CEDAR

Competency Exploration for Development And Readiness (CEDAR) is an online competency assessment tool that is used to determine competency proficiency levels to better understand employee competency strengths and gaps. Based on the results of the assessment(s), targeted training and development opportunities are identified to help close gaps.

It provides employee-specific results of a comprehensive, dual-rater (supervisor and employee) assessment. These results can be aggregated up to agency component levels and the agency level – by authorized users – for broader views of the results data.

CEDAR is intended to inform individual and organizational strategies to address skills gaps and support employee development. Under no circumstances should the results of CEDAR’s assessment be used for employee performance ratings or hiring/promotion.

CEDAR should only be used by and for United States Federal government employees. This does not currently include contractors. CEDAR is a dual-rater system, so both an employee and a direct supervisor or individual with managerial/supervisory authority for that employee should use the system.

Anyone wishing to use this online competency assessment tool should contact CEDAR’s OPM Admin at cedar@opm.gov. Users should not access the tool without express permission from OPM. You must have a government-issued email address to access and effectively use the CEDAR tool.

Security assessments that were performed by OPM OCIO during the development of the CEDAR tool indicated that either PIV/CAC login or two-factor authentication was required by all users per OPM’s security protocol. If you are not using the PIC/CAC access, you must use the two-factor authentication process – it cannot be bypassed.

The CEDAR tool will require you to enter a few different fields of information for each employee, though personally-identifiable information (PII) needed for the tool is extremely limited. Information for each team member provides robust data for various types of analysis to better understand the competency strength and gap information produced by completed assessments. Individual PII is removed for all data reported above individual the supervisor-employee level, so the team member information is only used in aggregate.

There are a few things you can do to help streamline the process of entering this information, such as asking for responses to the field information from your agency’s HR department ahead of time or asking your employees to provide the information ahead of starting their assessment. Below is a list of fields you will need to populate for each of your employees before starting their assessments:

• First and last name
• Email address
• Country
• Duty location
• Occupational classification or series (can be found in the tool with job title)
• Locality pay area (simplified once Duty Location is chosen in tool)
• Pay plan
• Grade level
• Supervisory status (Supervisor or Non-Supervisor)

Information about proficiency level ratings published by OPM can be found here. Further questions about agency-specific competencies can be directed to cedar@opm.gov.

Information about proficiency level ratings published by OPM can be found here.

Yes, supervisors can be assessed by their supervisors. Once a full assessment has been completed for you, your information can be found on the “My Details” page on your dashboard. This is accessed via a tab at the top of your dashboard page.

CEDAR is flexible enough that you can start and stop assessments as needed as long as you have saved your progress. The timeline your agency or division/bureau/unit has provided will tell you when you need to complete your assessments. Though completing a CEDAR assessment does not take a long time, keep in mind that the supervisor section is only one part of completing the entire process. You should leave ample time for your employee(s) to log in and complete their self-assessment.

Yes, there are multiple ways to look at your team’s data. You can either download each team member’s data individually, or you can download all completed assessments. Information about looking at your team’s results is available in the CEDAR User Manual.

You can remove a team member from your dashboard by clicking on their name in your “My Team Members” table on your dashboard. This will bring you to their results pages. In the top right corner of your team member’s “Details” page, you will see a set of options that includes an “Archive” button. You can archive the team member’s assessment by clicking this button. This will remove the team member’s information from your dashboard and all of your employee counts in your dashboard data. You can also unarchive (make active again) the team member’s assessment by following this same process. You cannot delete a completed assessment unless you have a compelling reason to do so. If you feel that you do, click the “Delete” button, which will send a delete request to the CEDAR OPM Administrator.

There are multiple ways to get information about most of the aspects and processes of CEDAR.

1. Tooltips. There are small “info” icons located next to many section titles throughout the CEDAR tool to help you better understand what that section is about and, sometimes, how best to navigate that section. You can hover your mouse above the tooltip symbol – – to find the information.
2. User manual. A full CEDAR user manual is available on the CEDAR MAX page.
3. PowerPoint files. We have recorded small training snippets of important processes for individuals to review if they need further guidance on how to use CEDAR. These range from information about registration and logging in to looking at completed assessment data and competency reports. These can be found on the CEDAR MAX page.
4. Inquire. Your agency may have agency-specific training materials available (some agencies will have their own materials and some will not). Inquire with your agency POC about whether there are more training materials available for agency employees. You can also contact the CEDAR OPM Administrator at cedar@opm.gov with further questions if the available training materials do not meet your needs.

Yes, CEDAR is intended to be a portable tool but you will need to contact the CEDAR OPM Administrator at cedar@opm.gov to discuss the use of the tool.