Navy to hold online training sessions on Defense personnel system

Pentagon personnel officials intend to use Internet-based tutorials to train managers for the transition to the new National Security Personnel System, according to officials and documents.

The information, contained in a Navy document, reveals the first details of the training and development that will be used to introduce performance pay principles into the Defense Department's civilian workforce.

In 2003, lawmakers gave the Pentagon permission to dramatically overhaul its personnel system to respond to national security threats. Early this year, Defense officials released preliminary regulations indicating the agency wants to scrap the General Schedule system, implement performance pay, reduce union bargaining powers and streamline the employee appeals process.

During several congressional hearings, lawmakers and union officials said that the success of the new system will depend on the training that is provided for managers.

In February, Federal Managers Association Vice President Darryl Perkinson told Congress that without training, "the system is doomed to failure from the start."

Lawmakers also said that they need more details on the NSPS and the training that will go into it. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce and the District of Columbia, ordered Pentagon officials to provide him with detailed information on how much funding is being directed toward training. Voinovich's office was unable to determine Thursday whether that information has been provided.

The Internet tutorials, however, are the first details to emerge on the type of training that will be used to enable the transition between the General Schedule pay system and the performance pay framework the Pentagon is striving for.

"Successfully implementing a pay-for-performance culture requires resolute senior leadership commitment and specialized training and development activities," according to the "NSPS Training and Development Roadmap" that was developed for the Naval Sea Systems Command. "To facilitate this transition, Department of the Navy has launched a series of Web-based e-learning courses through Navy Knowledge On-Line specifically aligned to NSPS architecture and critical foundational competencies."

According to the "road map," the online courses will include sections on "change management, coaching, performance management, interpersonal communications, and strategic alignment and thinking."

The road map also noted that "once NSPS is defined in detail," the Navy will provide more focused training.

The Pentagon also will provide standardized, focused training for the new system, according to NSPS spokeswoman Joyce Frank. She said that individual branches can shape their own training to make the transition smoother.

"We will be developing products for them," Frank said. "Certainly when it comes to some of the broader change management initiatives, there are lots of approaches to that. Each component has their own approach."

Union officials, however, were skeptical about the online training. Matt Biggs, a spokesman for the United DoD Workers Coalition, said he was afraid that the NSPS training would be limited to Internet classes for some workers.

"I think they are looking at this in a really shortsighted way. It's actually kind of baffling, kind of bizarre," he said. "If they think some sort of Internet class on how to rate the performance of federal workers is going to suffice, they are sadly mistaken."

Frank, the NSPS spokeswoman, said the training would not be limited to online classes.

"There's the functional training on the specifics of NSPS, the [Program Executive Office] here will develop all the functional training," she said. "The DoD activities will be developing and offering the training on change management."