What’s the best way to encourage good performance? Employers have always struggled with this question. One answer is to pay employees based on how well they perform their jobs. Many private sector employers have adopted pay-for-performance (PFP) programs, and several federal agencies have also experimented with PFP. Some federal PFP programs have operated successfully for many years; others have been more controversial. Last year, Congress terminated a PFP program at the Defense Department. Employees complained that the program was arbitrary and lacked transparency. Clearly, designing a successful PFP program is not always easy.
Loading ...The Postal Service adopted an annual PFP program in 2003. PFP is the only source of annual pay adjustments for Postal Service non-bargaining employees. Employees and their managers review targets and expectations at the beginning of the year. During the year, managers provide feedback to employees through mid-year performance reviews. Then, at the end of the year, employees receive a rating.
For most employees, the rating is based on a combination of their individual accomplishments and how well certain targets have been met by the unit, district, area, or the Postal Service as a whole. The employee’s position determines the choice of targets included. For example, the rating for a postmaster of a small Post Office would be based on factors such as how well Post Offices in his or her group met revenue and expense targets and how well the district met delivery performance goals.
The Postal Service’s PFP program has won awards and been cited by other organizations as a model to emulate, but there have been some criticisms. Some of the factors on which an employee is evaluated may be outside the employee’s immediate control. Given the Postal Service’s current financial condition and the drop in mail volume, it can be difficult for even high-performing employees to receive an increase.
What do you think? What makes for a good system of rewarding performance?
This topic is hosted by the OIG’s Risk Analysis Research Center (RARC).
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The reality is many workplaces just give everyone the average and you end up with bad feelings all around. If you do give the derserving party a good score the rest feel like they weren’t given a fair shake. Your better off with steps and some sort of awards program that provides cash incentive for specific instances of superior work that are hard for anyone to argue with.
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I can’t speak for HQ employees, but EAS employees in the field deplore PFP. But since it’s the only way to get any kind of pay increase we’re not only stuck with it, we end up playing the games. [At least with the MPOO average revenue score we're no longer pirating revenue from our neighboring offices--I hated that particular game.] The recent trend is hilarious–or, more accurately, ludicrous. Those who clearly meet our objective targets are rated subjectively at a substantially lower rate than what our objective accomplishment has been. Last year the AVP even let it be known that we couldn’t receive a higher score on our core requirements than what our district got for the corporate goals. In other words, while lots of us can be below average, none of us can possibly be above average. Maybe that’s meant to be symbolic of all management in today’s Postal Service. I suppose that those of us who like to think we’re above average will just continue to look for inventive ways to play the PFP games.
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Lou-”A craft employee will get 2 to 3 times as much just in their annual contractual raises and COLA’s, so stop whining.”
Those who can’t do, become bosses. Those who can’t be bosses become managers. Nobody forces anybody to accept a “promotion” to the managerial ranks. If the sole premise of accepting a EAS position is financial, one should have stayed in PS craft.
If holding a EAS position with PFP dissatisfies one, contact your Human Resources manager and request to downgrade to a PS craft position.
No whining necessary.
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Supervisors and managers are rewarded for what the craft employee does. They squeze an harress to get more work out of their employees. They do not care about service. The employees doing the actual work gets nothing.[except maybe an addition to their route].This causes promblems between workers and management. One of the worst progams the postal service ever came up with.
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Its your job to perform well.If you dont perform find someone that will.
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The USPS Pay For Performance is a failure.
Congress should follow suit of the Defense Dept and terminate the USPS PFP program.
It stifles individualism and ones opportunities for high achievement. It reenforces group thinking and is used to force conformity.
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The program is only designed to give large payouts to the execs and nothing more.
It pits management against management and management against employees.
The program is also manipulated by senior management to reduce pay-out to field managers and supervisors.
The program needs to go. it is too self serving for the execs.
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they make their salary and its pretty good that should be it. they don’t even touch the mail its against their contract. the ratio is 7-1 managers to employees.that is why we are going out of business.
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Several problems with PFP.
1) It is misunderstood. Craft empoyees & the general public think PFP is a “bonus” system.
2) PFP is graded on things way beyond the manager’s control. I get a budget for 7.2 hours per full time employee per day. There is no way to make that budget unless I can talk each employee to take .8 LWOP per day. I also can do nothing about my employees being on FMLA sick leave for child birth, surgeries & dependent care. Add one more to the list. I can’t help that the transmission goes out of an LLV but it negatively impacts my TOE. If I am going to be held accountable for that then give me full control of LLV maintenance. I can get an oil change cheaper than the $450 round trip towing bill I get for every LLV every few months just for routine service.
3)Manipulation – PFP goals are manipulated with the target sometimes moving during the year.
PFP would be a great thing if the objectives were reasonable and within the control of the manager. As long I have 7.2 hours budgeted for every 8 hour guarantee employee I am going to be in the hole.
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District & Area executives (PCES) manipulate system for their benefit & make it extremely difficult for EAS to reach goals. Goals are made unrealistic. Many manager/supervisors are dead in the water before day one of the FY. They also change goals in midstream. No consultation with effected employees.
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Pay for Performance is a joke because only supervisors and Managers get the “Bonus”, not the carriers are craft workers who are actually doing the work. The system is designed to benefit those who work hard and do excellent work, that does not apply to upper Management at all as they are only Mis-managing. That only creates an atmosphere of Violence in The Workplace where Management is dictating orders & harrasing people to meet there PFP goal. The craft workers are doing the “real” work, they are the ones who need to be rewarded. Eliinate the waste in Management and the Postal Service will never be in debt again!
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From the very beginning of Pfp, EVA, the backstabbing of one supervisor to another really got bad. I believe tha this is why Vinnie had disagreed with the other Associations but he did not take it any farther, What this has done upto this date is opened up the good Ole Boys and Girls club, who even as shown did nothing to deserve their ratings but yet got better ratings than others who worked their butts off.
The most important thing that it did was to take away a livelyhood of some EAS employees. They took money away from them that they really didn’t deserve happen to them. The loss of this money could never be made up and ruin many EAS’s retirement. It actually lowered their retirement fund by taking away the step increases.
EVA/PFP in other Federal Agency was strictly a year end bonus and did not have any effect on their step increases, thus their retirement was exactly what it should have been. I could go on but you all get the drift of what I am saying.
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How can there be pay for performance when there is no performance!! Absolutely no accountability to begin with , given instructions from the next level of no performance who received instructions from the next upper level of no performance , etc . Management/Supervisor is an absolute JOKE !! A recent article in a local newspaper addressed how Federal workers receive raises based on seniority and not because they actually know what they are doing . Every day I walk by my Stupavisors desk and say ” There’s $156,000 that could be saved ” 2 positions to watch max. 4 FSM nachines at a time . Nothing but glorified babysitters that sign leave slips and warn you about your sick leave .Both have been “Supervisors” for over 25 years and still can’t figure out how to give out overtime !They are totally clueless about their operations but what I have finally come to grips with is that “It just does’nt matter”
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Rules and goals are changed without any discussion. These changes take place months after the goals are set with only a few months left in the year.
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Since the inception of NPA/PFP I have never, I repeat “NEVER”, had a one-on-one meeting. Rather, I have been “given” goals. And “EVERY” year I have had blocks arbitrarily lowered. I have utilized e-Recourse, which is another joke, to no avail as USPS HQ refuses to address the inequities perpetrated by its managers. USC Title 39 has several sections dealing with equitable pay for EAS. USC Title 39 has been willfully violated by the USPS in regards to NPA/PFP in the Southwest Area, which is a violation of Federal Law, and certain portions of higher management need to be charged in criminal court for violating Federal Law. And USPS HQ needs to face criminal prosecution for failing to meet with NAPS as per USC Title 39.
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PFP is an insult to the “grunts” who really “pull the lead wagon.” Same ole, same ole, that’s the new American way in industry, there are those who do the work, and those who get dispprotionately rewarded, and they ain’t the same………………Now, get back the work!
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PFP is a scam. Not a bonus? Whatever tag is put on it, it remains that it is extra pay for others’ performance. First management should be required to do a day’s work for a day’s pay. The PO would not be in the hole that it is in if that were required. Sitting at a computer playing games, leaving early, etc should NOT be tolerated, let alone rewarded. The only way to get a raise in pay? Try the rural carrier system — getting less pay after each mail count which amounts to thousands of dollars. See what that does to your high 3 for retirement. Management does less work for more pay and then grumbles that it is still not enough.
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Sirs, I think that “Pay for Performance” has been an unmitigated disaster. The system for reporting has no accountability factor and the numbers are are falsified from the bottom up. If everyone from the initial level supervisor to the Area Manager gets raises based on a given set of figures, what incentive is there for anyone to challenge them if they believe the numbers are wrong. The human factor says that you must reach a saturation at some point, where the figures table off as the carriers and the clerks are at their most efficient and can not beat SPLY.
Also, there is something else to consider. If all the areas are working at approximately the same rate of speed and efficiency, whatever the average, how can one Area Manager get a bonus that is far above the average; as in the case of the Western Area? Either he/she is an extraordinary individual with superior leadership and motivational skills or there are other factors not being considered.
As for the employees, the P4P program has drivien morale and the work atmosphere down dramatically. Nothing, is ever good enough. Managers now live for their bonuses, service standards have dropped to the point where many of the senior employees do not recognize the job they started with.
If you want to redress this situation start with managerial non-accountability.
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Can the Postal IG honestly show where there is one person in management who has actually made the right choice where it was the best one and not one where it affected his bottom line? Management wouldn’t care if the mail was thrown away as long as the person wasn’t caught or got hurt doing it. When we are told to delay mail to make cutoff, yeah the right choice is made. Where our start times are changed because the same amount of clerks can’t get us the mail on time(since the volume has supposedly dropped), yeah safety isn’t important. When HQ thinks a Postmaster needs a 5 star room in Aspen, give me a break.
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The rating is not set on individual accomplishments, but rather facility or district. For the most part supervisor are told what their individual cores are and not allowed to choose or discuss their individual core with their evaluator. Most supervisors do not receive a midyear or end of year discussion. Most supervisors do not understand the PFP rules and do not know how to defend their positions. This program has ran its course and has been a grave injustice for most EAS employees.
Every year I have to fight for less and less of a pay increase, and I am aware there are people who have not received a pay increase for years. They do not speak up due to the lack of understanding of the PFP program. This year I had to bring to the attention of my MDO, Plant Manager, and NAPS representative an error in the calculation of a unit core effecting all SDO, because in violation of the PFP rules we were all give the same core. To keep a long story short the number was adjusted at midyear.
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