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

Archive

OPM Director Presents PILLAR Award at Strategic Compensation Conference

OPM Director's PILLAR Award

Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Janice R. Lachance presented the inaugural OPM Director's PILLAR Awards on August 28, 2000, at OPM's Strategic Compensation Conference in Washington, DC. Award recipients were:

• Food and Nutrition Service, Southeast Regional Office.
• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York
  (VISN 2).
• Tobyhanna Army Depot.
• John F. Kennedy Space Center.
• Federal Aviation Administration Logistics Center (FAALC).
• About the Award.

 

Food and Nutrition Service, Southeast Regional Office, for its performance management program, part of its Total Quality Management Initiative, which closely aligns employee performance and development with organizational goals. The Region has a carefully structured method of establishing strategic goals and cascading them through the organization. Employees develop performance plans based on their respective roles in carrying out those goals. Under the Initiative, which was developed through an effective partnership between management and union representatives, the Region has experienced savings of more than $44.2 million and has seen improvements in accomplishment of organizational goals.

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York (VISN 2), for its goalsharing program, an innovative approach to creating a clear "line of sight" between employees and organizational goals. Employees in each of VISN 2's work units develop "stretch goals" tied to the accomplishment of VISN 2's five major goals. If the work unit meets its stretch goals, unit employees receive a payout depending on the extent to which the unit meets those goals. Since initiating the program, which also was . developed through an effective labor/management partnership, VISN 2's organizational performance has improved dramatically.

Honorable Mention recipients were:

Tobyhanna Army Depot, for its Rewarding the Workforce Award Program. Under this program, all employees share equally in a monetary award based upon a sliding scale tied directly to the Depot's "Net Operating Result."

John F. Kennedy Space Center, for its Goal Performance Evaluation System (GPES). GPES is a web-based software application used to communicate organizational objectives throughout the organization. The system has successfully coupled strategic management with employee performance, resulting in a more tightly focused and aligned organization.

Federal Aviation Administration Logistics Center (FAALC), Oklahoma City, for its performance management practices, particularly establishing and implementing individual performance plans linked directly to the FAALC Strategic Plan.

About the Award. The OPM Director's PILLAR Award is an honorary award established this year. It recognizes and publicizes effective performance management programs, practices, or processes that support alignment of employee performance management practices with organizational strategic goals as well as results-oriented and customer-focused performance. The name of the award stands for Performance, Incentives, and Leadership Linked to Achieve Results. The pillar represents effective performance management because it is the foundation that supports a structure, just as performance management is the foundation that supports good management.

Director Lachance solicited nominations for the award in May 2000. OPM received 35 nominations from 18 agencies. A panel of human resources experts reviewed the nominations and made recommendations to Director Lachance, who made the final selections.

See our PILLAR Award web page for more information.

Originally published August 2000.