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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Too often, management will purposely neglect work and fudge numbers in order to make their numbers look better just to receive a nice PFP bonus. This system is flawed… it needs some sort of checks and balances.
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This is the first time I’ve ever publicly said anything about this occurance.
June 2004. Everyone was trying to protect the country’s National assets.
My specialty is telecommunications ET 2. 30 years
wireless Civil Defense (doing wireless long-long before wireless was a household word.
I was assigned to producing a Continuity of Government
(COG) plan for my Agency.
I around spent six weeks creating this (COG) plan. (all very “hush-hush)
I found enough of holes the security of the campus system, if it were a combat platoon protecting turf, an enemy could have driven an entire division thru it, and nobody would have noticed.
My boss badgered me about my assignment. So I submitted the progress of my work to him.
Within several days later he had the IT Manager of
Information Systems delete the work from the server’s.
When I questioned him in his office, as to the status of the work, he replied “I had it destroyed, it would make “us” look bad.”
I resigned several weeks later.
He and the Bureau Director got their bonus’s though…
Take that, and stick it up you’re PfP!!!!!!!!!!!!
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The first year of this, everyone of us were broght into the office and told we were ALL being given the same goals so as to foster a team environment. Funny how that with the same goals, every person in that plant that year got 8%, except me and one other, whom only got 3%. No explanation other than it was ordered from above, and no recourse either. Since then, I have had my scores arbitrarily lowered and seen the goals change midstream when it looked like they might be met. Last year, one goal that was landing in the exceptional category for 11 months suddenly became a “4″ at the end of the year. Right now, I have had NO increase for 2 years. I don’t expect to receive one this year either. I came back from a detail and was forced to accept (no discussion) goals that are IMPOSSIBLE to attain. Meanwhile, the pets (good-ole boys) somehow manage to get good scores, even though I see their offices show up on reports all the time as underperforming. There needs to be a more fair, objective way to do this.
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So OIG inspectors…
What are you guys going to do when 95% of people think this program is a fraud?
We are sick and tired of being treated like… you fill in the dots.
Craft employees calling PFP a bonus make you look like bunch of … so stop calling it bonus.
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Simply put, PFP is easily manipulated by Senior Management. How can you go from getting a pay increase, then nothing at the stroke of the District Manager. Someone who does not know me from a hole in the wall. Lets just go back under the Federal Government and all be placed on the GS pay scale with timed step increases.
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PFP has not worked since the inception. Nobody really understands it. Reviews are not true reviews, they are just we have to get this done. Goals are arbitrary and never discussed properly. They also change month to month with flexes in our budgets. Some goals are unattainable. The measurement system for things like delivery confirmation are not accurate. I cannot stand it! horrible system.
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This system is broken. We are given unattainable budgets. Your budget is flexed no less than quarterly. This program was not to be based on numbers. That is all that it is and if you happen to make your number your manager comes along and knocks you down during your so called reveiw. I have written the same goals for the last two years no one reads this stuff. It is all about pushing you to get it done so your manager can pass it off to the next manager. IT IS A JOKE!!!
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The PFP process could have worked well if there had not been “ORDERS” from upper level management (HQ, VP’s, DM’s, etc) to keep the payouts low. How do I know? I was told so by a DM.
This system is commonly called a bonus and it isn’t. We gave up COLA’s and step increases for it.
One way or another, it needs to get fixed.
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Management doesn’t follow their own rules (no face to face meetings, assigning goal instead of collaborating on them, arbitrarilly lowering scores and of course the blatant favoritism).
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Managers are complaining about not receiving their PFP bonuses? They are call the system unfair and that the rules are changed mid-stream. Wow! welcome to the world of the rural carrier. Every year for 2 weeks, our mail is counted to determine our pay for the following year. It amazes me that the managers who conduct our counts are crying foul.Part of the goals set for the PFP surely include reducing salaries of the rural carrier.Have a postmasters salary set by counting for two weeks out of the year, how many times they answer the phone, wait on a customer, read a service talk. etc.Make sure that it’s the slowest time of the year and make sure to change the rules governing the count every year.My heart bleeds for the postmaster’s PFP program. Stuff rolls down hill… and unfortunately the carrier is at the bottom.
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I am a Postmaster of level 15 Post Office in a small town. I care very much about my office. I have a busy office but I have not been able to reach the goals set for my office, and therefore I have not received a pay raise for the past two years. I was not consulted when the goals were set for my office. I have been given less and less hours to operate and it just can not be achieved, and of course I am expected to generate more revenue each year. I can not drag people in and force them to buy more than they can afford to spend. I think that the pay for performance is very unfair!
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The system is unfair when you could make your goals they got changed or your score was lowered had 2 different pooms say if you challange this in recourse remember it comes to me first!!!! I was put on a detail for 3 1/2 months in a level 20 office by myself minus the 2 supervisors, worked 72 hrs a week and got paided for 40 and of course we dont want you working off the clock but NO T TIME if you did’nt worked 6 days at 12 a day you would be in trouble for leaving 40 plus with no management. PS I recieved no raise that was my reward but all upper management got one.
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The system is a sham. Friends pay friends and it is the truth. I can make my goals only for the final numbers to be changed so I did not make my goals. Others make the goals and receive raises. If I’m making my goals at mid year they change them so at the end of the year I fail. I’m at the end of my career and have lost income that I actully earned, the numbers on my PFP were changed to take it away.It has a long snowball effect. Social Security less, Thrift plan contribution less, retirement income less. Why has no one been prosecuted for this fraud?
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The PFP is a defective system that allows upper management to arbitrarily change goals mid-year, lower scores for Communication, thereby reducing the overall rating of the individual, etc. The service should go back to the step increases for management. Folks that I supervise in the craft are making more than I am with no headaches, micromanagement, or being berated by superiors. In addition, no goals are attainable, especially workhour goals. There is no way that I can make a workhour budget that only allows for 86% of my base workhours. If people just come to work (as they are required/expected to do) my budget is blown – just like my chances for getting a raise. Entirely unfair!
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As a military veteran and 32 year Postal employee, I have never seen a more dishonest and unfair pay raise system. Despite an unblemished record of outstanding performance and high ratings, I have received the lowest possible raise for several years and an actual zero raise last year, despite meeting all of my goals and being an excellent performer. To add insult to injury I was also discriminated against by an unscrupulous evaluator.
I have been saying for years that PFP, even when administered correctly, potentially allows the worst supervisor in the USPS to get a 12% pay raise and the best supervisor zero. This is possible because much of your rating depends not on what you personally achieve but on what the larger performance cluster or assigned functional entity achieved. This is beyond the individuals control.
PFP was designed to prevent the individual evaluator from having too much influence to unfairly rate an employees performance, since the rating is derived from a variety of factors and not just one opinion. This system however has proved to be even more prone to evaluator and upper management abuse since giving someone a 0% raise no longer requires documented justification as it did under the previous system, and arbitrary rating ceilings are imposed.
The only fair pay system is a step within grade as we previously had, which allows for pay raises over time unless documented poor performance, or exceptional performance deems otherwise. This type of system works for the USPS craft, the Postal Inspectors and most other GS except for the many of us EAS employees who are the victims of PFP fraud.
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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 .
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The overall tone of the comments indicate that the PFP program is a big failure.
Here is a solution that each one can personally achieve and feel better about instead of bitter.
To all the posters, visitors and EAS: If for all your hard work you have been underrated or worse received a zero, retaliate. Work at the commensurate level awarded instead of chasing your tail.
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The Potter Business Plan did not work. All it did was create a bunch of $200K executives positions, but not employees to give customer service. No wonder customers complain the no body answers the phone. They are right. There is no one to answer the phone. There are a minimum of clerks to work mail in the morning, minimum carriers to deliver the mail plus take other routes to deliver, minimum clerks for the window counter and a minimum amount of supervisors to complete all the mandated “PROCESSES” the the $200K executives have created. The USPS is about DATA. There is no service or humanity. All the upper leadership promote sheep people, that will cut down every one in there path, except for the girlfriends/boyfriends that they are promoting. That’s right, this is what is happening. Upper Management is running ramped with POWER. An nobody is doing anything about it. Not the OIG, not the Postal Inspection, not Congress. Numbers are manipulated to make goals and then those people get a promotion. It a joke. If you are honest and have integrity with your numbers you get demoted. But is anybody checking to make sure this is not happening. Of course not, because the cheaters and liars are also given better budgets and more people, resources to make sure they look good. Every one else is just given enough to fail. Everyone knows this is happening. Thats why we are not allowed to see other offices data. We would be able to collect the evidence against all the cheaters and liars, (which are the upper leaderships boyfriends and girlfriends.
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One of the things I did not mention on my original post is the “threat” factor that managers used on virtually every email communication describing that “failure could impact your NPA.” Unfortunately, their threats ring hollow after they arbitrarily change goals during the year and at years end. The EAS is not even allowed to NOT participate as a result of the unfairness of the process without receiving discipline. This should be eliminated as a hammer over the EAS head.
The other pertinent factor is the sham of NO PAY increase throughout a year. What system in the Federal Government punishes their management staff [team?] by having them forego a pay increase without it be denied as a result of discipline or documented poor performance?
The last pertinent factor remains just as problematical are the times that an EAS falls behind the original goals [not to mention the flexes] they realize they will not be able to make it. Consequently, what is their motivation to continue to strive for a higher level during the year?
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I am an OIG employee. It seems that the OIG has been attempting to change and refine it’s PFP process, as it encounters the same pitfalls that has plagued the Postal EAS PFP system. To that end, I applaude the OIG. Unfortunately, the OIG has not been sucessful. The system is full of inequties, subjectivity, and gross violations of it’s own guidelines.
I have a very specialized job, yet I have been grouped together with. higher paid, and favored position employees, in such a way that I could never get a fair evaluation. My score has been created, based on Field Office scores. Those Field Office scores are based on goal criteria that I have no control over. I have been denied a fair score based on an arbitrary ceiling, again based on the low Field Office score of the previous year. This was, in fact a violation of the OIG’s own guidelines. Are you going to challenge unfair treatment to a director or manager 2 to 3 levels higher than yourself, and take on faith that you will be heard and treated fairly in the future? Probably not.
The PFP system was devised so that the hard working would be rewarded, and the favoritism and bias would be eliminated. As the world of computing has taught us, every security measure is followed by a hacker, trying to undermine it. Every attempt to help, can be exploited, especially those that are poorly thought out. I don’t know if the system can be fixed or not. I do not think that it should be continually amended and overflowed with changes. That’s what legislatures do to fix flawed legisltion, and we see what that gets us. Personally, I would be happy to go back to a GS style, where I got tha same as the next guy, and I would let the feedback I get from my customers be the reward for my extra efforts.
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