U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

Workforce Performance Resources Newsletter Reprint

Reporting Awards with Ease: Simplified Nature of Action Codes

The second in a series of articles on changes to Nature of Action Codes for Awards

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) requires agencies to report their use of cash and time-off awards to the Central Personnel Data File (CPDF). The previous article in this series focused on what is new with award reporting requirements and provided a list of the new awards categories and nature of action codes (NOACs) that will be effective October 1, 2000. This article further explains these new codes by providing a side-by-side comparison of the current awards categories to the new awards categories and by furnishing a series of questions to help users determine the correct NOAC.

Current NOAC Categories for Awards (Effective through September 30, 2000)	New NOAC Categories for Awards (Effective October 1, 2000)
Performance (i.e., Rating-Based) (NOAC 885) Individual Special Act or Service (NOAC 877) Individual On-The-Spot (NOAC 877)	Individual Cash (NOAC 840)
Gainsharing (NOAC 874) Group Special Act or Service (NOAC 877) Group On-the-Spot (NOAC 877)	Group Cash (NOAC 841)
Individual or Group Suggestion (NOAC 875)	Individual Suggestion/Invention (NOAC 842)
	Group Suggestion/Invention (NOAC 843)
Individual or Group Invention (NOAC 876)	Individual Suggestion/Invention (NOAC 842 )
	Group Suggestion/Invention (NOAC 843)
Foreign Language (NOAC 873)	Foreign Language (NOAC 844)
None	Travel Savings Incentive (NOAC 845)
Individual or Group Time-Off (NOAC 872)	Individual Time-Off (NOAC 846)
	Group Time-Off (NOAC 847)

 

Questions to Help Select the Correct NOAC. Users will be able to determine the correct NOAC when submitting awards data to the CPDF by answering the following three questions:

• What is the form of the award- cash or time off?
• What is the nature of the contribution-was the award given: a) to recognize a superior accomplishment, a rating of record, a special act, or other personal effort that contributes to the efficiency, economy, or other improvement to the Government? OR was it given:
  b) to recognize a suggestion or invention,
  c) the use of a foreign language by a law enforcement officer, or
  d) savings during travel?
• What level of performance is being recognized-was the award given to recognize individual performance or group performance?

The answers to these three questions guide the user to the correct NOAC. For example, if a cash award (form) is being given to recognize a rating of record (nature of the contribution) by a an individual (level of performance), then the correct NOAC would be 840 for individual cash award.

Or, if a time-off award (form) is being given to recognize a special act/service (nature of the contribution) by an individual (level of performance), then the correct NOAC would be 846 for individual time-off award.

As a final example, if a cash award (form) is being given to recognize a special act or service (nature of the contribution) by a group of employees (level of performance), then the correct NOAC would be 841 for group cash award.

For further information about these changes in NOACs, we have posted the memorandum OPM issued about the new NOACs.

Originally published on December 1999