Human Capital: Monitoring of Safeguards and Addressing Employee Perceptions Are Key to Implementing a Civilian Performance Management System in DOD

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, the Department of Defense (DOD) began implementing the National Security Personnel System (NSPS)--a human capital system for DOD civilians. NSPS significantly redesigned the way DOD civilians are hired, compensated, and promoted. Pub. L. No. 110-181 mandated that GAO conduct reviews of the NSPS performance management system in calendar years 2008, 2009, and 2010. In this report, GAO assessed (1) the extent to which DOD has implemented certain internal safeguards to ensure the fairness, effectiveness, and credibility of NSPS, and monitored their implementation, and (2) how DOD civilian personnel perceive NSPS, and the actions DOD has taken to address those perceptions. GAO analyzed relevant documents and employee survey results, interviewed DOD officials, and conducted discussion groups with DOD employees at eight locations outside of the continental United States. Toward the end of GAO's review, both Houses of Congress passed proposed legislation that, if enacted, would terminate NSPS and require any future performance management system for DOD civilians to include certain internal safeguards