DRAFT PROPOSAL ON NEW PAY, PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT AND BENEFITS SYSTEM FOR CIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01192R000100150002-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 30, 1987
• Content Type: MEMO

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Central Intelligence Agency
Human Resource Modernization and
Compensation Task Force
Preliminary Report-July 1987
Proposed Pay, Personnel Management,
and Compensation System
Executive Summary
Proposed System Summary
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MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director for Administration
Deputy Director for Intelligence
Deputy Director for Operations
Deputy Director for Science & Technology
SUBJECT: Draft Proposal on New Pay, Personnel Management and
Benefits System for CIA
1. As you know, the Human Resources Management and Compensation Task
Force has labored long and hard for the past several months to review the
Agency's pay, personnel management and benefits system. The resulting
preliminary report is attached for your consideration.
2. Not surprisingly, the Task Force found room for improvement in our
present personnel management and compensation system. But it also found a
number of ways to make the system more responsive to the needs of the
organization and our people. Several fundamental issues have been raised.
3. One such issue is whether you think we should try to do what we can
to improve things within the confines of the present pay system, or whether
you agree with the Task Force that the Agency can develop a compensation
system of its own that is more relevant to our particular needs. Another
important issue is whether you believe the Agency would be improved by a
system in which annual performance awards to some degree replace promotions
as a tangible expression of Agency recognition of exceptional employee
performance.
4. We also need your views and suggestions on other, more specific
issues, including those relating to the design, implementation and
management of the new system and those that are presented here in the form
of options. Finally, the Task Force hopes that you will raise questions or
present ideas that might have been overlooked in the course of its
deliberations.
5. There are two other points that you should be aware of. One relates
to costs. In order to keep this report unclassified, and in the belief that
cost considerations should be of concern primarily to senior managers rather
than individual employees, I asked the Task Force to address the cost
implications of each of the proposed system features in a separate,
classified attachment. Please give us your comments on that section as well.
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6. The other point relates to the final approval process. Everyone
should understand that, even if there is widespread support for this
proposal within the Agency and DCI endorsement, we will still need the
cooperation of the Congress and the Office of Management and Budget to move
ahead with many aspects of it. Implementation of some features may require
legislation. Although the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has
reacted favorably to the general concepts presented here, the House Select
Committee has not. It is our hope that a sensible proposal which had the
strong support of Agency personnel and management, and could be achieved at
reasonable cost, would have a good chance of gaining Congressional
endorsement. But none of this is preordained.
7. Because of the significance of this proposal to the future of the
Agency and our employees, we ask that you consult as widely as possible with
your people about it and take as much time as you need to do so. (The
Executive Summary and Chapter 1, the System Summary, will be distributed to
all employees; supervisors will also receive Chapter 2, the more detailed
System Design.) I have told the Task Force that we will try to obtain your
reactions by 1 September. If you will need more than two months to review
and comment on the report, however, we will take the necessary extra time.
Please let me know as soon as possible whether you think you will need more
time.
8. You should submit your Directorate views to me and your Task Force
representative. You, your managers, and any of your people who have
questions about the proposal should feel free to consult with your Task
Force representative or the Task Force Chairma
ames y or
Attachment:
The Task Force Report
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Human Resource Modernization and
Compensation Task Force
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In July 1986, then DCI William J. Casey presented to the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) CIA's strategy for addressing major
personnel issues during the, next decade. This strategy included replacing the
General Schedule (GS) system, rethinking incentives, redesigning the career
development structure to allow for expert and management tracks,. and
revitalizing our training and personnel planning program. With these person-
nel system improvements, he suggested that the Agency would be better able
to attract and retain the high-caliber career force needed to meet increasingly
difficult and diverse challenges in the years to come.
As a result of the DCI's initiative, the Human Resource Modernization and
Compensation Task Force (HRMCTF) was chartered in November 1.986 to
develop the design of an improved personnel and compensation system
without adding more than 2 to 3 percent to the Agency's personal services
budget. In so doing, the Task Force studied some of the most creative and in-
novative approaches being used and tested in private industry and in other
parts of the Federal Government. The purpose of this report is to present a
preliminary draft design to the Directorates for their review and comments.
Some features of the preliminary design would directly affect levels of
compensation. Others focus on additional forms of recognition and incen-
tives to ensure that the CIA remains an attractive place, to work. Still others
are aimed at reducing bureaucratic hurdles so that managers will have more
flexibility in organizing their personnel resources to adapt to changing
requirements. Some of these proposals are entirely new to the traditional
Agency culture in the pay and benefits area. Other proposals will be familiar,
representing only a refinement of what is best about the current system. What
is presented here is a fully integrated system, but its many individual features
leave much room for discussion of other options that may be incorporated in
the final design. Many of the features, particularly those relating to banding
and incentive pay, can be implemented within existing DCI authority. Other
features, particularly those in the benefits area, would require additional
authority. All of the changes would require Congressional and Office of
Management and Budget concurrence.
Feedback is a key ingredient in the process of developing an improved
personnel and compensation system. As stated from the beginning of the
project, it is essential that any new Agency system be developed by and have
the broad support of employees. To accomplish this, the Task Force has
.arranged for copies of the full report to be available at the Office and DO
Division level throughout the Agency. Directorates are requested to submit
their responses to the Task Force by 1 September 1987. In, addition,
individual comments and suggestions may be addressed to the Chairman or
members of the Task Force. A revised report that incorporates views of
individuals and Agency components will be offered for your review once
again before submission to Agency management for approval in December
1987. Implementation of any changes would be phased in over a two-year
period.
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Proposed Pay and Classification Structure
A key feature of the proposed system is a pay and classification structure
that better relates compensation to performance, is more competitive with
the private sector, and plays a greater role in attracting and retaining high-cal-
iber people:
? Occupationally Defined Bands. The GS system has long shown signs of
strain-witness the numerous "special pay scales" awkwardly superimposed
in order to pay higher rates to certain hard-to-hire occupations. To
facilitate market pricing, the Task Force proposes the Agency develop
occupationally defined pay bands, linked to various levels of expertise-
for example, entry level, journeyman, expert, and manager. Representa-
tives of 28 occupations that account for 75 percent of the Agency's work
force already, have met as occupational panels and have shown the
feasibility of such a system, including an initial cut at the standards that
would be used to determine pay and promotion (movement from band to
band).
Market. Pricing. Under the current GS system, occupational market
surveys are conducted to assess Federal pay vis-a-vis the private sector.
These surveys result in governmentwide, across-the-board changes in the
GS pay schedule, without regard to how a given occupation stacks up
against the private sector or how important it is to an organization. This
averaging process often results in pay levels for specific occupations that
are lower than the market. commands. The Task Force proposes that the
Agency maintain up-to-date, occupation-specific pay rates by conducting
its own periodic market salary. surveys of that portion of the private
sector that is on. a par with CIA and competes for the same types of
people. Those. Agency occupations with no private-sector counterpart
would be adjusted on the basis of an internal Agency comparison with
occupations that can be market priced.
? Funding : Control. Senior managers in government are saddled with
funding, position ceiling, and promotion headroom constraints that
extend well beyond understandable requirements for accountability.
They often find themselves unable to make personnel adjustments,. even
when change will not require additional funds. The Task Force proposes
that position classification authority be delegated to operating officials,
permitting them to reclassify jobs within defined occupational pay levels
and adjust numbers of personnel in their components, so long as they stay
within predefined funding limits.
? Incentive Pay. Under the GS system, employees and managers tend to
view promotion as the primary means to reward performance. Periodic
step increases are associated largely with longevity, and quality step
increases and other cash awards are rare-even for superior performers.
The Task Force proposes separating the rewards for above-average
performance at the current level from the kinds of rewards offered for
substantially increased responsibility. The proposed system of -broad
occupational bands would introduce a pay-for-performance or incentive
pay system that would permit varying combinations of salary increases
and bonuses to reward varying levels of performance. Under the pro-
posed system, all employees performing acceptably would receive an
incentive award comparable .with the current step increases, but higher
performing employees-up to 50 percent of the Agency population-
could receive a combination of salary adjustments and bonuses greater
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than this. Promotions (movement from one band to another) would be
reserved for those who have clearly demonstrated the capability to take
on the significantly greater responsibilities of a more senior level.
Performance Evaluation and Career Development Systems
An essential ingredient in any pay-for-performance system is. an active
performance evaluation and career development system. The Task Force
proposes the following basic elements, allowing necessary Directorate
flexibility:
? Performance Plan. Occupational panels would generate key job responsi-
bilities and performance expectations for each level of the band. These
would be computerized and available to managers as a guide when they
sit down to customize performance plans for individual employees. The
aim here is to ensure that employees know what is expected of them and
to free supervisors from much of the performance plan writing so they
can concentrate on talking with their employees.
? Performance Evaluation. A streamlined PAR system would facilitate
evaluation of recent performance to determine incentive pay and readi-
ness for promotion.
? Career Development. This segment of the preliminary design proposes a
dual track system to permit advancement as either a manager or a
substantive expert. The design also provides for occupational career
handbooks that would spell out the responsibilities for each level in an
occupation and identify the assignments, experiences, skills, and training
that best prepare an employee for entry into and promotion within the
occupation. These handbooks would be used by employees, career service
panels, and managers.
? Training. Employees will have more training available to them. This
training will focus on the specific skills needed by each occupational
grouping to sharpen existing job skills and enhance the skills needed for
career development. In addition, more efficient and creative ways will be
used to get the training to employees at their job site.
Benefits
No Federal agency can hope to match the best of the private sector in total
pay and benefits, but the Agency can improve its posture by taking a more
modern approach. The Task Force offers the following examples:
? Flexible Benefits Program. This system would give employees greater
latitude to direct government money into the particular benefits the employ-
ees need and to use their own pretax dollars to buy enhanced levels of
qualified benefits. This flexibility is increasingly important as the demo-
graphics of the work force change to include more dual career marriages
as well as single workers with and without children.
? Annual Leave. Every year Agency employees forfeit more leave than
employees of any other Federal agency. The Task Force believes that the
work ethic that often results in large losses of annual leave benefits should
be rewarded and has proposed a variety of improvements intended to
reduce the amount of leave lost. Recommendations include: a proposal to
increase annual leave carryover for midlevel managers and experts who
currently account for most of the lost leave; a provision to allow annual
leave to be cashed in or used as collateral for dependent educational
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tuition loans; and a proposal to establish an Agency sick leave bank from
annual leave that would have been forfeited to provide-.additional sick
leave for employees faced with catastrophic illnesses.
? Other Benefits. The Task Force proposes various incentives to help the
Agency maintain and adjust the characteristics of the work force, for
example, to. ensure that the best midlevel employees can continue to see
opportunities for. advancement. Among : these proposals are retention
bonuses and early retirement options.
Additional details on these proposed features are in the System Summary
section. Those desiring even more information on the new system.should
consult- the System Design' section. Each provides a greater level of specificity
geared to meet the needs of various readers for information about the new
system:
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