Human Capital Chiefs Back Pay Reform

By: fedweek

In a survey of federal chief human capital officers by the Partnership for Public Service, more than half agreed that the government should move to a pay system that is more sensitive to both the labor market and to the employee’s performance. A third even said the general schedule system should be scrapped immediately. Said the report, “The issue appears to be less a question of if, than how. Most cautioned that the process to design and implement a new pay system should be slow and deliberate and that credible performance management systems and appraisals must come first. A number want to wait and see how the transitions to pay-for-performance at the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security play out before moving forward with any major changes for their agencies. In general, most concerns about performance-sensitive and market-based pay stem less from the policy itself and more from the fact that attempts to implement reforms at DoD, DHS and with Senior Executive Service pay have been controversial.”