Washington, D.C.  - The U.S. Office of Personnel Management has issued a report expressing confidence in the use of contemporary pay and personnel systems for the strategic management of the future federal work force.

The report, Alternative Personnel Systems in Practice and a Guide to theFuture, provides the federal government's 25-year history with alternative pay and performance-based personnel systems. This experience helps make the case for retiring the 55-year-old General Schedule pay system and adopting flexible, performance-based compensation systems.

For more than two decades, OPM has supported demonstration projects and independent alternative systems involving 93,000 employees throughout the government that look at alternate ways to improve employee productivity and reward high-performance.

At a Senate committee last month, OPM Director Linda M. Springer cited the Defense Department's two decades of experience in implementing alternative personnel systems pilot projects. She expressed confidence in the ultimate success of the proposed National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which was developed jointly by DOD and OPM using their shared experiences.

OPM's report can be found on the agency's web site at www.opm.gov/about_opm/reports/aps_10-2005.asp.

Our mission is to ensure the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce. OPM supports U.S. agencies with personnel services and policy leadership including staffing tools, guidance on labor-management relations and programs to improve work force performance.