Pay It Forward

As the nation gears up for the first presidential transition in eight years, architects of a major personnel transformation at the Defense Department are working to ensure their efforts to link pay to performance sustain the reforms and gain the support of leaders in the new administration.

Congress created the National Security Personnel System in 2004 based on the notion that the current framework was too rigid and outdated to allow an effective response to terrorism. NSPS has been considered the most aggressive overhaul of the federal pay system, and the Bush administration views it as key to setting the pace for the rest of the federal government in boosting productivity and leadership.

The system has been met with both acceptance and opposition, and many have questioned whether federal pay reform will strike the same chord with the new administration it has under President Bush. One employee said in a recent e-mail to Government Executive that he hoped "the next president rolls back NSPS."

But Brad Bunn, program executive officer for NSPS, said on Tuesday that eliminating NSPS and returning to the decades-old General Schedule was unlikely. "I don't personally believe that's going to happen because we have too many people in the system now for it really to shut down," he said. "There's a big mission that we have to continue regardless of who's in charge, and that involves keeping NSPS going."

Further, the core concepts of NSPS -- performance management and pay for performance -- generally appear to have bipartisan support. For example, Congress authorized major changes to the labor relations and appeals portions of NSPS in 2007, but left pay and management flexibilities intact.

"Congress and what it left alone in the bill, that spoke volumes," Bunn said. "We're continuing on the path; we're moving forward and trying to make the system better."

Former NSPS Chief Mary Lacey, who left the Program Executive Office in June to become a deputy program director at the Missile Defense Agency, echoed that view in January, emphasizing that NSPS was about basic management principles that weren't the province of a single administration or political party.

"If you go back and take a look at the major interventions in DoD, this is the first that happened under a Republican administration," she said. "It's a management issue, not a political issue, and I would like to think that good management would be valued by any executive."

Bunn, who replaced Lacey as program executive officer in June, said one of the department's major goals this year was to ensure NSPS weathered the transition to a new administration. He said Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has vowed not to leave the next administration with "spaghetti," but rather packaged and effective programs and processes, of which NSPS is considered one of the most critical.

"Secretary England has made it clear to me that NSPS is one of those top priorities that needs a smooth transition," Bunn said, "so part of my mission this year is to ensure that we're ready to inform any potential new leadership team of major issues going on with NSPS."

He said the program office was preparing informational material for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who planned to reach out to potential candidates to garner support for the program.

Still, Bunn emphasized that NSPS was not "one and done," noting that the NSPS program office was continually trying to improve the system, based on internal and external reviews and employee feedback. A current review involved at look at the performance management and pay pool processes and what individual payouts looked like. "We're trying to dig deeper into it and see if there are any other things in there that we need to focus on or pay attention to," he said.

More than 180,000 nonbargaining unit employees operate under NSPS rules, with an additional 20,000 expected to convert in the fall, Bunn said. The system is slated to encompass more than 500,000 employees. The remaining 300,000 or so left to convert to the system are represented by federal labor unions, and the Pentagon could begin converting those employees as early as the fall of 2009, he said.

"We're bringing in the nonbargaining unit workforce and we're setting the table for the rest of the workforce to come in next year," Bunn said, "but ultimately that will be a decision for the next administration."