Classifying federal positions without a directly applicable Office of Personnel Management (OPM) standard requires using alternative standards for guidance. When no evaluation criteria exist for a specific series, classification must rely on the most closely related standards within the Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families.
Key Insights
- Positions lacking a directly applicable standard must be classified using existing OPM standards that cover similar work and responsibilities.
- Flysheets, identified by two asterisks, provide series definitions but do not include evaluation criteria necessary for determining grade levels.
- Effective classification without a direct standard involves analyzing work functions, qualifications, and classification factors to determine the appropriate grade level.
This lesson is a preview from our Intermediate Position Classification Course. Enroll in a course for detailed lessons, live instructor support, and project-based training.
Welcome back, welcome back. We're gonna start on module three, no directly applicable standard. What does that mean? That means that OPM has not published a standard for that particular series that has evaluation criteria.
And so, typically when we look for classification standards, again, like we said in module two, there are three types of standards. A single standard has one asterisk; two asterisks are a flysheet. And so the flysheets do not have any evaluation criteria.
And so in this module, we're going to explain how positions can be classified without directly applicable standards, and apply the rules for classifying positions without directly applicable standards. And so if no direct applicable standard has been issued, positions must be consistent with OPM standards covering other occupations. What does that mean? That means that you must find a classification standard that has work that is as closely as possible similar to the series standard that you are classifying.
And so you must be able to locate another classification standard with closely related duties and responsibilities of the series that does not have the applicable standard to evaluate the position. And so we're gonna take a look at those, and we're going to be able to distinguish how to classify those positions, all right? And so we know that most positions are classified and have the standards that include the evaluation criteria located directly in them. And so that allows you to be able to evaluate the position based on the information in that series standard.
But occasionally, there is no directly applicable grade criteria for a particular series, which means that there are standards that don't have evaluation criteria in them to appropriately classify a position covering that series, okay? And so what we wanna do is we want to look at classification flysheets, look at the classification flysheet. And so the Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families again, exist to let you know what type of standard you're going to be dealing with. And it lets you know the series definition for every series for every position within the federal government.
And so in the Handbook of Occupational Groups and Families, whether the standard exists and it has two asterisks against, that means a flysheet has been issued. And so it gives you the basic preliminary information, but does not include the needed information to determine the grade level. And so when you look at a position classification standard that is a flysheet, you wanna be able to identify the flysheet that's necessary by the series.
And you wanna go to the series standard, read the information, compare it to the information that's in the position description that you're gonna classify. You wanna look at the kind of work, the function, and or the subject matter involved in that type of work. You wanna look at the qualifications, the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform that duty.
You wanna look at the level of difficulty and responsibility to be able to ensure that you are clear on the type of work being performed. And you wanna use a combination of the classification factors that have the greatest influence on the grade level for the position.
