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NSPS Ending One Cycle, Planning the Next One

As you might already know, September and October are important times in the performance management cycle. Employees and supervisors are ending one cycle and planning for the next one.

The Department of Defense recently announced the release of the Performance Appraisal Application 3.0 (PAA v3.0), which will go live on September 28th, 2008. This plan is being created to assist employees and supervisors in creating performance plans for 2009’s fiscal year.

An interactive overview of PAA v3.0 is available online to provide users with an early look at the tool’s modifications and enhanced features.

Beginning September 28, 2008, PAA will be available in two versions:

• PAA v2.0 is used to complete FY08 annual appraisal activities (available through March 2009)

• PAA v3.0 is used to build FY09 performance plans

You are encouraged to hold off working on your FY09 performance plan within the PAA until September 28, 2008. If you have already started your FY09 performance plan in PAA v2.0, do not worry, there is no loss of information. Your information will be available in PAA v3.0, under Plans in Progress.

Why do it this way?

We recognize that the end of the fiscal year can be stressful. Using v2.0 allows you to accomplish your activities using a familiar tool – the one you started with – while still taking advantage of the v3.0 enhancements as soon as possible.

PAA v3.0 enhancements include:

• A new look and feel with tabs that display key tasks in the order they are performed.

• The ability to copy plans from year to year.

• Improved copy and paste functionality that converts most MS Word format characters.

• An improved character counter that provides an accurate count of the number of characters entered or pasted.

• An enhanced Email notification process that provides employees, rating officials and higher level reviewers status information within the email.

• Easy and standardized approvals and acknowledgement processes for establishing plans and conducting interim reviews and appraisals.

• A Track Progress page that lets you know where you are in the performance management process.

• Assessment by Job Objective that allows employees and rating officials to enter an assessment for each job objective, rather than in one block as is done in v2.0.

To help you become familiar with v3.0, we created Introducing PAA v3.0 – Establishing a Performance Plan a self-paced presentation of the application, including how to create and approve a performance plan.

Need more information? Visit the NSPS Training Center