YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea — New rules dictating how Defense Department civilian employees get hired, fired, paid and promoted will be explained at a pair of town hall meetings this week in South Korea.
Personnel advisory teams will hold the first meeting at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Balboni Theater on Yongsan’s Main Post. A second meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Camp Henry theater.
The briefings are intended to explain what the changes are and why they were made under the National Security Personnel System, enacted this year by Congress. Though live briefings won’t be available in Area I or Area III, the slide show personnel teams’ presentation will be sent to all civilian employees, said Kevin Krejcarek, a U.S. Forces Korea spokesman.
The briefings generally last two hours, depending on audience questions.
According to the slides, the NSPS was approved in November but put into effect gradually to “reflect [a] more cautious, deliberative approach.”
Personnel officials have said current rules sometimes make it too difficult to put the right people in the right jobs and pay them appropriately. Job classifications such as in the GS system also can be too rigid, officials say.
And, the personnel officials said, most government employees and supervisors know previous rules made getting rid of problem workers almost impossible.
Slides, attributed to David L. Snyder, an official in the Army’s Civilian Personnel Policy center, identified problems with the current system as including:
• a slow hiring process that adversely affects recruiting;• having outstanding performers get paid the same as poor performers;• limited flexibility to reassign; and• limited accountability.
Those issues are addressed in the new system, officials said, noting the NSPS was discussed in joint information sessions this year with union leaders and management, as well as focus groups composed of employees and supervisors.
For more information before the briefings, visit www.cpms.osd.mil/nsps or www.cpol.army.mil.
— Charlie Coon contributed to this report.
