The US Federal government has authorized changes to human resource and payroll systems to give agencies greater flexibility in managing their daily operations. For example, the government has authorized a system called the National Security Personnel System (NSPS) which employs HR practices commonly found in business, such as pay for performance, pay banding, and market pay. The US Federal product describes these emerging systems as alternative federal HR systems (AFHR).

As an HR professional, you must administer the appropriate guidelines, calculate pay, and generate reports based on the applicable personnel system. For example, when you process a NOA 893 Reg WRI action, the resulting pay calculations and updates to extra information depend on which system governs the employee, a standard (non-AFHR) or AFHR system.

To assist you in managing employees under new regulatory systems, you can:

• Process RPAs for standard and AFHR employees using AFHR Nature of Action Codes.

  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) expanded the use of Nature of Actions (NOAs) initially reserved for AFHR employees also to cover standard employees. The application determines whether the employee is a standard or AFHR employee, and applies the appropriate validation and processing.

• Identify employee personnel systems.

  The employee's assigned position determines which business rules and calculations the application uses. The Personnel System Indicator (PSI) identifies positions as non-AFHR (null or 00) or AFHR (01 NSPS). You can record this information in the PSI segment in the US Alt HR position extra information type. You can create new AFHR positions and move standard employees to these positions.

• Process pay increases, award actions, pay adjustments, group adjustments, and pay reductions for AFHR employees

  Business rules and pay calculations for pay-related NOAs include support for pay for performance and local market supplements.

Process RPAs with AFHR Nature of Action Codes

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued modifications to existing Nature of Actions (NOAs) and added new NOAs to support alternative human resource systems such as the NSPS. You can process RPAs using the new and changed NOAs. The following table lists the meanings and start dates for these NOAs.

The following table lists the NOAs for personnel actions authorized by alternative systems. These NOAs start 07-Jan-2007.

See: NOAC Families and Request Information Types

Identify Employee Personnel Systems

With the increasing number of personnel systems authorized by OPM, HR professionals must find ways to effectively manage employees based on the appropriate regulatory guidelines. You can easily identify an employee's personnel system by entering its associated code in the position extra information (US Federal Alt HR System). The application treats currently or previously occupied positions as standard positions (personnel system indicator of null of 00). You cannot convert these positions to AFHR positions. You must create new positions for employees on AFHR and then move the employees to the AFHR positions.

See: Defining a Position

Process Pay Increases, Adjustments, Reductions

You process pay-related actions for AFHR and standard employees the same way. The principal exception occurs when entering basic pay. After you enter the basic pay, custom code produces the calculations for the local market supplement percentage locality pay, adjusted basic pay, other pay, and total salary values. The application validates the minimum and maximum rates based on the employee's pay rate determinant (PRD).

The application applies the appropriate pay cap checks on adjusted basic pay. When the application calculates pay, the application compares the adjusted basic pay to the pay cap. If the adjusted basic pay exceeds the pay limit, the application sets the adjusted basic pay at the pay limit and subtracts the basic pay from the new adjusted basic pay, entering the resulting amount as the local market supplement (LMS) locality pay on the RPA. If the total pay exceeds the total salary cap, the application sets the adjusted basic pay at the pay limit, subtracts the basic pay from the new adjusted basic pay, and the enters the resulting value as the LMS locality pay on the RPA. The application notifies you that the locality pay has been adjusted to equal the difference between the basic pay and the adjusted basic pay.

The application performs a similar check when validating the total pay. For example, under NSPS, if you authorize Availability Pay and Supervisory Differential, you cannot reduce these payments nor can the employee's total salary exceed the total salary pay cap. If the total pay exceeds the total salary cap, the application subtracts the adjusted basic pay from the total salary cap and displays the resulting capped other pay on the RPA, and enters the unadjusted Availability Pay and Supervisory Differential pay in the assignment element entries.

After update to HR, the application updates the date for the last equivalent increase with the effective date of the RPA for appropriate pay actions.

See: Pay Calculation on an RPA

Pay Increases (891, 892, 893)

You can use the NOAs authorized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to grant pay increases to AFHR and standard employees. For example, you can grant pay increases based on performance criteria rather than the standard waiting periods. The following table describes the pay increases for standard and AFHR employees.

See: Automatic Within Grade Increases

Award Payments (840, 841, 849, 885, 886, 887)

You can process individual cash awards and lump sum performance awards for AFHR and standard employees as individual actions or mass award actions. (OPM authorized the reuse of NOA 885 as a lump sum performance payment.) For these actions, the application no longer limits the award amount or percentage.

You process award actions the same way for AFHR and standard employees, entering an award amount or percentage in the RPA Award window. The application calculates the result based on the adjusted basic pay. If the pay basis is not per annum, the application determines the award salary by converting the adjusted basic pay to an annual amount. Custom hooks enable system administrators to change the calculation to compute the award amount using a value other than adjusted basic pay.

See: Award Actions

Miscellaneous Pay Adjustment (NOA 890)

You can use NOA 890 to process standard and AFHR employees. Using NOA, you can implement alternative personnel systems and move standard employees to AFHR positions. When moving employees to AFHR positions, you can also make appropriate changes in the RPA extra information. For example, you can change the person's Tenure, Appointment Type, Conversion to Career Due date, retirement plan, and Date Last Equivalent Increase.

See: Moving Employees to AFHR Positions

Apart from moving standard employees to AFHR positions, you can process the following actions using NOA 890:

• Process adjustments in an employee's basic pay.

• Terminate an employee's pay retention.

• Move an employee from a GM pay plan to a GS pay plan.

• Move an employee from a GS pay plan to WG pay plan.

• Process an increase in the rate of pay for an employee who is on an ES pay plan.

• Process higher rate of pay for an employee.

Group Adjustments (NOA 896)

You can use NOA 896 to recognize the contributions of a team by authorizing a group pay adjustment for all team members. You must process an RPA for each AFHR team member.

Pay Reduction (NOA 897)

If an AFHR employee's performance or conduct warrants a reduction in pay, you can process a reduction of pay within an existing pay range.