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The federal government's overhauled pay banding system will include an exclusive subset known as "senior expert," which will be reserved for experienced specialists who are not well-suited for management positions, according to a senior official from the Office of Personnel Management.

Ronald Sanders, OPM associate director for human resources management, described the special pay band Tuesday during the Federal Managers Association's national convention in Arlington, Va., and gave it his approval.

Congress passed legislation to allow Defense and Homeland Security department officials to reshape their personnel systems and install pay-for-performance systems. Both the Pentagon and DHS have proposed reforms that would reduce collective bargaining and streamline the appeals process. Later this year, Homeland Security plans to replace the General Schedule pay system with an organization of occupational pay clusters focused around similar jobs. Each cluster-10 to 15 are being considered-would include four pay bands: entry level or development, full-performance level, senior expert, and first-level supervisor.

The system would include separate clusters for more senior managers.

The senior expert band was included because in the past the federal government has been forced to promote talented specialists into managers in an effort to improve retention, said Sanders.

Sanders cited experienced tax accountants who have been moved into management positions because of their seniority. Their true calling, he suggested, might be in crunching numbers and not managing people. Employees like this would be promoted to the senior expert pay band instead of the first-level supervisor pay band. It would be necessary, however, to regulate admission, according to Sanders.

"You have to be really, really, really good to get into the senior expert band," Sanders said.

OPM officials are looking into several potential mechanisms for controlling entry into the senior expert category, including requiring peer review, and regulating the size of the pay band.

OPM and DHS officials are intent on keeping the pay band exclusive.

"The senior expert band isn't going to have a whole lot of folks in it," Sanders said.