Return to Article: Spending bill trims $5 million more from DHS personnel system
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Everyone here has no doubt read the agency-specific results of the 2006 OPM government-wide employee survey in which DHS ranked last or as close to last as it could get in all four categories rated. The same exact results were also yielded in the 2004 OPM government-wide employee survey. With DHS, there are many reasons for these pathetic ratings and many reasons why these ratings didn't improve at all for the latest survey. But there is no doubt that DHS' insistence on forging ahead with its MaxHR personnel system; to include pay for performance, directly against the will of its employees had a big hand in the results of these surveys. All employee input has been vehemently negative towards the new personnel system from the very first 30-day public comment period and DHS has continued to forge ahead and completely ignore this overwhelming employee resentment.
In its response to the results of both surveys, DHS officials stated that the results show that employees are unhappy about the way in which employees are rewarded for their work, and this led to the bad ratings. These statements are very questionable. The reality is that the employees are adamantly against the new personnel system being forced down their throats. But who wants to bet that DHS will stoop to an all new low here, and actually try to use the OPM survey results as a way to push even harder for MaxHR? Who wants to bet that DHS officials will try to say that the results show that employees are unhappy with the current system and the new personnel system is therefore needed to bolster employee morale? Every time you think DHS has sunk to its lowest yet, think again. When it comes to sinking, DHS is a bottomless pit.
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Great news! Now the next move should be to trash MAXHR in it's entirely. I've listened to arrogant private contractors try to "train" ICE supervisors in this system, and it was something to watch. They refused to listen to any comments that deviated from the DHS party line, and also refused to acknowledge that a system based upon a private sector model doesn't necessarily translate well into law enforcement, where you can't evaluate the number of widgets an employee may produce each month!
All MAXHR seems designed to do is eliminate our federal Civil Service as we now know it, and do away with current protections for employees. The current General Schedule is successful, and has provisions for dealing with problem employees, and rewarding good ones. If it has not worked, blame it on the users who are either not aware of its provisions, or too cowardly to exercise them. The sooner MAXHR is dumped completely, the better things will be at DHS, which has been a mess since its inception, even without MAXHR!
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