DOD eyeing new civilian personnel system by Army Maj. The Defense Department is taking a hard look at the civilian personnel system and hopes to usher in the year 2000 with new, more flexible rules that reward performance and improve productivity. In the face of downsizing and restructuring expected to continue for at least five more years, the department is considering an unusual personnel system for its 790,000 civilian employees, who make up about 40 percent of the U.S. Civil Service. It's more rigid than it needs to be, but efforts to change that are under way. The members are looking at staffing, pay and classification, performance management, benefits and entitlements and work-force shaping.
Council members have a blank slate.
Pay banding is one concept the group is considering. In a demonstration expected to begin this fall, some 35,000 to 40,000 members of DOD's civilian acquisition work force will put the concept to the test. Instead of remaining in their 15 current general schedule pay levels, they'll be assigned to four broad bands. The goal, said project deputy director Dick Childress, is to make climbing the pay ladder easier for standout performers. She called this plan one of the council's long-term initiatives, but said it could ultimately make the personnel system more responsive to workers' needs.