Static closeout dates and elimination of CRO report phase-out begins with technical sergeants

WASHINGTON (AFNS) — The chief of staff and chief master sergeant of the Air Force announced in July a series of changes to the enlisted evaluation and promotion system which will focus on ensuring job performance is the most important factor when evaluating and identifying Airmen for promotion.
Announced changes will be implemented in stages over the next 18 months for the active duty Air Force and over the next 30 months for the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, or ARC.
The first set of changes include static closeout date for technical sergeants and elimination of change of reporting official enlisted performance reports.
The change supports planned implementation of static, or fixed, annual closeout dates for each rank tied to regular Air Force promotion eligibility cut-off dates. Once implemented, static closeout dates will enable implementation of the forced distribution and stratification policies, Air Force senior leaders announced last week. Allowing closeout of all reports for a particular grade at the same time helps raters ensure an equal playing field and supports the ultimate goal of having better performance-based evaluations.
The new technical sergeant SCOD will be Nov. 30. Implementation details will be included in interim changes to the Air Force instructions governing evaluation and promotion. Information will also be posted on the myPers website and released in public news articles to ensure Airmen are informed.
Forced distribution, which will be introduced later in 2015, will not be included in the November SCOD for technical sergeants.
RegAF technical sergeants will also be the first Airmen to experience the elimination of change of reporting official evaluations. Effective Aug. 15, CRO enlisted performance reports will no longer be accomplished for RegAF technical sergeants. AFPC will provide details on how to handle the various situations associated with this policy change.
ARC chief master sergeants will be the first reserve component Airmen to experience the change when they begin using the new chief’s EPR forms along with their RegAF counterparts, scheduled for implementation May 31, 2015.
The next to transition to static close out dates will be for RegAF staff sergeants, slated for Jan. 31, 2015. Additional EPR SCOD date changes will be announced later in sequence, as will subsequent phases of the overall enlisted evaluation and promotion system changes.
For more information about enlisted evaluations and promotions, and other personnel issues, visit the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil. Select “search all components” from the drop down menu and enter “Enlisted Evaluations” in the search window.