Comment Number: OL-10507190
Received: 3/14/2005 9:22:05 AM
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:

1. The theory of this system is very good. It rewards employees based upon their performance and overall contribution to the Nation more directly than the current civil service system. Also allows for employees to advance monetarily without having to necessarily "move" into new positions which may/may not necessarily be a good fit. Exp. is that someone may be a great analyst or engineer in terms of technical knowledge and working their projects, but when "forced" to move into supervisory/management positions, may lack the real interest & personal skills needed to be a strong perfomer in that position. 2. As a supervisor, I have big concerns over the "real world" application of NSPS. Primarily in two areas: * Excellent training & guidance in developing real, workable performance standards for various employees that strike the right balance between being achievable and yet allow a target to "exheed" to. This is important in order to protect employees from "cronyism" in giving better ratings to people that you personally like. Also to protect supervisors from both charges of this practice and from being unfair in their evalutaions. * More time spent in managing this system. I support the idea that currently we often don't spend enough time, but in order to do this right, I believe that much more time will need to be spent. That is probably the right thing to do but the truth is that is more time that I won't be meeting w/ partners in the community, looking at my project, and seeing what my folks are really dealing with daily. Between this and the increased budgetary demands placed by more complicated and extensive processes, field managers are destined to become less and less visible outside of the office. Thank you for the opportunity to participate and share my views and concerns.