Dod Crafting New Human Resources Systems For Civilian Workers

A new human resources system for DOD civilian employees regarding pay and classification, performance management, hiring, workforce shaping, disciplinary matters, appeals procedures, and labor-management relations has been proposed by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Office of Personnel Management.

The National Security Personnel System (NSPS) was signed into law on Nov. 24, 2003, and for the past year DoD and OPM officials have been working to design a modernized, performance-based civilian personnel system.

NSPS will improve the way DoD hires, assigns, compensates and rewards its employees, while preserving the core merit principles, veterans’preference and important employee protections and benefits of the current system. The proposed regulations are the result of a broad-based effort that included input from DoD employees, supervisors, managers, senior leaders, union representatives and public interest groups.

Implementation of the system will begin as early as July 2005, with full implementation in the July 2007/January 2008 timeframe.