Evaluation of Impacts of the Five-Year Rule on Operations of the Peace Corps

We recommend that the Director carry out the necessary reforms to the FYR, including seeking legislative remedies if required, to reduce the rate of employee turnover and increase the average length of employment of the agency’s direct hire employees

We recommend that the Director identify which functions should be subject to periodic turnover to meet the needs of the agency, and implement a process to manage turnover so that the agency retains qualified personnel on the basis of merit and performance.

We recommend that the Director identify the agency's core business functions and positions that currently suffer from frequent staff turnover and lack of continuity, and determine and implement a process for aquiring and retaining qualified personnel to perform those functions on the basis of merit and performance.

We recommend that the Associate Director for Management lead improvements in the agency's approach to performance management by raising expectations to actively address employee performance issues and by providing supervisors with the training and support to correct inadequate performance and separate employees who do not improve.

We recommend that the Associate Director for Management put in place more robust processes and systems to gather and analyze data on the causes of unwanted, early employee resignations, and develop data-driven solutions to curb the pace at which employees resign early.