Demo Projects Mainly a Back-Burner Issue

As recently as several years ago, demonstration projects—which allow departments to waive many standard civil service rules, particularly in the areas of hiring, job classification, pay and career advancement—were seen as the main testing ground for potential changes in federal personnel policies, and there was a great deal of debate over issues such as what should be tested and how many employees should be covered. Several of them were made permanent, including the best-known demonstration project, the Navy’s “China Lake” project that put the term pay banding in the federal vocabulary. However, no new projects have started in recent times as the focus on potential changes has shifted to watching what happens with the alternative policies allowed at the Defense and Homeland Security departments. The only other ongoing demonstration projects involve the Defense acquisition workforce and Defense research laboratories.