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A coalition of 30 groups, representing current and retired federal managers and executives, gave its enthusiastic endorsement to the concept of performance pay in the federal government.

"I think the fact that 30 organizations agree on this position, or support these changes, shows that pay for performance is the issue that we think is most important for federal employees," said Rosslyn Kleeman, chairwoman of the Coalition for Effective Change. "It is something that is important."

The coalition released a paper Wednesday supporting pay for performance and calling it "one of the most controversial federal workforce issues currently being debated." Implementing a performance pay system across the federal government would be "neither easy nor quick," members noted.

"This paper demonstrates that federal managers and other professionals are quite willing to be held accountable for their performance and are committed to improving government operations," Kleeman said.

The Coalition for Effective Change includes the American Foreign Service Association, Blacks in Government, Executive Women in Government, the Federal Bar Association, the Federal Librarians Round Table, the National Association of Retired Federal Employees, the National Academy of Public Administration, and the Senior Executives Association.

The paper laid out 14 conditions that must be satisfied for a successful performance pay system to take hold in the federal government. The coalition called for a strict adherence to established federal merit principles, a transparent and fair appraisal system, sufficient "training and retraining" for the managers and employees, as well as a procedure to include feedback and dialogue between managers and employees.

The coalition said also that federal personnel officials must ensure the system is adequately funded.

"The success of the system will be measured by its effects on employee and work group performance and its linkage to organizational performance," the paper said. "CEC believes that the payoff for success - to agencies, to employees, and ultimately to the American public - is worth the commitments required."

COMMENTS

• Creating a pay for performance system for the civil service system sounds fine to me, but we need to make sure it is done well. For example, at a higher level, how can you make sure political appointees are fair to career employees. Also, there should be more attention given to training for employees in the federal government. It's hard to improve or "think outside the box" if you never upgrade an employee's skills or let them out of the building for a conference. I also think we need anonymous reviews of managers and political appointees by employees who work for them and that should become part of their performance. This would improve leadership and management and ensure that managers treat their employees with respect. GovExec.com reader Posted November 19, 2004 3:48 PM
• Our office has successfully fought off Pay for Performance based systems thanks to our union. However, we have about 20 individuals who were very vocal and wanted in the system since they knew they would be rewarded well. In fact, several of these individuals have in the past received $5,000 awards. Management has came through for them. All supervisors were placed in the Pay for Performance system last year. Now, it was announced that all team leaders are considered supervisors immediately and will therefore be transferred into the Pay for Performance system. Funny thing - one of the team leaders and now supervisor has zero - yes zero employees under him!!! Most of these supervisors have 2-3 employees. But, management feels it is best to only supervisor 2-3 people. Hogwash! They just wanted to get their buddies into the Pay for Performance system and this was the way around fighting the union. This is a clear example of fraud, waste and abuse of tax payer dollars! Promoting friends and awarding cash bonuses to your buddies just because of who you are. GovExec.com reader Posted August 24, 2004 6:42 AM
• Apparently this pay for performance will not apply to the Navy Region Southeast in Jacksonville Fl since they suspended the civilian performance award system this year at the very same time the Commander in Chief Bush was pushing pay for performance. Civilian pay accounts are always considered a place to find money when funding get low. Award programs are suspended, fill actions are slowed to save money from hiring too fast and disallowing the application of overtime and forcing compensatory upon people instead are just three ways of using civilian pay money for other purposes. Any pay for performace program that is budget constrained is doomed for failure from the very beginning as military managers will continue to view civilian pay as a pot of available money to be used as they wish. Oh by the way they will continue to expect high performance levels anyway. GovExec.com reader Posted August 23, 2004 3:10 PM