Taking Charge…

While writing self-assessments are a major part of your role as an employee under the NSPS, it is important to remember you must address the contributing factor as well. When you and your supervisor choose a contributing factor for each objective, you want to pick the contributing factor that is most useful in carrying out the objective. We recommend picking one contributing factor; as the more you pick, the more you will have to address in your self-assessment.

While you are rated on your objectives, you are also rated on use of the contributing factor. Thus, there needs to be a section in your self-assessment that describes how you used the contributing factor in carrying out the objective. A key is looking at the language for the accepted and enhanced levels of the contributing factor, then make decisions as to how you will carry out the Contributing Factor.  Then…carry it out throughout the year.  Finally, when you get to assessment time, you simply express what you did and how you used the Contributing Factor. 

If you’ve attended our workshops, you know the process we created—using the A.I.R. model—helps you to articulate how you used the contributing factor. However, regardless of the process that you use, the bottom line is spend the time to articulate how you carried out the contributing factor.

One of the major aspects we stress in our holistic workshop series for NSPS is to make certain that your objectives and self-assessment correspond with one another. Remember, when your performance plan goes up the ladder and eventually reaches the pay pool, they really have a simple agenda (albeit know simple task)…to ensure you did (or accomplished) what you said you were going to do—and in some cases may have exceeded.

Your outcome based objectives depict what you intend to accomplish over the next performance period. Your self-assessment is going to state what you actually accomplished, and in very straightforward and simple terms. The pay pool is first looking for the match between the objectives and self-assessment. If there isn’t a clear connection between the two, it makes it really hard to understand what you did and accomplished during the performance period, which inevitably puts you at a disadvantage.

You want to make it as simple as possible for the pay pool to understand what it is that you accomplished and what you said you were going to accomplish. The clearer the connection, the lesser room for error or basis in the rating you receive. You want your performance to speak for itself.

If you’ve attended any of our Taking Charge of NSPS Workshops, you know we are adamant in saying that writing strong self-assessments or objectives does not require fancy, poetic, or journalistic styled writing.  In fact the NSPS rules and pay pools don’t even expect that you write perfectly structured, grammatically correct sentences. Of course they want it to be clear and complete thoughts, but “great” writing is not what they are looking for.

What they ARE looking for is that you adequately express and articulate yourself so they can determine how well you performed.  We have coached plenty of people who have spent so much time focused on word-smithing that they lose any sense of brevity and practicality. Those who read it then think, it sounds really good, but what did they actually do or accomplish.

Your job in writing a self-assessment is to clearly and concisely articulate to the pay pool panel what you did and the results of your work. Put simply, you must describe how carrying out a task yielded results that added value or impact to the organization.

In our workshops, you may have heard us mention that NSPS is to you like the weather is to farmers. But, what can farmers do about the weather? Nothing, they just have to learn to work with the situation they are dealt. Well, this is exactly the situation that you are facing. NSPS is here and the best way to succeed is to learn to work with it, not against it.

The best way to begin under NSPS is to learn the system, it components, and especially to understand what the new rating scale now means. Under the NSPS rating system, a 3 is now considered a valued employee, which basically means you show up, do your job well, and it is commendable. Also, let me state upfront – there is nothing wrong with being a 3. But for many, being a 3 makes us feel as if our work is going unnoticed. Listen, going after a 4 or 5 rating is an awesome thing to do you should be and feel encouraged to do so; the “pursuit of excellence” is noble and great for the organization and you.  Yet, as a 3, you should realize that you did what was required of you and did it well.  So be proud of all your achievements be they rated at a 3, 4, or, 5. 

So, what do you need to do if you are aspiring to a 4 or 5 rating? To attain a 4 or 5 rating, you now have to stretch beyond the limits of doing your job well. You must surpass the expectations set forth.