As an Army Officer, it is your responsibility to manage your own career. One part of managing your career is managing your Officer Evaluation Report (OER).  The Army Officer Evaluation Report Form is DA Form 67-9.

You will receive an OER for a variety of reasons to include: annual, change of rater, change of duty, change of position, complete the record, relief for cause and several other options. At a minimum, you will receive one Officer Evaluation Report per year.

Since your OER has a major impact on your promotion eligibility and duty assignments, you must proactively manage the OER process.  Listed below are some helpful OER tips that worked well for me so far in my career.

Keep Records of Your Achievements: Throughout the year, you should keep records of your accomplishments. You can do this weekly, monthly or quarterly. Your goal is to record your major achievements so you can input them on your OER Support Form at a later date.

What I recommend is that you create your own OER file.  At the end of each month, write down your major accomplishments on a piece of paper and input it into your OER file.  That way, when it's time to write your OER Support Form, you will have everything you need.

Draft up a thorough OER Support Form: When it is time to prepare your OER Support Form, refer to your notes detailing your achievements. When possible, use numbers and quanitifable results. Include operational readiness rates, Soldier promotions, extensions and any other quantifiable achievements. These types of statements look much better on your Officer Evaluation Report than generic style achievements.

Prepare a First Draft OER for Your Supervisor: If you really want to position yourself for success, you could prepare a first draft OER for your supervisor. Tell them you did it to save them time (which you did). Let them make any revisions or corrections to the Officer Evaluation Report. They will appreciate the time you saved them and probably make very little changes to the OER.

Review Your OER for Errors: Before signing your final OER, review it thoroughly. Look for misspellings and typos.  Make sure the administrative information is correct.  Make sure your APFT and HT/WT information is accurate on your OER. 

Talk with Your Supervisor about Discrepancies: If something is inaccurate or unjustified on your OER, talk with your rater about the comment and get it fixed, before you sign the final OER.

Appeal a Bad OER: If you ever receive a bad OER, that you feel is unjustified, you have the right to appeal the OER.  For instance, if you have a career ending OER, but never received any type of counseling (formal or informal) to back up the claims, you might consider appealing the OER.  Visit JAG.  Research the regulations and find out what your rights are to appeal the Officer Evaluation Report.

Once again, it is your responsibility to manage your own officer career. One way to do that is to be proactive in the Officer Evaluation Report process.  You can also check out my ARNG Officer Guide.

More importantly, if you have subordinate officers working for you that you supervise, don't forget to follow these steps with them.  One of your key responsibilities with subordinates is to develop them.

You should teach your subordinates about the OER process and make sure that the Officer Evaluation Report you prepare for them is accurate and justified.

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