels of ratings in respect of underperformance.”

Forcing the distribution of ratings to fit a pre-specified statistical model is not the same as finding a statistical model to fit the distribution of observed ratings.