Washington, DC - As part of its ongoing commitment to reinventing government, the Office of Personnel Management will propose to eliminate restrictive laws and regulations, while encouraging more employee involvement and managerial flexibility in determining pay and promotion standards.

"Vice President Gore's work on the National Performance Review has clearly indicated the time is ripe for empowering agencies, managers, employees and employee representatives to create performance management programs that enhance individual and organizational effectiveness," said OPM Director Jim King.

Outlining key changes to reforming the performance management system, Jim King said the government needs to adopt a more equitable and uniform approach to pay progression, allowing agencies more flexibility in tailoring their programs and giving employees and their representatives a major role in the design and operation of agency programs.

The OPM proposal includes:

• allowing agencies the option to use as few as two levels of performance assessment to determine whether an employee meets the overall performance expectations;

• continue granting within-grade increases in the same amounts and at the same regularly scheduled intervals as now provided under the General Schedule; however, the unified system would provide a more flexible method for administering within-grade increases.

• basing an employee's within-grade pay advancement on the attainment of established performance expectations; and, in addition, the unified system would require that employees meet performance expectations in order to receive general pay increases.

• allowing innovative approaches by agencies that are not possible under the current government-wide systems.

Jim King is scheduled to present the OPM proposal to the Subcommittee on Compensation and Employee Benefits on Thursday, June 24, 1993, at 2 p.m. in room 311 of the Cannon House Office Building.

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.