Reader Survey: Pay for performance
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Feds see benefits, and a few drawbacks, to new pay system.
The days when all federal employees received the same pay raise, regardless of performance, are coming to a close. But not without considerable resistance.Now that government is striving to become more effective, efficient and competitive'in short, more like the private sector'it is adopting pay systems more like the private sector. One of the goals proposed by the President's Management Agenda, the pay-for-performance system would replace the General Schedule system, established in the late 1940s, that assigns all employees the same pay raise across the board.Managers, for the most part, say the idea of rewarding high performers with higher pay is a good one. In a GCN telephone survey of IT managers, 54 percent said the current system of giving all federal workers the same raise, regardless of performance'good or bad'shortchanges talented, hardworking employees.Yet feds in the sample are more divided about the effects of the current system on supervisors and their staffs. Forty-two percent said the current GS pay system limited the ability of supervisors to motivate staff to achieve the best results; 43 percent said it didn't.Surveyed managers are also split about how the pay-for-performance program was designed. Thirty-nine percent said the program did not sufficiently take into account employee and union feedback; 46 percent said it did.Likewise, respondents are sharply divided on the ability to appeal what they perceived as unfair decisions under the pay-for-performance plans. Forty percent said employees and unions had limited rights to appeal unfair decisions, while 41 percent disagreed.And agencies are in no hurry to move to a pay-for-performance system. Despite the president's mandate, most survey respondents' agencies'65 percent'have yet to implement such a program.Although the subject has spurred much debate among federal employees, the majority surveyed'52 percent'said pay for performance would ultimately lead to a more effective government.
Feds see benefits, and a few drawbacks, to new pay system.