The next phase in the rollout of the Air Force's new enlisted evaluation system will come this month, when staff sergeants will face quotas limiting how many can get the top promotion recommendations.
Staff sergeant enlisted performance reports close out Jan. 31. This will be the first time E-5s hoping to be promoted to technical sergeant have faced the new system of quotas, which the Air Force calls forced distribution. Quotas first launched for tech sergeants up for promotion to master sergeant when their EPRs closed out Nov. 30.
Quotas are a crucial part of the EPR overhaul because they're intended to kill the so-called firewall 5 effect that left the old system effectively incapable of differentiating between airmen's levels of performance. There used to be no limits on how many airmen could get the maximum five out of five points. The inflation got so bad, raters feared that giving their airmen even a 4 would doom their chances of promotion. By the end of the old EPR system, about 90 percent of airmen regularly got the top 5 rating.
Under the new system, only the top 5 percent of senior airmen, staff sergeants and tech sergeants who are up for promotion will get the top "promote now" recommendation, which carries with it the full 250 EPR points.
Up to 10 percent of staff sergeants can receive the next-highest "must promote" rating and get 220 points. Those ratings are also limited to the top 10 percent of tech sergeants and top 15 percent of senior airmen up for promotion.
Senior airmen will get quotas when their EPRs close out March 31.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
