By Daniel Friedman
Federal Times
February 22, 2007

The massive Defense Civilian Personnel Data System helps process paper. Now Pentagon human resources officials want it to inform policy.

With information on 800,000 civilians and more than 500,000 personnel rules embedded in its processes, the system is the world’s biggest personnel database, said Brad Bunn, director of the Defense Department’s Civilian Personnel Management Service.

Based on Oracle software, the data system automates virtually all human resources processes, from recruiting to benefits to separations.

“It’s hire-to-fire and everything in between,” Bunn said in a Feb. 13 presentation at the Human Capital Management for Defense conference in Arlington, Va.

The system is run by about 450 employees and about 200 contractors, who also help create Pentagon civilian recruitment strategy and provide advice to field managers at Defense components on areas such as evaluations, investigations and unemployment compensation.

Planned in the early 1990s and launched departmentwide in 2002, the system struggled early on with bugs, in part due to the elimination of about half the senior staff positions in the HR information technology division, according to Bunn.

But problems have leveled off, he said. And “now that we have made sure things work, we want to find a new role for HR personnel. ... Rather than just being the back-room processors of things and paper, we want to get a seat at the table for the overall mission.”

The system can provide a snapshot of the department’s civilians, spitting out data on demographics and qualifications. The capability also exists to allow HR officials to project work-force trends, Bunn said. While HR hasn’t yet used the system to make such projections, doing so would give managers actionable information as they recruit and plan for an expected wave of retirements by senior employees, he said.

The military services are already producing such information on their own civilian employees, Bunn noted, but he said the job is harder at the department level because of the number of civilians and the diversity of their jobs.

Potential products include reports on compensation trends and surveys on levels of satisfaction with various aspects of the workplace.

“We’re sitting on this huge gold mine of data and we’re just now beginning to tap into it to inform human resources policy decisions,” Bunn said.

Through its self-service function, launched in June, the system allows employees to update their information. It also lets managers access data on their subordinates.

Those who complete a language course can update the information on their language skills. And eventually, authorized officials could conduct searches for employees adept in particular languages, such as Farsi, Bunn said.

For employees under the National Security Personnel System, the system can allow managers and employees to share information about performance online. According to a slide show accompanying Bunn’s presentation, the system “supplements face-to-face conversations.”

Bunn said automated performance reviews will “allow us to do the analysis that we need to do to determine if NSPS is doing what it’s supposed to be doing.”

Rolling out the data system also helped Defense consolidate HR offices. That process can serve as a model for civilian agencies making comparable changes, Bunn said.

And the system provides a template for a similar system being developed for all military personnel.

Eventually the civilian system could be consumed by the even-larger military system, the Defense Integrated Military Human Resources System, Bunn said. But for now, HR officials assume the civilian system will continue to operate independently.

Bunn said the department will likely expand the system and may include functions like payroll and a system to manage job training.

(Archives)