| Comment Number: | OL-10509968 |
| Received: | 3/15/2005 10:09:16 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:
Myopic Metrics Will Lead to Rewarding the Wrong Behaviors There has been a great emphasis on developing metrics so that management will have “objective” evidence to base their pay for performance decisions on. As Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." The statistics being gathered on professional employee “products” are often misleading, inconsistent (apples to oranges) and / or ambiguous. Two employees could be in the same grade and series. One person could have one product in a year and have a huge impact whereas the other employee could have hundreds of products with little impact. The new emphasis is on how fast we can do things and there is no built-in mechanism to consider quality or complexity. We are not making pizzas. Rewarding those who complete greater quantity, without understanding other factors, could have a disastrous impact on quality, safety and effectiveness.