06/02/09 Communique

Special Communique: PBC pay to be Processed Soon Using Alternative to SRS

GAO is now moving to process the negotiated Performance Based Compensation (PBC) budget factor of 2.65% through the National Finance Center (NFC) as quickly as possible. As required by law, after the pay negotiations were completed, GAO posted changes to the pay orders for employee comment. The employee comment period is now over and hopefully, we will see the pay raise – including PBC pay from the first pay period until the current pay period – in our pay checks within the next couple of pay periods.

Before we entered into pay negotiations for the PBC budget factor, GAO management proposed an alternative to the Standardized Rating Score (SRS) score used to determine the amount of PBC pay employees would receive. This alternative was developed within GAO by a team that included employees from the bargaining unit, and was intended to result in fair amounts of PBC pay for employees. GAO pursued an alternative to the SRS because its complexity made it difficult to understand, and created other unintended problems. One of the biggest unintended problems was that, for teams where employees’ ratings were very similar, a very small difference in ratings – even the difference of a single check mark for one competency – could result in exaggerated differences in the amount of PBC earned. Under these circumstances, small differences were magnified by the SRS mechanism, distorting the small differences between actual ratings. The Union agreed that this was a better alternative to the SRS and it is included in the pay agreement, which Union members recently ratified.

This SRS alternative is simple. Each employee’s relevant team’s group average rating is subtracted from his or her overall appraisal rating. The resulting number is what is used in the calculation for the PBC amount:

PBC % = (employee appraisal average – group appraisal average) + 2.65

The outcome is that the PBC an employee receives is based on his/her overall rating relative to the relevant group’s average rating, without exaggerated differences. There is a smaller difference in the PBC payout between those at the lower end and those at the higher end of ratings within a team. The general consensus is that this is a better reflection of employee performance at GAO, because most GAO staff are solid performers with smaller differences in their ratings. Employees who receive higher ratings still receive a higher payout than those with lower ratings, but the differences are not exaggerated, as with the SRS. The Union agreed with GAO management that this was a better and fairer alternative to the SRS and it was included in the pay agreement that was recently ratified by the Union membership.

This new SRS alternative does not apply to all GAO employees, however. Some employees outside of the bargaining unit have expressed concerns to GAO management about changing the SRS mechanism. As a result of these concerns, GAO’s Executive Committee decided to keep the old SRS system in place for employees outside of the bargaining unit this year. GAO management has told the Union that, although management continues to believe the SRS alternative is a good idea, management will consider further alternatives to the SRS after the Performance Assessment Study is completed.

PAST COMMUNIQUES:
05/27/09:  Help Improve GAO: Volunteer as a Union Representative on Management Initiatives
05/05/09:  GAO Union testifies before House Committee on Appropriations, Legislative Branch Subcommittee
04/27/09:  Vote to Ratify 2009 PBC Pay Agreement
04/20/09:  GAO Union Reaches Tentative Agreement with Management
04/13/09:  PBC Pay Negotiations Continue
04/03/09:  PBC Budget Factor Negotiations Begin Next Week