NSPS-National Security Personnel System

With the NSPS in the news lately - congress and the Federal union want to kill the program while the Army wants to keep it going - I thought I would share some thoughts on the subject. Until recently, I was a "transition manager" in NSPS - meaning I was the office expert and kept everyone informed on deadlines and the processes needed to meet those deadlines. I was never a great fan of the system but saw that it did have it's good points but like all personnel systems, it could be used by management to get what they wanted.

NSPS - Just Compensation?

How they calculate your next year salary if you are in NSPS - - -
(Current pay + ((60% X (3.9% - 1.0%) X GS Pay Raise) + subjective pay pool adjustment)) + local market supplement [1% of 40% of GS Pay Raise] = new 09 salary and/or salary + bonus depending on the whim of the pay pool board. This may or may not work out to your advantage when you retire and the pay pool panel may or may not have had that in mind when they finalized their input into the equation. Are you confused?

Alas, I am confused
Am I AM (or NOT) abused
Was my performance-pay award
Worth more across the board
Then the GS pay I’d get
If I was GS yet

It should come as revelation
This sequence of calculation
Does little more than fluster and confuse
But let me tell you, Honey
It was done to save THEM money
And in the end, it’s workers who will lose

No need to jump and shout
It was done to impart doubt
And to add to the confusion
So you don’t jump to the conclusion
But simply shrug and drop it
And not know who made a profit

(But get it through your heads, I bet it was the Feds)

Mdailey
01/07/09

For those not in the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) – the calculation of next year’s pay is something that can not readily be explained no matter how much math you have in your background. There are variables of variables that do not show up in any equation but we are asked to take it on faith that the new NSPS pay system is fair and better than if we were still in the old General Service (GS) pay
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Flexibility Changes in NSPS

You knew it was coming though the experts all said
The “good old boy” network was finished, was dead
But now DOD wants to change hiring rules
Give management options with new hiring tools
No need for the standard vacancy old announcement
You can select from just locals in their new pronouncement
And expanding the use of temporary appointments
Converting at will to permanent full anointments
And you can keep it all secret if you’ve got the notions
No need to publish the results of promotions
This particular proposed regulation it seems
Is likened to ‘good old boy’s” favorite dreams
The merit system will die and be wiped off the page
Replaced by a system ripe for patronage
It’s seen by the experts as a radical change
But for those of us living it – it doesn’t seem strange
You knew it was coming though the experts all said
The “good old boy” network was finished, was dead

Mdailey
12/05/08
Defense proposes hiring, promotion flexibilities for NSPS
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt bballenstedt@govexec.com December 4, 2008
The Defense Department on Wednesday proposed expanding staffing flexibilities available to managers under its new personnel system. The draft regulations, published by Defense and the Office of Personnel Management in the Federal Register, call for modifications to recruitment, hiring and promotion procedures under the National Security Personnel System. Under the new rules … managers would be required to notify potential candidates, but they would not have to advertise the opening using the standard vacancy announcement procedures. Managers would have the option of only looking at local residents, should a sufficient number apply. The rules also expand its use of temporary appointments. The temporary spots could be converted to permanent status later.

Matt Biggs, legislative director for the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, criticized the regulations on Thursday, noting they "drastically limit the pool of job applicants, base promotions on the already flawed NSPS performance review process and inexplicably fail to publish the results of promotions."
"This particular proposed regulation aims to bury the merit system and replace it with a hiring and promotion system that will be ripe for patronage, not to mention lacking transparency," he said. "It seems to be a very radical change, and an unwarranted change."