Performance Management and Pay - Selected Case Studies

Office of Naval Research (ONR)

Client Objective:  In 2002, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) realized that the success of HR Demonstration projects in the DoD laboratories was rapidly eroding its ability to compete for scientific talent. To address this issue, ONR began an initiative to design, develop and implement its own, customized demonstration project under DoD’s blanket authority.

FMP Approach:  FMP provided expertise in alternative personnel system design, implementation and change management. Specifically, FMP:

• Interviewed leaders and other stakeholders in order to design a personnel system which was linked with agency mission and business goals.
• Designed ONR’s Contribution-Based Compensation System, which is a pay banding system that measures performance and sets pay increases in terms of employee contribution to the mission. FMP fully developed this system, including the contribution factors, levels and differentiators, the contribution rating scale, and the pay line replacing the GS pay scale.
• Developed a communications plan for effectively engaging the workforce, designed a demonstration project web-site, and developed content information for the web site.
• Defined competency models for key occupations .
• Designed a 360-degree leadership assessment approach to ensure ONR’s leaders were developing the skills needed to ensure the success of the project.
• Defined ONR requirements for a pay-for-performance workflow tool and worked with the tool’s vendor to make needed system changes.
• Designed an evaluation model for measuring the impact of the demonstration project on ONR strategic goals, and developed a workforce survey and collected baseline data.

Results: This approach resulted in a variety of activities, including developing demonstration project training and delivering it to the ONR workforce, a Federal Register Notice specifying the policies and design features of the demonstration project, documented ONR processes for the alternative personnel system, requirements for a workflow system and tool for managing pay and performance, competencies and corporate training plans for key occupations, and an evaluation model and baseline data set.

Public Defender Service (PDS)

Client Objective: The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) contracted with FMP to perform a comprehensive review of their compensation policies and practices to assess their effectiveness in meeting organizational objectives.  The goals of this original study were to create an administratively manageable policy and practice for employees that: 1) was informed by other current federal initiatives and private practice models; 2) could be supported by existing personnel and payroll systems as performed by federal organizations; 3) addressed methods for linking employee compensation to program results as part of a performance recognition strategy that ties to the PDS strategic plan and annual performance plans; and 4) included not only base salary but also other incentive options.

FMP Approach: To complete this study, FMP utilized the following approach:

• Conducted an internally oriented analysis to review PDS’s baseline policies, evaluate their effectiveness, and identify program areas where critical work would be required for successful program design and implementation.
• Performed an externally oriented analysis to collect, compare and evaluate current compensation trends in comparator organizations.
• Developed recommendations and facilitated the decision making process.
• Developed policies that supported design choice.
• Assisted with the implementation of the compensation policy and practice recommendations that were adopted, including performing a requirements analysis and helping to facilitate integration with a third party human resource payroll service provider.