PURPOSE: To discuss the development, implementation, and Army fielding of the new personnel system for DoD civilian employees, and to identify necessary senior leader involvement (AG-1 Civilian Personnel Policy (SAB))

• Army civilians are 20% of the total Army force including Active, Reserve, Guard Soldiers.
• They perform the majority of Army’s non-tactical work in logistics, medicine, base operations, information technology, research, engineering, resource management.
• Most DoD civilians are under Government-wide civil service rules that do not let DoD be agile enough in hiring, assigning, motivating, compensating, and separating employees to meet national defense challenges.
• Context for NSPS
• FY04 National Defense Authorization Act allows DoD to set up the NSPS.
• DoD will reform key parts of the civilian personnel system to
• Provide senior managers greater flexibility in managing its civilian workforce.
• Enable senior managers to compete for high quality talent.
• Offer compensation competitive with the private sector.
• Reward outstanding service.
• Build greater pride within the civilian workforce and attract a new generation of civilians to public service.
• NSPS key features
• Will be flexible and contemporary.
• Preserves Federal merit system and safeguards against prohibited personnel practices.
• Respects collective bargaining with unions.
• Links individual performance for compensation decisions, and performance evaluation to agency strategic plans.
• Allows new rules for staffing the force, labor relations, employee appeals of adverse personnel decisions, separation and retirement incentives, setting pay rates, discipline.
• NSPS will transform personnel management concepts and practices, with greater consequence for individual performance and more significant management decisions.
• Way Ahead
• OSD is designing NSPS rules and support systems and procedures in consultation with DoD Services/Agencies
• Staffing, performance evaluation, pay, job classification, and reduction in force rules will leverage Demonstration Project Personnel Management Best Practices, and soon will be ready for collaboration process with unions.
• Design of new labor relations system, appeals process and other matters is underway.
• DoD is developing standard information and training for use by components.
• OSD intends to begin implementation within or across DoD components this FY and to complete it in FY05.
• Army leadership must plan for, organize, educate, and execute transition to NSPS.
• Execution includes revising Army systems, policies, information; informing and training the workforce, managers, and leadership; converting jobs, employee pay categories, records, career plans, performance standards to the new system.
• G-1 will lead NSPS implementation in the Army through a project office, in coordination with the Army Staff and MACOMs.
• Appetite for information is outpacing system design and decisions; but OSD is working on common materials and ongoing system of information.
• To manage NSPS change, Army leaders and the Human Resource Management community must balance employees’ concern about their pay, the performance management system, and protection from unfair or bad decisions against managers’ concerns about their authority and simpler rules and processes to achieve their aims.