Is NSPS Necessary?

Interesting exchange between review board member and former NTEU president Bob Tobias and NSPS program executive Brad Bunn:

Tobias: It is really a good piece of work that you sponsored, you put together, and you published. I assume from your testimony that you believe NSPS motivates people who are covered by NSPS to increase their performance. What I mean by that, if I'm a level 4 performer, and I produce 1.0, that without NSPS I might produce 0.8 instead of 1.0. My question is, what data is available to support the assumption that this system, as it's currently designed and implemented in DOD, motivates employees to actually increase their performance.

Bunn: Frankly, I don't have a database that shows net increase in performance of either organizations or individuals. We're able to track performance over time of individuals. I mentioned that most of the folks who got a 1 or a 2 improved their performance, or got a higher rating. Whether the system motivated that, we don't have data that says exactly what motivated that. What the system is designed to do was promote a performance culture.

Tobias: The goals of the organization could be made clear by having an effective performance management system without pay pools. You could have some other system for allocating awards. Quality step increases, the traditional things that we are aware of, without pay pools, however with a performance management system where people's organizational goals are linked to organizational mission.

Bunn: I think that is possible. Without a link between the pay outcomes and the performance evaluation system, managers, supervisors, evaluators, don't spend a lot of time focused on that. The pay outcome is not the number one motivator. Putting pay on the table does clarify, does drive behaviors in organizations that you wouldn't otherwise see....whether pay is the number one motivator, the data doesn't support that.