Report - Government Executive

percent), or that feedback received from supervisors helps them achieve their performance
objectives (36 percent). 170
Relatively few employees agreed that DCIPS provides employees with adequate protections
against unfair treatment (18 percent), or that the DCIPS performance management system
contributes to improved accomplishment of the work unit’s objectives (24 percent). 171 Only 16
percent agreed that DCIPS will improve performance within the organization or component over
time while very few (10 percent) agreed that it will increase collaboration within their
organizations. 172
Although 45 percent of employees agreed that they understand the process by which DCIPS
performance payout decisions are made, only 14 percent agreed that the use of pay pool panels
and the pay decision tool contribute to increased fairness of pay decisions. 173 Few agreed that
their individual base pay increase was appropriate based on payouts made to others in the pay
pool (18 percent) or the organization (16 percent). 174
Based on these survey results, it is clear that intelligence component employees accept the
proposition that they should be rewarded commensurate with their performance. Yet there is
widespread doubt that DCIPS, as implemented, will achieve that end. The extent to which these
survey results are influenced by the NDAA pause and DCIPS Interim–rather than DCIPS itself—
is unclear.
THE NGA EXPERIENCE TO DATE
NGA has more experience with performance-based compensation systems than any other DoD
intelligence component. In developing DCIPS, OUSD(I) benchmarked and adopted the basic
principles that NGA developed over the prior decade. In turn, NGA adopted the new design
features built into DCIPS and became the first agency to put the new system into place in 2008.
In terms of actual impact data, NGA’s experiences and data elements are key points of reference.
A core DCIPS premise is that it will strengthen the long-term ability of the DoD intelligence
components to achieve their missions. However, NGA has not collected data that could directly
connect its personnel system to organizational performance. Its officials point to indirect
measures indicating that performance measurement and employee perceptions have improved
under the performance-based system; they suggest this will result in improved organizational
performance over time. One example they cite is the significant reduction in the percentage of
annual ratings that are Excellent or Outstanding that occurred following DCIPS implementation,
illustrated in Figure 5.1.
170 Ibid. Questions 61, 63, 64.
171 Ibid. Questions 19, 69.
172 Ibid. Question 80.
173 Ibid. Questions 75, 76, 81.
174 Ibid. Questions 77, 78.
98