Processing, Correcting, or Canceling Change in Tenure

Tenure groups are the categories in which competitive service and excepted service employees are grouped for reduction-in-force (RIF) purposes.

The competitive service consists of all civil service positions in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government with some exceptions. Refer to U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) policy guidance for a list of exceptions.
Appointments to the Excepted Service are civil service appointments within the Federal Government that do not confer competitive status. There are several ways to be appointed to the excepted service, such as those appointed under an authority defined by OPM as excepted. Refer to OPM policy guidance for a list of authorities.

Tenure Group Definitions

Tenure Group	Competitive Service	Excepted Service
0	Employee is not in the tenure groups 1, 2, or 3 established for reduction in force (RIF) purposes. Cannot be 0 for a conversion to a permanent appointment Must be 0 for pay plan ES Service Computation Date (SCD) Career must be blank Type of appointment code must be 04/Competitive-Temporary, Special Need	Employee is not in the tenure groups 1, 2, or 3 established for RIF purposes. Cannot be 0 for an excepted appointment SCD Career must be blank Type of appointment code must be 09/Excepted-Temp, Senior Executive Service (SES) Time-Limited
1	Employee is serving under a career appointment and has either completed the initial appointment probation or is not required to serve an initial appointment probation. Type of appointment code must be 01/Competitive-Career, SES Career Probationary period and SCD Career must be blank	Employee is serving under an appointment that carries no restrictions or conditions such as conditional, indefinite, specific time limitation, or trial period. Type of appointment code must be 06/Excepted-Permanent, SES Non-Career Probationary period and SCD Career must be blank
2	Employee serving under a career-conditional appointment or under a career appointment serving an initial appointment probation. SCD Career must be present Type of appointment code must be 01/Competitive-Career, SES Career, or 02/Competitive-Career-Conditional	An employee serving a trial period or whose appointment is equivalent to a career-conditional appointment in the competitive service. SCD Career must be present Type of appointment code must be 06/Excepted-Permanent, SES Non-Career, or 07/Excepted Conditional
3	Employee serving under: An indefinite appointment Temporary appointment pending establishment of a register (TAPER) Term appointment Appointment-Status Quo Any other non-status non-temporary appointments which meet the definition of provisional appointments as defined in title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, parts 316.401 and 316.403 Type of appointment code must be 03/ Competitive - Indefinite or Taper	An employee serving on an indefinite appointment that is, without specific time limitation but not actual or potentially permanent, or with a specific time limitation of more than 1 year or limited to 1 year or less, but the employee completed 1 year of current continuous employment. Type of appointment code must be 08/ Excepted – Indefinite or 09/ Excepted – Temporary Type of appointment code 08/ Excepted – Indefinite requires the SCD Career field be blank

Tenure Group

Competitive Service

Excepted Service

Employee is not in the tenure groups 1, 2, or 3 established for reduction in force (RIF) purposes.

Cannot be 0 for a conversion to a permanent appointment
Must be 0 for pay plan ES
Service Computation Date (SCD) Career must be blank
Type of appointment code must be 04/Competitive-Temporary, Special Need

Employee is not in the tenure groups 1, 2, or 3 established for RIF purposes.

Cannot be 0 for an excepted appointment
SCD Career must be blank
Type of appointment code must be 09/Excepted-Temp, Senior Executive Service (SES) Time-Limited

Employee is serving under a career appointment and has either completed the initial appointment probation or is not required to serve an initial appointment probation.

Type of appointment code must be 01/Competitive-Career, SES Career
Probationary period and SCD Career must be blank

Employee is serving under an appointment that carries no restrictions or conditions such as conditional, indefinite, specific time limitation, or trial period.

Type of appointment code must be 06/Excepted-Permanent, SES Non-Career
Probationary period and SCD Career must be blank

Employee serving under a career-conditional appointment or under a career appointment serving an initial appointment probation.

SCD Career must be present
Type of appointment code must be 01/Competitive-Career, SES Career, or 02/Competitive-Career-Conditional

An employee serving a trial period or whose appointment is equivalent to a career-conditional appointment in the competitive service.

SCD Career must be present
Type of appointment code must be 06/Excepted-Permanent, SES Non-Career, or 07/Excepted Conditional

Employee serving under:

An indefinite appointment
Temporary appointment pending establishment of a register (TAPER)
Term appointment
Appointment-Status Quo
Any other non-status non-temporary appointments which meet the definition of provisional appointments as defined in title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, parts 316.401 and 316.403
Type of appointment code must be 03/ Competitive - Indefinite or Taper

An employee serving on an indefinite appointment that is, without specific time limitation but not actual or potentially permanent, or with a specific time limitation of more than 1 year or limited to 1 year or less, but the employee completed 1 year of current continuous employment.

Type of appointment code must be 08/ Excepted – Indefinite or 09/ Excepted – Temporary
Type of appointment code 08/ Excepted – Indefinite requires the SCD Career field be blank

Nature of Action Code (NOAC) 880, Change in Tenure Group (Chg in Tenure Group), is processed upon:

Competitive Service:
- Completion of service requirement for career tenure - 3 years continuous creditable service
- Career employee’s completion of an initial appointment probationary period - generally a 1-year period that ends when the probationer completes the tour of duty on the day before the anniversary date of the probationer’s appointment
Excepted Service:
- Completion of trial period - length of a trial period can vary
- Completion of 1 year of continuous excepted service under a temporary appointment

A change in tenure group is effective on the first calendar day following the day on which the required service period is completed.

Although a Standard Form (SF) 52, Request for Personnel Action, is needed to process many actions, its use for change in tenure group actions is optional. The SF 50 for the change in tenure group is required, and may be prepared directly from the information in the employee's Official Personnel Folder or generated in the Agency's automated system such as the National Finance Center (NFC) Payroll/Personnel System (NFC PPS).

Processing Tenure Changes in NFC PPS

In the NFC PPS, the Bi-Weekly Examination Analysis and Reporting System (BEAR) generates the NOAC 880, Chg in Tenure Group, based on the data entered in the SCD Career and Tenure Group fields on the accession action in Web-based Entry, Processing, Inquiry, and Correction System (EPIC Web), EmpowHR or Front-End System Interface. BEAR generates the NOAC 880 personnel action Pay Period (PP) until the tenure group changes to 1/Career or another personnel action negates the need for the NOAC 880.

In the PP the NOAC 880 is generated, the expectation is that the Agency will validate the appropriateness of the NOAC 880 effective date, legal authority code and remark, and make appropriate changes when data in one or more of the fields is incorrect.

SCD Career

SCD Career identifies the date service starts counting towards completion of career or permanent tenure requirements. When this date is initially entered, the PPS begins maintaining two records; creditable service and non-pay status as shown on the Time and Attendance report and as recorded on personnel actions. If a date is not entered on the hire action, PPS does not establish any record of creditable service and/or nonpay status for career or permanent tenure status.

Rules for Entering the SCD Career data:

This date cannot be more than 3 years prior or later than the Effective Date of the hire action.
When previous Government service is unknown, enter the effective date of the action and submit a correction when the service is known.
Do not complete this field for career (Tenure Group 1) appointment/conversion actions.
For employees who have acquired career status (Tenure Group 1) and are selected from a competitive certificate requiring completion of a probationary period, the tenure group on the accession/conversion action must be coded a 2/Career Conditional or equivalent. If the tenure group is coded 2/Career Conditional or equivalent, then the SCD Career field must be completed with a date that is 2 years before the effective date of the action.
Do not complete this field if the service is not creditable (e.g., Schedule B student or Veterans' Recruitments Appointments).
For TAPER and indefinite appointments in the competitive service, enter the beginning date of creditable service toward career status.
This field must be blank for Tenure Group 0/No Tenure and Tenure Group 2/Career Conditional or Equivalent.
This field must be blank for Type of Appointment Code 08/Excepted Indefinite with Tenure Group 3/Non-Temporary or Equivalent.
This field must be completed for Tenure Group 2/Career Conditional or Equivalent with Type of Appointment Code 02/Competitive-Career-Conditional.

NFC's PPS automatically removes this date when a minimum of 3 years of creditable service is completed and a NOAC 880, Chg in Tenure Group, is applied in Information/Research Inquiry System (IRIS) Program, IR122, SF-50B Data Elements, changing the Tenure Group to 1.

Type of Appointment

NFC PPS uses the Type of Appointment field to edit the data in the SCD Career and Tenure fields for accuracy. The Type of Appointment field describes the terms of the appointment accepted by the employee. This field is populated based on the appointment type associated with the NOAC. Refer to Table Management System Table 025, AD-350 (Personnel Block and Description), block 074 for a list of valid codes.

Type of Appointment edits include:

When a date is entered in the not-to-exceed (NTE) date field, the Type of Appointment must be one of the following codes:
- 03/Competitive - Indefinite or TAPER
- 04/Competitive - Temporary or Special Need
- 08/Excepted – Indefinite
- 09/Excepted – Temporary
When the code is 08/Excepted - Indefinite, the data entered in the first Nature of Action (NOA) field must indicate an excepted appointment - NTE, or a conversion to an excepted appointment - NTE.
The Type of Appointment must be 01/Competitive-Career, SES Career when the first NOAC is:
- a career or conversion to a career appointment
- a reinstatement career or conversion to reinstatement appointment
The Type of Appointment must be 02/Competitive-Career-Conditional when the first NOAC is:
- a career-conditional or reinstatement career-conditional appointment
- a career-excepted assignment conditional appointment
Type of Appointment must be 04/Competitive-Temporary, Special Need or 09/Excepted-Temp, SES Time-Limited when the Tenure Group is 0/No Tenure Group.
Type of Appointment must be 01/Competitive-Career, SES Career or 06/Excepted-Permanent, SES Non-Career when the Tenure Group is 1/Group 1.

Notifications

Remote Forms Queuing System report AECO37U8, Conversion to Career Tenure Four Week Notification, provides a list of employees who will become eligible for conversion to career tenure. Each personnel office identifier should run the report after BEAR processes on the second Sunday following the end of the PP. Unless action is taken to alter the data in the SCD Career field the NOAC 880 will be produced in the designated PP.

Correcting NOAC 880 in Suspense

BEAR generates the NOAC 880 with an effective date of the first day of the PP (Sunday), and the authentication date is the same as the effective date when the employee becomes eligible for Tenure Group I. Eligibility is three years after the date in the SCD Career field in IRIS Program IR122, SF 50B Data Elements and/or IRIS Program IR522, Personnel History Information System SF 50B Data Elements. BEAR generates the NOAC 880 personnel action every PP until the tenure group changes to 1/Career or another personnel action negates the need for the NOAC 880.

There are two recommended methods for locating the NOAC 880 in suspense due to errors in processing:

In Payroll/Personnel Report Generator System (CULPRPT), run CULU0001, Listing of Personnel Error Messages, which provides a list of employees with current payroll/personnel error messages for all payroll and personnel transactions which failed the edits during the Personnel Input and Edit System (PINE) process for the prior, current, and future PPs. The report also lists Position Management System Online error messages.
In EPIC Web, search for Document Type 063, Nature of Action 880, EPIC Status Suspense Documents to obtain a complete list of NOAC 880, Chg in Tenure Group, documents in suspense.

Note: NOAC 880 documents in suspense rarely load in EmpowHR; therefore, it is critical that EmpowHR users run the CULPRPT report or search EPIC Web each PP to ensure all documents in suspense are corrected. The suspense documents cannot load in EmpowHR because most often the effective date on the NOAC 880 personnel action predates the oldest action in EmpowHR. These actions reside in the Review Import Transactions component in EmpowHR until deleted by a developer upon request by the Agency.

The two most common PINE suspense error messages are:

Document Type 110 - Incentive Awards, 018/Multiple Personnel Action Error - There are multiple personnel actions in suspense.
Document Type 063, 186/Effective Date of Action not Later than Last Action – The date entered in the Effective Date field must be the same as, or later than, the effective date of the last action recorded on the employee’s Personnel Actions Summary record IRIS Program IR125.

To correct these errors:

In EPIC Web, search by Social Security number for all personnel actions processed for the employee.
- Generally the issue is the original NOAC 880 did not apply and there are NOAC 880s (and possibly other actions) generated by BEAR covering PPs
- Generally the issue is with the oldest effective dated action
In IRIS, review the history/data to determine why the original NOAC 880 did not apply.
- Generally the issue is with erroneous data in either the Tenure Group, or the SCD Career fields populated on an accession or conversion action
For EPIC Web users, delete the erroneous NOAC 880 personnel actions.
For an Agency using EmpowHR, process a History Override package to correct the errors on the accession or conversion action.
For an Agency using EPIC Web, process a History Correction Update Processing System package to correct the errors on the accession or conversion action.
In IRIS, verify the data is correct after the history correction package applies.
In EPIC Web, verify the NOAC 880 did not generate erroneously after the PP the history correction package applies.

Deleting/Modifying a Change in Tenure in Current Processing PP

In the event a Change in Tenure needs to be deleted or changed in the PP it was processed, the Agency must process a rollback prior to the processing of the Payroll Processing System (PAYE) for the current processing PP to delete the personnel action from the employee's personnel history.

Canceling a Change in Tenure

If the Change in Tenure needs to be canceled after the processing of PAYE for the current processing PP, Agencies must process a cancellation personnel action in the applicable entry system (EmpowHR or EPIC Web) during a subsequent PP to correct the employee's personnel history.