New civilian personnel training postponed until review complete Published Jan. 5, 2006 By Gerry J. Gilmore American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- National Security Personnel System training for Department of Defense managers and rank-and-file employees is being postponed while a component of the new system is reviewed, an NSPS official said here today. "We've asked the services to put a hold on their training for January because we're reviewing and assessing the performance-management design (portion), which is part of the training," NSPS spokeswoman Joyce Frank said. She said the changes will be made before the NSPS training is conducted. She couldn't say when the training, originally slated to start this month, would be rescheduled. DOD and the Office of Personnel Management are partnering to establish the NSPS pay-for-performance system to replace old civil service rules that rewarded employees for length-of-service rather than performance. More than 650,000 DOD civilian employees are slated to come under NSPS. It's important that NSPS is "simple, clear and understandable" to DOD's managers and employees, Ms. Frank said. Ms. Frank said the changes involve the pay-for-performance component of the system. "We're redoing the way that we assess employees' performance, and pay is tied to that system," Ms. Frank said. "And so we've decided to make some adjustments to the design that we have. That will cause us to change our training as well."