Human Capital: DOD Needs to Improve Implementation of and Address Employee Concerns about Its National Security Personnel System
Abstract
While DOD has taken some steps to implement internal safeguards to ensure that the NSPS performance management system is fair, effective, and credible, the implementation of some of these safeguards could be improved. Specifically, DOD has taken some steps to (1) involve employees in the system's design and implementation; (2) link employee objectives and the agency's strategic goals and mission; (3) train and retrain employees in the system s operation; (4) provide ongoing performance feedback between supervisors and employees; (5) better link individual pay to performance in an equitable manner; (6) allocate agency resources for the system s design, implementation, and administration; (7) include predecisional internal safeguards to determine whether rating results are consistent, equitable, and nondiscriminatory; (8) provide reasonable transparency of the system and its operation; and (9) impart meaningful distinctions in individual employee performance. For example, all 12 sites we visited trained employees on NSPS, and the DODwide tool used to compose self-assessments links employees objectives to the commands or agencies strategic goals and mission. We believe continued monitoring of all of these safeguards is needed to ensure that DOD's actions are effective as implementation proceeds and more employees become covered by NSPS. We also determined that DOD could immediately improve its implementation of three safeguards: predecisional internal safeguards, reasonable transparency, and meaningful distinctions in employee performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA486364
Entities
People
- Brenda S. Farrell
- Janice Latimer
- Jennifer Harman
- Lori Atkinson
- Margaret Braley
- Marion Gatling
- Renee Brown
- Ron Fecso
- Ron La Due Lake
Organizations
- United States Government Accountability Office