Comptroller General David Walker told a Senate hearing that
many key details remain missing from the Defense Department’s
new National Security Personnel System, making it difficult
to evaluate the system, which DoD plans to begin phasing in l
ater this year.
Under the proposed regulations, DoD would establish pay
bands for most civilian workers to replace the 15-grade
general schedule system based on broad occupational groups,
but details on the number of groups or the number of pay
bands per group have yet to be determined.
Walker, head of the Government Accountability Office, said
details are missing on the criteria for promoting individuals
from one band to another, which would need to be address
to move forward.
Another unknown for the new system concerns performance
expectations for employees, the form for which would be
almost entirely up to managers.
That form, according to Walker, “could include, among
others, goals or objectives that set general or specific
performance targets at the individual, team, or
organizational level; a particular work assignment,
including characteristics such as quality, quantity,
accuracy, or timeliness; core competencies that an
employee is expected to demonstrate on the job; or the
contributions that an employee is expected to make.”
DoD will also need to define in greater detail how
performance expectations would be set, as its HR
management system design proceeds, including how much
flexibility components, managers, and supervisors would
have in setting those expectations, he said.
Office of Personnel Management and DoD officials
indicated at the hearing that more details would be
forthcoming as a result of the “meet and confer”
process with unions that is now underway.
