NSPS COMPLETES FIRST FULL CYCLE
By Jay Field  The Los Angeles District began moving several members of its civilian workforce to a new personnel system nearly two years ago. Employees are entering the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) in stages, known as “spirals,” with training for employees and supervisors along the way. So far, 56 district employees transferred to NSPS, with 29 more soon to convert in Spiral 2.2D in February.
The first group of district employees under NSPS completed their first full performance cycle at the end of October. The appraisals of 39 supervisors were reviewed by the district’s Pay Band 2 supervisory pay pool panel, while 17 supervisors’ ratings were assessed by the South Pacific Division’s Pay Band 3 supervisory pay pool panel. Final ratings were distributed, with payouts scheduled for January. Patsy Delgado, deputy transition manager, noted that one of the main challenges of the new system was working with employees to draft performance plans.
“We learned just how important the objectives and self-assessments are, and how the contributing factors tie in,” she said.
Since many managers had little experience writing “SMART” or measurable job objectives, the district conducted hands-on training for both objective writing and assessment preparation. While pay pool members worked on performance plans and appraisals, the transition team wrestled with the administrative challenges of the new personnel system.
“There was a lot of uncertainty, but we’re on our way, now,” said Gretchen Wotherspoon, pay pool administrator for the District. “It’s a system in transition,” added Jan Reliford, Office of Counsel advisor. “As the system evolves people recognize its value in rewarding performance.”
Reliford said each spiral conversion and step in the process brings about new lessons learned, which the transition team tries to put into practice. Spiral 2.2D will see 29 district employees convert to the new system Feb. 17. Most are non-bargaining unit (including confidential) employees. Conversion Employees automatically convert to NSPS based on their permanent position of record under the General Schedule (GS) or other system. When employees convert, they experience no loss in pay. For many employees, their salaries may increase if they are eligible for a one-time, prorated Within-Grade-Increase (WGI) buy-in based on time earned toward their next step increase.
Employees will be placed into a Career Group, Pay Schedule and Pay Band based on their occupations. To learn more about the classification architecture, CLICK HERE. To see how the conversion process works, NSPS 101 is an online course that provides an overview of the core NSPS elements and includes a conversion calculator. To take NSPS 101, CLICK HERE. | 
