By MC2 Nathan K. Serpico

NPS’ Human Resources Office staff continue their hard work to ensure all NPS civilian employees are ready for the university’s upcoming switch to the new DOD Performance Management and Appraisal System, called DPMAP, to be implemented on Oct. 1 of this year. DPMAP is DOD-mandated, enterprise-wide, and stresses the importance of communication, performance and accountability.

“DPMAP is going to help us foster a culture of high performance, to reward employees for the good work they do, and to hold both employees and supervisors accountable for the work that they do,” said Kenneth Stewart, Labor Relations Specialist in the NPS Human Resources Office. “It’s important for all of our employees that will be affected by this new system to understand how it works and why this system will be better than previous performance evaluation systems.”

Employees attending the training can expect to be well-versed in DPMAP by the end of the day, HR officials say. Instructors will lead training over a multitude of topics such as barriers to communication and high performance; the relationship between smart, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely (SMART) standards and performance elements; and, the need for continuous feedback, effective monitoring and objective evaluations. Attendees will also learn about the benefits of performance-based rewards offered throughout the year.

Training will continue until every civilian employee at NPS is certified prior to the system being implemented, Stewart says, and the team needs more employees to step up and attend upcoming sessions to meet this goal.

“We are currently averaging about 50 employees per session, but we would like to see classes of between 100 to 150 people,” said Stewart. “It was initially a 16-hour training, but we have been able to reduce redundancy in the training to the point that the average course has been cut down to about six hours in duration. We know people’s time is valuable and we want to take up as little of it as possible while still ensuring that everyone is properly trained up on the new system.”

Employees can get more info on DPMAP on the HRO website, or by going to the Sakai Portal on myNPS, where campus users can see what days training will be held and register for a session by adding the DPMAP site. For any questions regarding the new system after completing the training, contact either Kenneth Stewart or Cindy Dunn in the NPS HRO.