Achieving Legal Viability in Personnel Evaluations

Legal viability of an evaluation means that the evaluator can successfully address pertinent legal issues and avoid debilitating legal difficulties in conducting an ethical personnel evaluation and applying its results. While the 1988 Personnel Evaluation Standards contain no specific standard on legal viability, following the documents twenty-one standards substantially aids evaluators to avoid legal difficulties. Nevertheless, meeting legal viability requirements is becoming increasingly complex and difficult in the face of the expanding role of personnel evaluations in high-stake decisions, including initial and advanced certification, sanctions and rewards, and terminations. Evaluators increasingly need sound, definitive guidance to meet procedural and substantive due process requirements and, in general, to keep their evaluations legally defensible. Eight years of experience in applying the 1988 Standards provides a foundation for developing a specific legal viability standard. This article argues for the inclusion of such a standard in the next edition of The Personnel Evaluation Standards. A prototype standard is presented to help the Joint Committee and its constituents deliberate on this matter.