Compensation packages

Senior civilian Defense Department personnel who work in science and technology and are frequent recruitment targets for private-sector companies now have a clearer way of getting better compensation from the government.

The White House Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management recently clarified the way in which those civilian personnel can get bonuses for jobs well done.

In a December 2015 executive order, "the President stated that starting in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 agencies should limit their aggregate spending on agency performance awards for SES and SL/ST employees to 7.5 percent," an Aug. 12 OMB/OPM joint memo states. "Prior to 2010, there was no spending limit on SL/ST performance awards and the statutory limit of 10 percent applied to SES performance awards. The President also stated that agencies should grant awards in a manner that provides meaningfully greater rewards to top performers."

The Aug. 12 memo "advises that agencies should allocate awards made under the new recommended limit to be able to reward and retain more top performers by: providing substantial monetary awards for the very best SES and SL/ST performers; and allowing more variance of award amounts among rating levels, which is a common attribute of pay-for-performance systems."