Intelligence Community Works at Common Pay System

The intelligence community -- comprising 16 government agencies -- plans to take the first steps this year toward pulling its tens of thousands of employees into a common pay system.

The IC, as it's known in the government's jargon, operates with a patchwork of pay rules that makes it difficult for intelligence agencies to share, reassign and recruit employees, according to officials. A White House commission last year called on John D. Negroponte , director of national intelligence, to create a more uniform pay and personnel system to help integrate operations and shape a more agile workforce.

Since that report, the departments of Homeland Security and Defense have firmed up plans to roll out performance-based pay systems this year. Pay changes also may come to parts of the FBI, such as its new national security branch.

"There can be no doubt that pay modernization is coming to the IC, and generally, I believe that is a good thing," Gen. Michael V. Hayden , principal deputy director of national intelligence, recently wrote intelligence employees.

Designing a common pay system for spies, code breakers, scientists, analysts and others around the world will be one of the most ambitious personnel-management projects undertaken by the government in decades.

There is no chain of command for unified management of intelligence personnel. Intelligence agencies use a range of pay models, from the traditional grade and step system to broad salary scales. Some offer special pay rates for hard-to-fill jobs, and some are steeped in traditions tied to agency mission.

There are also communities within the intelligence community, such as the national clandestine service and an evolving analytic group.

"It's the most complicated transformation that I've been involved in," said Ronald P. Sanders , who is helping steer the effort.

Sanders, chief human capital officer for the intelligence community, came to the post last year after a stint at the Office of Personnel Management, where he helped oversee plans to overhaul the pay and workplace rules at the departments of Defense and Homeland Security. He also has played key roles in personnel management at the Defense Department and the Internal Revenue Service, where he helped implement a restructuring ordered by Congress.

In an interview, Sanders pointed to the memo sent by Hayden to employees and his promise that officials "will reach out to you to share our thoughts and proposals, understand and address your concerns, and incorporate your ideas."

Sanders said there is no deadline for overhauling pay in the intelligence community, and, he added, there are no prescriptions, solutions or recommendations on the table.

He said officials will try to introduce the new system in phases.

The first phase will focus on research and listening to employees in the intelligence community, Sanders said. Out of that phase, IC officials will develop a series of options for consideration by IC leaders later this year, and their decisions will form the basis for drawing up a tentative plan. The last phase calls for taking the proposal back to the IC workforce to explain "what it looks like and why," Sanders said.

The IC has a mixed record on pay systems. A few agencies have adopted modern compensation practices, but CIA employees balked in 2001 when the agency explored possible changes in the way employees would be evaluated and paid. Employees were concerned about how pay changes might affect their pension credits and how performance ratings would affect pay raises. In the end, the CIA project was put on hold.

But Sanders said the IC cannot afford to allow pay disparities, created by the current patchwork of systems, impede the sharing of people. In addition, he said, many agencies need more flexible pay practices so they can better compete when recruiting candidates for entry-level jobs, particularly those who speak foreign languages and have other specialized skills and knowledge.

"There is this shared sense of mission amongst all parts of the community," Sanders said. "So that's a kind of binding force that offsets the structural impediments to building community, and it's something that we want to leverage."

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.