DHS Signals Interest in Alternative Policies

Senior officials of the Department of Homeland Security have indicated their willingness to adopt significantly revised personnel rules for the department’s employees, saying the department otherwise will be hampered in accomplishing its mission and in attracting and keeping the best workers. At meetings of a “senior review committee” that is working through recommendations for DHS personnel policies, officials voiced their preference for revamping the pay system for department employees possibly to the extent of discarding the general schedule altogether in favor of a pay banding system with pay-for-performance. Officials also expressed support for variations that could set salaries according to an employee’s “competencies” and even raised a “rank in person” concept similar to that employed in the military and the foreign service in which pay is set according to a person’s skills, not according to currently assigned duties. Officials of the review panel said they recongized that the changes at DHS will set an important precedent for other agencies.