NTEU Chapter 275 Newsletter

February 7, 2006

Pay for Performance

A conference call was conducted on February 2, 2006, to discuss the Pay for Performance (PFP) program that was negotiated as a part of the latest compensation agreement. Steve Keller, the NTEU lead negotiator provided the training. The three hour conference call included training and the opportunity to ask Mr. Keller questions concerning the PFP process and the compensation agreement. There are a number of items to keep in mind when preparing your accomplishment reports to the PFP process and responding to management's comments included in your PFP. The following is an overview of the training and hopefully will answer some of your questions concerning the process.

Why did NTEU agree to change to a PFP program? NTEU wanted a program that places more emphasis on how the employee does their job rather than on non-job related factors such as details, etc.
The PFP is a hybrid process that consists of 3 components:
Performance criteria - former PMP form evaluation criteria with numeric ratings of 1 - 5, with 5 being the best and the one being the worse)
Corporate Contributions – former CSA criteria (supervisor checks the boxes of each of the 4 components that are applicable to the employee)
Narrative by Supervisor discussing employee’s total performance.

When the form is completed, it is then presented to the employee, and the employee has a chance to write a narrative to include items that may have been left out or to enhance what was written by the supervisor.

After the employee reviews the form and has a chance to write his/her narrative, the form is sent for review by a reviewing official and then to the Division Director or designee.

When the form is signed off on by all parties, the employee ranking is determined. The PFP Group Assignment is determined based on the ranking. The employee is placed into one of four groups, which determines the employee’s pay raise for the year. The universe of employees to be used in the grouping is by region.

Payout levels:	Group 1	5% plus 1% lump sum
	Group 2	3.2% plus 1% lump sum
	Group 3	2.4%
	Group 4	0%

The lump sum will be based on the old salary.

Group 1 consists of the employees ranked in the top 25% of the employee’s universe.

Group 2 consists of employees ranked below the lowest ranked Group 1 employee; the total of Group 2 will not exceed 50% of the total employees in the employee’s universe.

Group 3 consists of the employees ranked in the bottom 25% of the employee’s universe.

Group 4 consists of employee’s that do not meet expectations in their PMP (usually less than 1% of employees corporate-wide).

The FDIC developed 26 PFP forms to cover the various job categories in the FDIC. A copy of the form for Commissioned Examiners is attached for your review. The numeric ratings are the same on all forms. The numeric ratings and definitions are:
1. - Consistently performs below expectations
2. - Satisfies expectations
3. - Consistently meets and often exceeds expectations
4. - Frequently exceeds and sometimes far exceeds expectations
5. - Consistently exceeds and often far exceeds expectations
Accomplishment reports - Everyone should complete an accomplishment report and provide it to your supervisor. Time period for your Accomplishment report is November 1, 2004 thru December 31, 2005. When completing the Accomplishment report use verbiage and language included on the PFP forms (same as the former PMP and CSA criteria). It is recommended that you complete more than a laundry list of your assignments as you have done in the past. Many of you have already been asked to submit your Accomplishment report. NTEU Lead Negotiator Steve Keller stated that you submit an addendum to the original Accomplishment report using the tips provided in this paragraph.
Narrative response on your PFP from your supervisor - take the opportunity to respond if you feel the entire scope of your work was not included, or if it is not clearly stated. Use the opportunity to clarify and explain your work; do not be argumentative or controversial, as the final reviewing official will be reviewing your comments. Your goal is to convince the final reviewing official that your accomplishments are deserving of a higher ranking. You cannot do that by attacking your supervisor or the PFP process.

The average pay raise under the new compensation contract is 4.2% which is approximately the same as the previous contract.

Calculation:	Group 1:	5.0% plus 1.0% lump sum = 6.0%
	Group 2:	3.2% plus 1.0% lump sum = 4.2%
	Group 3:	2.4% = 2.4%

		6.0% + 4.2% + 2.4% = 12.6 / 3 = 4.2%

The 4.2% is considerably higher than the 2.1% 2006 pay raise received by the General Schedule Federal employees. The General Schedule Federal employees did receive a 1.0% locality pay increase as a part of their 2006 pay raise. The NTEU will begin locality pay negotiations with the FDIC around April of this year, to see if a better system is available to address the locality pay concerns.

Career ladder provision - A lump sum payment was negotiated for career ladder employees. Further negotiations are expected to clarify if a lump sum or a % increase is better. In some cases the % increase is better for the employee.
Going forward the evaluations will be based on the calendar year.
If your pay increase pushes you above the scale, the balance will be paid in a lump sum. The scale was pushed up this year by 6%; this should enable the majority of employees to have the increase included in their salary.
This program was projected to be put in place by PP4, at this time it appears that the payouts will not be made until PP7. Adjustments (interest) and retroactive pay will be used to account for this delay.

If you have any questions please let me know. Hopefully, we will be able to have a training session before the accomplishment reports need to be submitted, but do not wait to submit the reports and lose the opportunity to submit all info that you want considered for your PFP.

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