New Beginnings

New Beginnings is a collaborative labor-management effort involving the Department of Defense (DOD) and a broad array of DOD employees and national-level union representatives. Its mandate is to implement significant improvements to DOD Human Resource practices and policies, including implementation of a new Defense-wide Performance Management and Appraisal Program. New Beginnings encompasses reforms impacting Performance Management, Hiring Flexibilities, Training and Development, and Workforce Incentives.

What's New	Information
DOD Mentoring Resource Portal A One-Stop-Shop for all DOD Mentoring Needs. New information, training videos, and guides on the MyPerformance tool, which will manage your Performance Management and Appraisal for those deploying into the new program, can be found in the Resources and References section.	Resources and References Click here for additional documents and information. Awards Click here to view Awards. Frequently Asked Questions Click here to view FAQs.

Background

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2010 provided the Secretary of Defense authority to promulgate agency rules and regulations providing for: 1) a new performance management program and 2) redesigned procedures for use within the Department of Defense (DOD) to make appointments to positions within the competitive service. The NDAA also provided the Secretary, at his discretion, authority to establish a “DOD Civilian Workforce Incentive Fund.”

Section 9902(c)(2) of title 5, United States Code, requires DOD to ensure “a means for involving employees (for bargaining unit employees, through their exclusive representatives) in design and implementation of . . .” the new authorities and practices. Executive Order 13522, “Creating Labor Management Forums to Improve Delivery of Government Services,” requires agencies to allow employees and their unions “to have pre-decisional involvement in all workplace matters to the fullest extent practicable.”

Representatives from the DOD Components, organizations that represent DOD employees (i.e., unions, Federal Managers Association), the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and other stakeholders worked collaboratively for more than 18 months to plan and carry out the pre-decisional process for developing recommendations for the new personnel authorities. The process came to be known as “New Beginnings.” Three New Beginnings joint labor-management design teams—Performance Management, Hiring Flexibilities, and Civilian Workforce Incentive Fund— met and engaged in extensive research, analysis, discussion, and consultations with subject matter experts, and developed proposals for the design of the personnel authorities for consideration by the Department’s leadership. The vast majority of Design Team recommendations were endorsed. The inclusive collaborative process was beneficial in that it provided the Department with the perspectives and ideas from those most directly affected by the Department’s civilian personnel policies and practices—its employees, supervisors, and managers.

NDAA2010

NDAA2012

Executive Order 13522

PDI Reference Guide

Performance Management

The Department of Defense is committed to instituting a high performance culture. We’re accomplishing this through increased employee engagement and accountability, transparent hiring and compensation processes, performance objectives connected to the DOD mission, and improved employee-supervisor communications.

Performance Management is the systematic process by which an Agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of Agency mission and goals. The Performance Management Process includes:

• Planning work and setting expectations
• Continually monitoring performance
• Recognizing and rewarding good performance throughout the year
• Evaluating performance in a summary fashion

Staffing and Hiring Flexibilities

New Beginnings supports the DOD's efforts to streamline hiring and recruit the talent necessary to meet our national security mission. Improving the hiring experience is key to hiring manager, applicants, and human resources (HR) professionals. The Hiring Manager's Toolkit provides valuable information for managers and HR, while focused hiring done through programs such as the DOD Pathways Program helps managers direct their hiring efforts and helps students and recent graduates target their job search.

Providing hiring managers and human resources professionals with up-to-date information, easy-to-understand checklists and tools that facilitate communication will help streamline the hiring process and improve the DOD's ability to attract and retain a world-class workforce.

Hiring Manager's Toolkit

DoD Pathways Program

Training and Development

Training, education, and professional development are imperative for the success of organizations, leaders, and employees throughout the DOD. To best support mission readiness, we continue to pride ourselves on being a learning organization that places high value on knowledge management and employee engagement. The DOD has a renewed commitment to improving and expanding existing training and learning opportunities to ensure we employ a high-functioning, engaged, professional workforce energized toward achieving the organizational mission.

Human Resource University	Leadership, Learning, & Development	DoD Civilian Leader Development
DoD Mentoring Resource Portal	Manager & Supervisory Training	Strategic Workforce Planning