First Step Completed in Conversion to Senior Executive Service

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created the Senior Executive Service (SES), a gradeless system covering managerial/supervisory positions in the executive branch classifiable at General Schedule (GS)-16,17, and 18 and Executive Levels IV and V, or their equivalents that do not require Senate confirmation. The SES system is to provide better management of the number and distribution of Federal executives, give agency managers greater flexibility in assigning executives where they are most needed, insure that career people entering SES have managerial qualifications, make executives individually accountable for their performance, permit removal of those whose performance is less than fully successful and does not show improvement, link compensation with performance, offer increased advancement opportunities to career executives, and simplify the numerous pay and other laws previously governing senior executive levels. SES has two types of positions: general and career reserved. The general position is the norm for executives with career, noncareer, or limited status. Only a career appointee can occupy a career-reserved position. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is responsible for executing, administering, and enforcing rules and regulations governing SES. However, SES has a minimum of regulations which is consistent with the OPM goal of decentralizing personnel management. Despite rigid time schedules, conversion to SES occurred on July 13, 1979, when more than 98 percent of Federal executives became members.