Abstract:
Lab Demo is coming! Lab Demo is coming! While these words reverberated throughout the halls of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Information Directorate in 2010 with less urgency and consternation than Paul Revere’s warning in 1775, there was apprehension, nevertheless.
The federal Civil Service has been experiencing performance management reform since the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883. During the intervening 130+ years, a number of innovations and reforms have been introduced, some of them effective (for example, the Classification Act of 1923), and some of them lacking in productive results (like the now-discarded National Security Personnel System). Many of these innovations were first introduced in the private sector and adopted by the government regardless of success or failure. The latest experiment is the Air Force Laboratory Personnel Demonstration Project, or Lab Demo for short. It introduces several changes never before seen in the Civil Service, such as broadbands, pay for performance, and local control over key human resources processes, and, according to its proponents, has a history of improving work force quality, including employee engagement. This paper examines the effect Lab Demo has on various workforce statistics, and how the results reflect on employee engagement.