Air Force converts largest group of civilian employees to NSPS

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WASHINGTON (AFNEWS) --  The Air Force converted the largest group of civilian employees to the National Security Personnel System in its recent spiral.

NSPS is implemented in stages call "Spirals." Spiral 1.2H conversion began Jan. 21. Approximately 26,000 employees converted, bringing the number of Air Force employees covered by NSPS to approximately 40,000 world-wide. The Air Force currently has the largest number of employees in NSPS of any Department of Defense component.

The next Spiral, 1.3, converts approximately 1,200 civilians on March 18 and will mark the completion of the initial phase of deployment of eligible Air Force GS non-bargaining unit appropriated fund civilians. About 650,000 DOD civilian employees eventually will be covered by NSPS.

NSPS is part of DOD's transformation efforts to better meet 21st century challenges. It is a performance-based results-oriented personnel management system. Pay under this system is linked to individual performance toward meeting organizational objectives and mission goals and administered through pay pools.

The preliminary results of the initial NSPS pay pool for Spiral 1.1 participants are in: 96 percent of Air Force participants scored at level three or above and were eligible for NSPS performance-based share pay outs. All eligible employees also received the equivalent of the January pay increase received by the rest of the government.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates affirmed his support of NSPS during his confirmation hearing.

"Reforming civil service rules to make our civilian work force more adaptable, flexible and agile is critical to the future of the department," Secretary Gates said. "I believe NSPS is integral to the department's human capital strategy of developing the right mix of people and skills across the total force."

Information on classroom and auditorium training sessions that are being conducted throughout the Air Force is available from base NSPS implementation offices.

Interested people can subscribe to the Air Force NSPS Newsletter and view previous editions at the Air Force NSPS Web site http://www.af.mil/library/nsps-af/index.asp.

The DOD Web site, http://www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps/, hosts the Web-based NSPS 101 course, in addition to other information. The DOD site also has NSPS Alerts. Once a person subscribes to this service, they will be notified whenever the DOD NSPS Web site is updated.

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