Performance Plans

First as a Division, the decision was made to standardize the Performance Plans. This is a good idea because, my feeling is that most people were working of of their old performance plans that have just gone unchanged over time. So each time a new person was hired some effort was poured in to create a performance plan that was reasonable for the position to be filled. The problem is that they weren't adjusted every year and that people in the same branch with identical positions likely have very different performance plans, especially if they were hired more than 2 years apart.

Thus the decision was made to standardize the performance plans within the division. This was such a good idea that the decision was made to actually standardize them for the entire office. This is reasonable because everyone who works in OIT will generally have the same basic elements, but they can be tailored to the actual position and grade.

Thus everyone has a Civil Rights element. Everyone also has a Leadership, Mission Support, Communications, Customer Service, and COR/COTR. My part was to help shape the COR/COTR element. For the standard I really spent some time focusing on the parts that everyone must do regardless of the situation. So, everyone must keep his or her certification current. Everyone must complete the financial disclosure, so that we can avoid organizational conflicts of interest. Everyone must keep a copy of his or her designation letter. Background Investigations are initiated for new contract personnel. Review invoices etc.

I also worked to make the standards objective. ACMIS is the system that we use to track required training and certifications. Most of the rest is paper or records that should be easily produced. The next part for me was to assemble the pieces for what "Exceeds" that standard. I wrote in aspects of the work like chairing technical evaluation panels, developing work statements, mentoring more junior acquisition personnel and debriefing unsuccessful bidders.

Anyway, I found this to be a very satisfying experience because for everyone in my office, here is one part of your performance in which it is completely objective, or at least as objective as anything can be.