Individual Quality Review Sampling

The Recommended Annual Sample (RAS) is the recommended number of reviews required for each OF the employee works during the employee’s annual rating period, regardless of the number of programs worked or the length of the season.

The RAS provides the sample size required during an annual rating period to achieve a 90% confidence level within a plus or minus 2% sampling error.

The RAS for each OF is 260 documents per employee.

A value is added to the employee's accuracy rate to ensure a 90% confidence level is obtained based on the documents reviewed; the value is identified as the "Accuracy Adjustment" on Monthly IPRs and on Annual IPRs.

The total documents reviewed should never be lower than the RAS of 260 documents; additional documents can be sampled, but the annual sample should remain as close as possible to the RAS.

If the RAS is reached prior to the end of an employee’s rating period, sampling must continue.

The Team Manager is responsible for establishing weekly sample sizes for each employee.

A Sampling Report generates in MEPS and should be utilized by Team Managers to monitor and adjust employee sample sizes to ensure the RAS is being met for each employee. Team Managers should provide the Sampling Report to the Quality Team Manager as a guide for clerks to utilize while pulling samples for review.

MEPS relies on correct sampling to ensure the sample adequately represents an employee's actual performance. Sampling requirements include the following criteria:

Samples must be randomly pulled from all measured work the employee completes.

Samples must be pulled across the week.

Each employee should have at least four sample pulls per week per function.

A sample must contain at least one document but there is no maximum limit in a sample.