Setting Up an Accurate Rater Profile in EES for a New Supervisor

When a senior NCO or commissioned officer takes over a unit, the paperwork that follows often gets pushed to the bottom of the in-tray. Generating a rater profile for a new supervisor through the Evaluation Entry System is one of those quiet but essential tasks that determines whether the next NCOER or OER reads as a fair, well-supported document or a rushed afterthought. For soldiers preparing for a change-of-charter or a platoon swap, the rater profile is the foundation that every subsequent rating will rest on.

Australia's defence community runs on parallel tracks to the US Army. Personnel posted to joint facilities around Townsville, Darwin or Perth may find themselves working under US Army evaluation policy while still subject to the Defence Act 1903 and local ADF administrative requirements. Soldiers who have returned from an exchange posting at Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney or Gallipoli Barracks in Brisbane often describe the transition to EES as the trickiest part of handing over responsibility. The same applies to US Army units rotating through Australian training areas who still rely on EES for their evaluations regardless of where they are physically located.

A clean rater profile also matters for promotion points, iPERMS uploads, and senior-rater look-back periods. The official EES portal is paired with community-driven guidance at EES Army, where walkthroughs explain the finer details of DA Form 67 and its modern digital equivalent. Before opening a single field, it helps to understand which sections are mandatory, which feed directly into the rater's history, and which feed into the rated soldier's record.

Gaining the Right Access Before You Begin

Most rater profiles are built by the HR specialist, the battalion S1, or a senior NCO acting in an administrative capacity. Whichever role fills the seat, the user must have an active AKO or DS Login account with EES permissions tied to the unit identification code. A common mistake is logging in with a personal account that does not carry the rater-management role, which results in greyed-out menus and silent permission failures.

If you are working from a satellite office, such as a recruiting detachment in Adelaide or a training cell in Canberra, confirm with your S1 that your account has been provisioned through the Identity Management portal. The EES team can usually grant the right access within 24 to 72 hours, but only after the unit's security manager submits the correct request through the garrison level. Trying to shortcut this step by borrowing another soldier's credentials is a fast route to an investigation under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Once access is confirmed, double-check that the unit's hierarchy tree has been refreshed. A new supervisor who joined last week may not yet appear in the drop-down menus if the morning personnel sync has not run. For Australian-based users, the sync often lines up with US Eastern Time business hours, which means an entry submitted on a Monday afternoon in Melbourne may not display correctly until the following morning.

Locating the New Supervisor's Profile Shell

After logging in, navigate to the Rater Profile module under the Evaluation Reports tab. The default screen shows active profiles for the current rating chain. To find a blank shell for the new supervisor, use the search function and filter by the supervisor's DOD ID or last four of their SSN. Avoid searching by name alone, since two officers with identical surnames are common in larger formations such as those stationed at Schriever or posted to Darwin.

When the shell opens, it will show pre-populated data pulled from iPERMS and the personnel database. Confirm that the rank, branch, and component match the supervisor's actual record. If your new supervisor previously served in the ADF under a personnel exchange program and holds dual service history, those entries may appear in the remarks block. They should be left untouched unless directed otherwise by the brigade S1.

Entering Rater Identification and Duty Title

The duty title is more than a label. It determines which evaluation form the system generates and which senior rater will eventually sign the report. Enter the position title exactly as it appears on the supervisor's official manning document, not the colloquial name used around the company area. For instance, "Platoon Sergeant, 2nd PLT, B CO" should match the MTOE rather than the informal "2PLT PSG" used in everyday conversation.

Units supporting training rotations in the Northern Territory should pay close attention to the duty position code. Mistakes here can cascade into incorrect AER routing. If the supervisor also holds a secondary role, such as a recruiter or a school instructor in Adelaide, list it as a secondary duty title rather than overwriting the primary position.

Matching the Profile to the Evaluation Report Type

Different evaluation reports require different rater profile fields. An NCOER demands a senior rater profile with at least three rated NCOs visible in the rater history. An OER focuses on officer-level rater continuity. An AER, used for warrant officers and some Army civilians, sits somewhere between the two. Knowing which report type will be generated saves time during data entry.

Report Type	Rater History Required	Senior Rater Link	Common Profile Pitfall
NCOER	3 rated NCOs minimum	Mandatory	Missing rated-SGT history
OER	2 rated officers	Mandatory	Wrong duty title on profile
AER	1 rated WO/CW	Recommended	Wrong component selection
Civilian	N/A	Optional	Profile created under wrong UIC

Verifying Senior Rater and Chain of Command

A rater profile is only as good as its senior rater link. Click into the senior rater field and confirm the name, rank, and position match the next-higher authority in the chain. If the new supervisor reports directly to a first sergeant who is also the senior rater, the profile must reflect that dual role. Otherwise the system will block submission and route the profile back to the S1 for correction.

For units embedded in joint or coalition environments, such as exercises conducted out of RAAF Base Darwin, the senior rater may technically sit outside the US Army chain. In those cases, an equivalent-grade officer is usually designated by memorandum, and a copy must be uploaded into the profile remarks block. Without that memorandum on file, the rater profile will not progress past the verification queue.

Saving, Validating and Routing the Profile

Once every field is complete, click Validate rather than Save. Validation triggers the system's internal rule checks, flagging missing data, conflicting dates, or duplicate entries. Address any red flag before routing the profile forward, since a failed validation often forces the new supervisor to wait an additional business cycle for a fresh review.

After validation passes, route the profile to the next reviewer, typically the battalion S1 or the brigade HR NCO. Keep a copy in your local working folder, especially if your office is co-located with a partner agency such as the Australian Defence Force School of Languages at Point Nepean or a US training unit in Perth. Local network restrictions can occasionally delay uploads, so a backup copy ensures the work is not lost if the session times out.

Troubleshooting Common Errors

Even seasoned HR specialists run into EES quirks. A frequent complaint is that the rater profile appears to save successfully but disappears from the active queue. This usually means the profile was saved as a draft rather than submitted, and the system simply hid it from the default view. Switch the display filter to show drafts and resubmit.

Another common issue involves date mismatches between the rater's assignment start date and the rated soldier's earliest NCOER in the chain. Correct this by adjusting the rater's profile effective date to match the date the new supervisor assumed the rated position, not the date they signed for property or checked into the unit. Australian-based users should remember that UTC offsets can occasionally push a timestamp into the wrong day, which can quietly invalidate the entire profile.

Always re-check the rater profile after any administrative action such as a promotion, a reclassification, or a posting change. A stale profile will generate mismatched evaluation reports and force the rated soldier to submit a rebuttal or correction request. Keeping the profile current is the single best way to protect both the new supervisor's record and the careers of those they rate.