Distinguishing Pentagon Performers
Lawmaker would curb raises for those earning unsatisfactory reviews.
The National Security Personnel System is long gone, but now there's a new House bill that would prohibit annual pay and locality adjustment increases for Defense Department employees rated as unacceptable.
The bill (H.R. 1248), sponsored by Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., would curb annual pay and locality increases to Defense employees whose performance is ranked less than satisfactory. West estimated the legislation would generate some $21 million in short-term savings while increasing workforce productivity.
As employees are incentivized to improve their performance in future years as a result of the bill, the future savings would be about $80 billion through fiscal 2016, West estimated.
The bill, along with two others aimed at cutting Pentagon spending, make up the latest round of proposals to be voted on by the public via the YouCut program created by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. The YouCut website estimates that about 2 percent of the Defense workforce, or about 14,000 employees, currently are unsatisfactory.
Defense employs the largest number of IT workers in the federal government, including more than 30,000 IT specialists, according to the Net Generation report.
What are your thoughts on the West bill? Is making more distinctions in employee performance good or bad for generating better performance and retaining top employees?
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