| Comment Number: | OL-10502348 |
| Received: | 3/1/2005 5:06:44 PM |
| Subject: | Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, Request for Comment |
| Title: | National Security Personnel System |
| CFR Citation: | 5 CFR Chapter XCIX and Part 9901 |
| No Attachments |
Comments:
Pay and Pay Administration-Subpart C page 7562 Monitoring Performance and Providing Feedback. Performance-based pay requires improved communication of expectations and performance feedback on the part of supervisors, since employees must understand what they have to do in order to receive higher ratings and increased pay. To achieve that objective, the proposed regulations require ongoing feedback with at least one interim performance review during each appraisal period. Where or how does an employee challenge a supervisor who doesn't provide feedback or an interim report. Will the supervisor have to prove to their superior that they have provided feedback to the employees and have given them an opportunity to receive higher ratings and increased pay? Pay and Pay Administration-Subpart C Adjusting Rate Ranges and Local Market Supplements page 7560 The proposed regulations provide that employees may receive pay adjustments as a result of a rate range adjustment. In keeping with the desire of the Secretary and the Director to achieve and sustain a culture of high performance, the proposed regulations provide that these pay adjustments will not be provided to employees with an unacceptable performance rating. When low performing employees have been removed from the employee pool because they were not getting time in service pay increases that they were previously given, the employees that remain are receiving acceptable performance ratings. The supervisor will have to determine how much more than acceptable each employee performs and the share of performance pay pools that they deserve. The pay pool manager can still over ride a supervisor's rating and approve a smaller share of the pool than the supervisor had intended. Pay and Pay Administration-Subpart C Performance Payout page 7560 A performance payout can be an increase in basic pay or a one time bonus payment or a combination of both. The increase to basic pay will affect an employee's pension calculation as well as well as the insurance and Thrift Savings Plan computation. The bonus payment is used when an increase to basic pay would cause the pay of an employee to exceed the maximum of his or her pay band. Also, basic pay increases for an employee who has reached a control point can be granted only for meeting criteria established by DoD. The employee who has achieved the highest performance rating could be given bonuses each year and in the retirement calculations they will not have gained for their future payments as a retired federal employee. Staffing and Employment-Subpart E page 7563 Recruiting and Competitive Examining DoD will provide public notice for all vacancies in the career service and accept applications from all sources; however, applicants from the local commuting area and other targeted sources may be considered first. The public notice will require current employees to compete with applications/applicants from all sources. Who will decide which is the better qualified candidate? Favoritism can make filling a job vacancy a matter of who you know instead of what you know. Workforce Shaping-Subpart F page 7564 Subpart F provides the Department with the authority to reduce, realign, and reorganize the Department's workforce in a manner consistent with a performance-based HR system. All employees will be placed in one of two tenure groups 1) career employees and 2) term and non-permanent appointments. And the retention list will be made in the following order: 1) Tenure group, 2) veteran's preference, 3) individual performance rating, and 4) length of service. Since items are 1, 2, and 4 are not subjective there is the item 3 performance rating which is very subjective as far as the supervisor's input. I took my Civil Service test and came into Federal Service 16 years ago. I have consistently received ratings of Exceptional and Superior even when cash awards were discontinued. I think cronyism will return.