As new personnel and compensation systems are being rolled
out in the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security,
and have been proposed for the rest of the federal
government, the Merit Systems Protection Board is
emphasizing the need to “keep the target on training.”
The Navy has already begun to provide training for its
implementation of the National Security Personnel System
by releasing an initial description of online training
it will offer to managers — and its implementation
roadmap calls for face-to-face management development
as well, noted MSPB’s latest Issues of Merit newsletter.
It said that while DHS has also announced plans to train
supervisors and managers on “soft skills” in the
classroom, training needs to remain ongoing and not
just be initially available, something that could be
difficult given the tendency for training funds to get
cut when budgets tighten.
MSPB noted that DHS and DoD have put specific training
funds in place to better preserve them and noted that
visibility in a budget helps prevent resources from
dwindling.
