April 7, 2008 — An overhaul of the government's Personnel Division has yielded some significant accomplishments over the past few months, according to its director, despite such challenges as a lack of funding, an "archaic" employee-compensation system and poor results on promotional exams.
As the agency's head, division Director Kenneth L. Hermon has had to deal with several major government mandates since he came on the job, including laws calling for a development of a comprehensive classification study and a streamlining of the government's hiring process. Hermon described progress on both fronts during Monday's Government Operations and Consumer Protection Committee meeting, saying the division had cut down the processing time for Notices of Personnel Action (employee-hiring documents known as NOPAs) in about half, from 14.5 days to about 6.5 days. The classification study — a laborious effort to update government job descriptions and assign current market values to each position — has also moved through the first phase, he added.
Consultants to the agency have noted that the V.I.'s pay system, — characterized by multiple pay plans, negotiated step increases and "fragmentation" due to unionization — have prevented the government for being able to compete on the global market "for talented personnel," Hermon said. This assessment has served as one of the driving forces behind the study in which Personnel — along with the Inspector General's Office and the Office of Management and Budget — have been used as test cases that have been supplied by research on salary trends and the development of pay scales using "rational and national compensation principles," he said.
Though the number of employees applying for promotions has increased by more than 10 percent, high levels of failure — particularly on the entrance/promotional exams for the Bureau of Corrections, V.I. Police Department and V.I. Fire Services — has been a cause for concern, exacerbated by the division's transition to "nationally standardized" tests, Hermon noted.
"Since then, the passing rate for all candidates taking the exam has dramatically declined — these results are troubling and we're rethinking our approach to standardized testing," he said.
Upcoming planning sessions held with Education, university, and Labor representatives are expected to yield solutions to the problem, including the installation of new test instruments, creation of new prep classes and the implementation of new scoring criteria, Hermon said.
The division is also looking to improve its training and professional-development programs, making strides in its billing and collections under the government's group health-insurance plan, and researching what retroactive wage increases — dating back, in some cases to 1989 — are owed to retired and active government employees.
Present during Monday's meeting were Sens. Liston Davis, Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Juan Figueroa-Serville, Shawn-Michael Malone, Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Basil Ottley Jr. and Alvin L. Williams.
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