August 5, 2019
CRANE, Ind. – Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) was recognized with a 2018 Department of the Navy (DON) Human Resources (HR) and Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Community Award for Excellence. NSWC Crane’s Human Resources team received the Team Impact award for converting nearly one-third of the workforce from General Schedule (GS) to the NAVSEA Warfare Center Personnel Demonstration (Demo) project in less than six months.
Jacob Strange, a Branch Manager at NSWC Crane, says the award represents the dedication of the HR team.
“It is an unprecedented thing to have that mass of a conversion at one time,” says Strange. “This award speaks to the team involved in executing the conversion. The award means a great deal to the team. This was an additional task on top of their roles; people were putting in extra hours and work to ensure the conversion went as rapidly and smoothly as possible.”
The remaining two-thirds of Crane’s workforce was already using the Demo pay-for-performance system prior to the conversion.
Tom Super, the President of the local American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), says a newer evaluation system was becoming more common within the Department of Defense (DoD). The union decided to give their members at Crane the option and vote on their preference.
“The benefit of switching to the Demo pay scale is it can be easier to recognize people for their performance,” says Super. “On the GS evaluation system, it could take an employee longer in their career to reach a certain level of pay. On the Demo system, it can take a lot less time for an employee to reach their full performance potential. Employees have more incentive and high performers can now be rewarded.”
Super says the union worked alongside HR in order to educate the workforce about the impact of the different systems so they could make an informed decision.
“This was a joint effort and HR and the union worked together quickly,” says Super. “We held several all-hands briefings and met with every branch and division. We were able to get the information to the workforce so they had what they needed to make a decision.”
Strange says converting the remaining workforce to create a single pay system created efficiencies for the entire organization. He says he was blown away by the efforts made by the team to make the workforce conversion a success.
“It seemed insurmountable,” says Strange. “The team pulled it together and did what they needed to get it done. I can’t thank them enough for not only their effort, but also the quality of their effort.”
NSWC Crane is a naval laboratory and a field activity of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) with mission areas in Expeditionary Warfare, Strategic Missions and Electronic Warfare. The warfare center is responsible for multi-domain, multi- spectral, full life cycle support of technologies and systems enhancing capability to today's Warfighter.