Pentagon's Pay System Will Use New Terms to Rate Performance

Although a set of standard factors will be used to rate the performance of every employee, supervisors and employees will be able to tailor the criteria to fit specific jobs.

For example, employees on the professional/analytic pay schedule (such as accountants, lawyers and people in administrative jobs) will be rated in seven areas: technical proficiency, critical thinking, cooperation and teamwork, communication, customer focus, resource management and achieving results.

Their bosses will be held accountable in two additional categories: leadership abilities and supervision of employees.

Most performance management systems, of course, succumb to rating inflation. In some agencies in the past, a rating of "fully successful" turned out "not a good place to be" because it covered the bottom 10 percent to 20 percent of employees, said John Palguta , vice president for policy and research at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.

Still, Palguta said he would try to change terminology if he was at Defense -- if only to make a fresh start. " 'Valued performance' will take on the image of how it is applied. If a majority of folks fall into the 'valued performance' category, folks will feel okay about it," Palguta said.

Defense Teachers File Suit

The Federal Education Association, which bargains on behalf of about 8,000 teachers and other school personnel on military bases, filed a federal lawsuit yesterday seeking to be excluded from the National Security Personnel System.

The group bargains over salaries for teachers in the United States and over extra-duty compensation for teachers in Defense-operated schools overseas. NSPS does not permit bargaining over pay, and the suit contends that the new system runs counter to a law that links the pay of Defense teachers to salary schedules of school districts near military bases.

A coalition of federal unions has filed a separate suit to stop Defense workplace rules that would curb bargaining rights. The suit on behalf of the teachers also objects to the Pentagon's plan to limit union rights.

E-mail:barrs@washpost.com