Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 10:45

Subject: NSPS - Spiral 1.3 Implementation Date Changed (b.u.)

This excerpt is from the Official NSPS Website.  Note in RED below that our Spiral 1.3 Implementation Date has been moved from Oct 2006 to Jan 2007. 

NSPS Implementation Planning January 17, 2006: The Department has been focused on NSPS transition preparations over the past few months. This includes a wide variety of activities and events including working on the implementing issuances, soft skills training for the workforce, and aligning individual performance objectives with mission needs and measurable outcomes.  Major undertakings were piloting training classes and preparing instructors to teach the NSPS basics to all employees, managers, and supervisors, plus collaborating with the unions on implementing issuances. The PEO received much feedback that led us to conclude we need more time to focus on simplifying the performance management design, getting performance objectives right, and ensuring the system is simple, clear,and understandable. The PEO advised the Components to press ahead on theircommunication, alignment of strategic plans/goals with performanceobjectives, and soft skill training initiatives, but put January NSPS-specific content training on hold, including the train-the-trainer sessions until mid-March 2006, with one exception. The PEO asked the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Headquarters to validate the training in a representational environment and serve as the DoD training pilot.  DoD chose NAVSEA because they are well-positioned given their many years of experience in performance management demonstration projects such as the "Lab" and Acquisition Demo projects. The pilot will provide an opportunity to evaluate the methodologies, products, and practices in a realistic setting, and make adjustments to the training.  NSPS deployment is impacted as follows:

* Spiral 1.1, downsized to approximately 11,000 employees, beginsApril 30, 2006. The rating cycle will extend through October 2006 and the NSPS payout will occur in January 2007. The Components and DoD agencies identified the NSPS-ready organizations in this group.

* Spiral 1.2 begins October 1, 2006 and Spiral 1.3 begins January 2007. The Components and DoD agencies are identifying activities participating in each of these spirals.  DoD is committed to making the NSPS transition as smooth as possible for the workforce. Ensuring that we "take the time to do this right" has always been a principle in our event-driven implementation approach. We want to make sure that our employees, supervisors, and leaders fully understand this system, and that they have the tools to succeed.