- Why is the Corps transforming its billets system?
- How will the transformed billets system benefit Corps officers and agencies in which they work?
- What is the billets collection process?
- What if none of the category-specific billet templates, created by my professional category, describe my current position? What will I do then?
- Am I creating a new job description for myself?
- Will the information I supply to describe my position be used to calculate a billet grade?
- What will happen if my billet is downgraded with the new billet system?
- Once new billets have been created for all positions encumbered by Corps officers, must these positions be filled by officers with the same grade that was calculated for the billet? If not, should billets be revised to reflect the grades of incumbent officers?
- Will there be a flexible "years of experience" statement in the new billet format? Could a statement such as: 'years of experience will not disqualify an otherwise qualified officer' decrease the likelihood that a newer officer would be denied access to the billet best describing the job by someone who takes a literal read of the years of experience number?
- I'm wondering if you have a suggestion to avoid downward adjustment of a billet to reflect officer attributes (lower years experience than stated in the original billet) when the original billet best fits the job being done? Will there be an instruction we can point out to an Area reviewer who takes a hard line regarding number of years?
- How does the Commissioned Corps compare or contrast to the Civil Service?
- What are the comparable Commissioned Corps/General Schedule/SES grades?
- What are the most important next steps for billets transformation?
- Where can I find the billets tutorials?
- I’m in the engineer category but work primarily in a non-engineering field. Will the system send me the engineer billets to select? If so, how can I match an engineer billet with my non-engineer position?
- I am aware of a number of officers that have been in the same position for most of their careers and have been promoted through the ranks. While in their position, the grade level of the billet has increased, and the title of the billet has changed to something that sounds more important (such as by inserting “Senior” or “Director” into the billet name), but there has been no real accretion of duties or responsibilities. In fact, many of these officers have the same duties as lower grade employees. I would like to know how the new billet system will address this problem and make it easier for promotion boards to sort this out.
Also, not all billets of the same grade are equal, and promotion boards need an easier way to differentiate billets of the same grade. For example, positions for a scientist or consumer safety officer, a 1st line supervisor (group leader or branch chief), 2nd line supervisor (division director), and an office director could be all O-6 billets. However, the difference in the level of duties and responsibilities for these positions is enormous. There should be a way, other than by the billet title, to quickly gauge an officer’s level of duties and responsibilities, such as a numeric system.
- My service unit/duty station, which is very isolated in Navajo Area, will be implementing Assignment Incentive Pay (AIP) for its officers in the next month or so. AIP locks the officer into the billet number for 12 to 24 months depending on the contract. Will the billet transformation change the actual billet number or only the billet description under the existing billet number an officer is working under
- I have a question regarding the common scenario where CO’s are assigned multiple, additional, or acting duties that essentially become part of their position description, however, the position description is never modified to reflect those additional responsibilities. How are long-term acting and additional duties and responsibilities to be handled through the re-billeting process?
- Does this billet process include officers in the Inactive Reserve Corps?
- Will the start-up of new bill initiation occur AFTER the 2009 COERS process is completed?
- How long will officers be allowed to complete the process (will the time allotted take into account that many officers travel and have other inflexible demands and deadlines)?
- What is the proposed schedule for specific professional categories to initiate the process?
- Will the Coast Guard officers be included in the first iteration of the category-specific billets?
- In the FAQ section on the “Billets and Billet Systems” on the Transformation site it mentions that the “Commissioned Corps Personnel Manual Pamphlet 57 has been updated and is consistent with current civil service position classification guidelines”. I have not been able to find this CCPM. I can find 56 and 58, but no 57. Can you tell me where I might be able to locate it?
- Is there I link on where I might find the attributes for the new standard billets?
- It seems that the Commissioned Corps Ready Responders do not easily fit into the mold for the new billets system. Would these billets be considered multidisciplinary billets?
- My supervisor is NOT a CO. Does that mean he will not need to be aware of this process?
- Will officers who are currently in multidisciplinary billets be able to change to a category-specific billet? If so, will these officers receive notification at the same time as other officers in multidisciplinary billets or with officers of their specific category?
Transformation of the Commissioned Corps billets and billet systems includes the following:
- Development of individual billets and guiding policy for each of the 6,600 Corps positions. Billets will describe the responsibilities of the position and not the officer who occupies the position.
- Electronic billets (ebillets), which will be linked to the electronic officer profiles.
- Development of an electronic system to monitor and announce billet vacancies for Corps officers.
- Development of a billet system that will approve, adjudicate, and periodically review all new Corps billets.
Why is the Corps transforming its billets system?
The Commissioned Corps does not have consistent and comprehensive information for all positions encumbered by its officers. The information collected in the transformed billets system will be a key piece of the human resources information technology system (the Transformation IT project - Direct Access) that will be used to manage the Commissioned Corps. Transformed billets will have comprehensive job information and they will be consistently graded based on the work being performed and experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities required. Combined with an accurate profile on every officer, Direct Access will become the primary force management system used by the Commissioned Corps.
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How will the transformed billets system benefit Corps officers and agencies in which they work?
For officers, transformed billets will increase clarity and specifics of job responsibilities. Billets will be objectively graded to ensure equity and uniformity across categories and agencies. The new system will include a real-time monitoring of position vacancies and access to vacancy announcements, resulting in enhanced career development.
For agencies, the benefit of transformed billets will be a real-time, dynamic system for identifying the most qualified officers for available positions. Also, there will be assistance in the officer selection process by electronic referral of possible qualified candidates for positions.
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What is the billets collection process?
In order to create billets to describe the 6,200 plus positions currently encumbered by Commissioned Corps Officers, we have developed an MS Office-based collection tool and worked with each professional category to create category-specific standard billet templates to follow. Standard billet templates for multidisciplinary billets are currently under development. Each officer will begin by selecting the standard billet title that generally describes the duties and responsibilities of the position they are assigned. A system-generated and partially-populated billet spreadsheet (matching the title selected by the officer) will be returned to the officer, initiating the creation of a unique billet for that officer's current position. All but one entry on this spreadsheet will be completed by making choices from drop-down attributes menus. The officer will complete the spreadsheet, ending by identifying his/her supervisor, and email it back to the system administrator.
The system will automatically review the submitted billet for errors (incongruent or incomplete responses). If any errors exist, the officer will be contacted to correct these errors. If there are no errors, the billet will be forwarded, by the system administrator, to the officer's supervisor for the first level of review. Similar subsequent reviews will be completed by reviewing officials, and/or the Commissioned Corps Agency liaisons, and the category (PAC) before the billet is forwarded to OCCO for final review and approval.
During the review process, the officer's supervisor and reviewing official will be directed to confer with the officer regarding any potential edits. The Commissioned Corps Agency liaisons and PAC reviews will be completed to ensure overall consistency and to identify ‘big picture’ issues across an Agency or category, respectively.
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What if none of the category-specific billet templates, created by my professional category, describe my current position? What will I do then?
One of two things will happen in this circumstance. If your position is truly a category-specific position (e.g. a Nurse serving in a Nurse position), and you can not find an existing job title/description that fits your position, we will contact your professional category to possibly create a new standard billet template. If it turns out that you are actually in a multidisciplinary position (a position that could be filled by an officer from more than one professional category), you will be directed to assist in creating a multidisciplinary billet later in the billets creation process.
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Am I creating a new job description for myself?
No. You will be providing up-to-date and comprehensive information describing the minimum qualifications, duties, and responsibilities for the position you currently encumber.
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Will the information I supply to describe my position be used to calculate a billet grade?
Yes. A consistent, systematic and non-arbitrary calculation of grade is a necessary step in billets transformation. The Commissioned Corps Personnel Manual Pamphlet 57 has been updated and is consistent with current civil service position classification guidelines. When an officer completes selections on Billet Collection System spreadsheet, an automated calculation of grade will be completed for the billet. The officer will not know the computed grade when he/she completes the creation of the billet, and if the supervisor (in coordination with the Officer) changes any of the selections on the billet, he/she will not be able to see the impact that those changes have on the billet grade. This unbiased process will assist in ensuring the most accurate development of position requirements. Agency and category reviewers will see the grade calculated for the billets (along with original billet grade).
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What will happen if my billet is downgraded with the new billet system?
No policy has been approved, but the following process has consensus support: if a billet is downgraded as a result of transformation and the adjudication process of the billet has been finalized, the officer occupying the billet will be allotted a two-year grace period during which he/she will retain the former billet grade. During this grace period, the officer can not be harmed (e.g. promotions, assimilation, etc.) by the new billet grade. The new grade will be final following this grace period. All new occupants of transformation billets will immediately be subject to the approved grade of the billet.
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Once new billets have been created for all positions encumbered by Corps officers, must these positions be filled by officers with the same grade that was calculated for the billet? If not, should billets be revised to reflect the grades of incumbent officers?
Ideally, this is the perfect scenario: all billets would be filled by officers whose grades matched the calculated grade for the billet. It is reality, however, that this is often not the case. For example, the minimum experience required, duties, and responsibilities for a billet in a remote location might result in a calculated billet grade of 0-5. However, an Agency may find that they are unable to recruit anyone for the position with a grade higher than 0-4, so they fill the position with an 0-4 officer. In this case and all similar cases, billets must not be revised to match the grade of the incumbent officer. In this case, this will simply be an 0-5 position filled by an 0-4 officer. One of the primary foci of billets transformation is to create a billets system that accurately lends itself to effective and efficient force management of the Corps—a system that allows the Corps to monitor skills shortages and recruit to meet its mission. The only way for this to happen is if Corps billets truly describe position requirements and not officer capabilities.
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Will there be a flexible "years of experience" statement in the new billet format? Could a statement such as: 'years of experience will not disqualify an otherwise qualified officer' decrease the likelihood that a newer officer would be denied access to the billet best describing the job by someone who takes a literal read of the years of experience number?
Years of experience, expressed as either required or preferred, will be a fixed element of billets. However, it will be the decision of Agencies as to how they fill these billets. Reality may dictate that the only officer interested in a position does not possess the required years of experience, but the necessity of filling this position may outweigh this requirement. With that being said, billets must reflect the Corps' force management needs and must not be written to reflect officer attributes.
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I'm wondering if you have a suggestion to avoid downward adjustment of a billet to reflect officer attributes (lower years experience than stated in the original billet) when the original billet best fits the job being done? Will there be an instruction we can point out to an Area reviewer who takes a hard line regarding number of years?
OCCO will take a hard-line stance on billets adjustment to reflect officer attributes. Edits to billets will only be permissible if an Agency can clearly document that position requirements have changed. Unlike the current, legacy billet system--where OCCO basically rubber stamps Agency billet actions--policy governing the new system will place approval squarely in the hands of the OCCO Billets Program Manager. This is a new position that will be advertised in the very near future.
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How does the Commissioned Corps compare or contrast to the Civil Service?
Commissioned Corps officers occupy positions commensurate with their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Corps officers provide leadership, expertise, and a cadre of specialists to address public health issues and clinical needs of under-served populations. Corps officers deploy to meet emergent public health needs and emergency situations.
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What are the comparable Commissioned Corps/General Schedule/SES grades?
The following chart is only a guideline. Although comparable Commissioned Corps and GS positions will usually fit these equivalencies, there is no hard and fast rule to govern these equivalencies.
Commissioned
Corps Grades | GS/SES Grades |
|
| | GS 4 or below |
| O-1 | GS 5/6 |
| O-2 | GS 7/8 |
| O-3 | GS 9/10/11 |
| O-4 | GS 12 |
| O-5 | GS 13 |
| O-6 | GS 14/15 |
| O-7/8/9 | SES |
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What are the most important next steps for billets transformation?
Communications efforts are underway to ensure that all Corps officers and their supervisors are well informed regarding the billets transformation process. As part of this process, an online tutorial for officers has been developed and posted on the CCMIS website. An additional tutorial, for supervisors and reviewing officials (both Corps and civilian), is currently under development and will be available soon. It is currently anticipated that large-scale development of new billets will begin the fall of 2009 and be completed by late CY 2010. It is likely that this effort will begin in a piecemeal fashion—probably starting with two professional categories and progressing at a speed that ensures a quality product. Billets created during this process will not become official until late CY 2010.
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Where can I find the billets tutorials?
Video and text versions of the tutorials can be found at: http://dcp.psc.gov/Billets_Tutorial.aspx
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I’m in the engineer category but work primarily in a non-engineering field. Will the system send me the engineer billets to select? If so, how can I match an engineer billet with my non-engineer position?
Yes. Based upon your current “Public Health Analyst” title, you most likely encumber a multidisciplinary billet (a billet that could be filled by an officer from greater than one professional category). Therefore, the Billet Collection System (BCS) will be sending you a list of newly created multidisciplinary standard billets and NOT a list of Engineer category standard billets. Multidisciplinary billets will be the last billets to be created in the BCS process, and you should not anticipate being solicited to participate in the multidisciplinary billet creation process until later in 2010. If, however, you transfer into a traditional Engineer position between now and then, you will receive the list of Engineer category billets from which to choose.
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I am aware of a number of officers that have been in the same position for most of their careers and have been promoted through the ranks. While in their position, the grade level of the billet has increased, and the title of the billet has changed to something that sounds more important (such as by inserting “Senior” or “Director” into the billet name), but there has been no real accretion of duties or responsibilities. In fact, many of these officers have the same duties as lower grade employees. I would like to know how the new billet system will address this problem and make it easier for promotion boards to sort this out.
Also, not all billets of the same grade are equal, and promotion boards need an easier way to differentiate billets of the same grade. For example, positions for a scientist or consumer safety officer, a 1st line supervisor (group leader or branch chief), 2nd line supervisor (division director), and an office director could be all O-6 billets. However, the difference in the level of duties and responsibilities for these positions is enormous. There should be a way, other than by the billet title, to quickly gauge an officer’s level of duties and responsibilities, such as a numeric system.
The scenario described is the exact reason why the Classifications and Positions Work Group believed that it was critical to transform our billets system. More often than not, our current, legacy system more accurately describes officer capabilities than position responsibilities and is virtually useless for force management purposes. Hence, we can not effectively monitor vacancies and skills shortages and can not efficiently recruit new officers into the Corps.
At the heart of the new billets system is an objective grading process. Embedded within the electronic Billets Collection System is a scoring system directly related to minimum position requirements in the areas of education/certification, supervisory responsibilities, job experience, accountability (job complexity and impact of judgment), personal responsibility (direction received and guidelines and originality), personal work contacts (persons contacted and work contact purpose), and duty station criteria (isolated hardship and hazardous duty). It should be noted that these requirement attributes are purposely matched very closely, both in substance and weighting, to similar attributes used to determine grades associated with Civil Service position descriptions.
Although nothing is perfect, it is our belief that this new objective grading process for billets will address nearly all of the issues raised in the aforementioned question. For a position to be graded as an 0-6, minimum requirements for this position will have to result in the objective calculation of points (as previously described) to support that grade; billet grades will no longer be assigned subjectively. Even within the realm of objectively graded 0-6 billets, point totals could be used to differentiate between levels of 0-6 billets. For example, at least 501 points will be required to grade a billet as an 0-6. Therefore, an 0-6 billet justified by 501 points could be compared to an 0-6 billet justified by 620 points.
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My service unit/duty station, which is very isolated in Navajo Area, will be implementing Assignment Incentive Pay (AIP) for its officers in the next month or so. AIP locks the officer into the billet number for 12 to 24 months depending on the contract. Will the billet transformation change the actual billet number or only the billet description under the existing billet number an officer is working under?
In reality, AIP is associated with a unique “AIP number”, maintained by the Office of Commissioned Corps Force Management, which captures officer identification information, professional category, organization, and assignment location. Associating AIP with billet number, only, was an insufficient mechanism because (under the current billet system) the possibility exists for many officers to be covered under any given billet identification number. As billets transformation moves forward, we will have to develop a means of associating the AIP number to the new billets. Transformation billets will all be unique, so transformation billet numbers could be used to identify AIP positions.
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I have a question regarding the common scenario where CO’s are assigned multiple, additional, or acting duties that essentially become part of their position description, however, the position description is never modified to reflect those additional responsibilities. How are long-term acting and additional duties and responsibilities to be handled through the re-billeting process?
The scenario you describe is a scenario specifically addressed by the Classifications and Positions Workgroup when, three years ago, they established recommendations for a transformed billets system for the Corps. In order for our billets system to be an effective and efficient tool for Corps force management, the Classifications and Positions Workgroup was very specific when recommending that collateral duties (duties more accurately reflecting specific officer capabilities versus position requirements) must not be reflected in our billets. Collateral duties must be captured in our officer profiles and curriculum vitas. Promotion boards must use those two instruments to ascertain extra responsibilities that are not specifically required as a component of positions. When we begin the process of creating new billets, under billets transformation, officers are going to be constantly reminded to frame that process with the following in mind: “if I left this position tomorrow, what minimum knowledge, duties, and responsibilities would be required of the officer who replaced me?” Supervisors, reviewing officials, Agencies, and PACs (who will be reviewing these billets) will also be reminded of these basic tenets. It is also hoped that the new billets system will provide impetus for Agencies to curtail the use of indefinite “acting” positions, because it will behoove officers to push back based on the lack of credit they receive for filling such positions in the transformed billets system.
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Does this billet process include officers in the Inactive Reserve Corps?
No, it does not. The intent of the process is to create billets for all active billets currently encumbered by Corps officers.
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Will the start-up of new bill initiation occur AFTER the 2009 COERS process is completed?
In all likelihood, the start-up will occur after the 2009 COERs process is completed. At the absolute earliest, it will start at the back end of the COERs process.
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How long will officers be allowed to complete the process (will the time allotted take into account that many officers travel and have other inflexible demands and deadlines)?
Officers will be expected to complete the task of billets initiation within 30 days of being requested to do so. As you saw in the video tutorial, this process should take no more than one hour of an officer’s time (probably less), so asking for no more than one hour of time in a 30 day time frame seems reasonable.
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What is the proposed schedule for specific professional categories to initiate the process?
Subject to revision, the following is the proposed billets process initiation schedule:
March 2010 – Nurse and Therapist categories (category-specific billets only)
April 2010 – Engineer, EHO, and Pharmacist categories (category-specific billets only)
May 2010 – Dental, Dietitian, Scientist, and HSO categories (category-specific billets only)
June 2010 – Medical and Veterinarian categories (category-specific billets only)
July 2010 – Multidisciplinary billets
If we do not begin the project in March, the entire schedule will shift, accordingly, with the actual project initiation month.
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Will the Coast Guard officers be included in the first iteration of the category-specific billets?
All officers currently occupying USPHS billets, regardless of Agency, will be included in this transformation project to create new billets.
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In the FAQ section on the “Billets and Billet Systems” on the Transformation site it mentions that the “Commissioned Corps Personnel Manual Pamphlet 57 has been updated and is consistent with current civil service position classification guidelines”. I have not been able to find this CCPM. I can find 56 and 58, but no 57. Can you tell me where I might be able to locate it?
You are not able to find Pamphlet 57 because, some time ago, it was discontinued and removed from distribution. The version that our workgroup updated was an old paper copy.
For your information, the following factors were derived from Pamphlet 57 and will be used to grade billets in the new system:
Education and Experience Requirements (40 to 400 points possible)
Subfactors: Education and Years of Experience
Accountability Requirements (20 to 200 points possible)
Subfactors: Job Complexity and Impact of Judgment
Supervisory Responsibility Requirements (0 to 100 points possible)
Subfactors: Supervisor/Team Leader Responsibilities and Number Supervised/Number on Team
Personal Responsibility Requirements (20 to 200 points possible)
Subfactors: Direction Received and Guidelines and Originality
Personal Work Contact Requirements (10 to 100 points possible)
Subfactors: Persons Contacted and Work Contact Purpose
Duty Station Criteria Requirements (0 to 15 points possible)
Subfactors: Isolated Hardship and Hazardous Duty
Points to Grades Conversions:
0 to 100 Points 0-1
101 to 200 Points 0-2
201 to 300 Points 0-3
301 to 400 Points 0-4
401 to 500 Points 0-5
501 and Above Points 0-6
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Is there I link on where I might find the attributes for the new standard billets?
In the September 2009 meeting of the Surgeon General’s PAC/CPOs/PAC Chairs, it was advocated that each category share the contents of its standard billets with category membership as soon as possible. Doing so will give category membership time to become aware of standard billet attributes in advance of billets development launch. I would suggest that you contact your category leadership and express your interest in accessing this information.
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It seems that the Commissioned Corps Ready Responders do not easily fit into the mold for the new billets system. Would these billets be considered multidisciplinary billets?
If the Ready Responder duties are inherent in the position encumbered by a Commissioned Officer (i.e. the duties are permanently linked to the position regardless of the officer who holds the position), then these duties would be reflected in the free-text “additional duties” section of a category-specific (e.g. Medical, Dental, Nurse, etc.) billet. If the duties are officer-dependent (i.e. when an officer leaves the position, the officer who backfills the position may or may not be a Ready Responder), then these duties are considered collateral duties and would not be reflected in the billet; they would only be reflected in the officers CV and profile. In our new billets system, billets describe positions and not officer capabilities and collateral assignments. In the latter scenario, the billet would not be a multidisciplinary billet, either. Multidisciplinary billets are defined as billets that may be encumbered by officers from greater than one professional category.
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My supervisor is NOT a CO. Does that mean he will not need to be aware of this process?
Roughly half of Corps supervisors and reviewing officials are civilian; therefore, it is of critical importance that these individuals become aware of the process. Although we will be looking at avenues to raise this awareness, it is critical that Corps officers pass this information on to their civilian supervisors and reviewing officials.
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Will officers who are currently in multidisciplinary billets be able to change to a category-specific billet? If so, will these officers receive notification at the same time as other officers in multidisciplinary billets or with officers of their specific category?
Yes, officers in multidisciplinary billets will be able to change to category-specific billets if this change is endorsed by the officers’ supervisors and reviewing officials. Due to the fact that these officers are currently in multidisciplinary billets, they will receive notifications when all other officers in multidisciplinary billets are notified. Within the notification, officers will be instructed to respond to the system administrator if none of the proposed multidisciplinary billet titles accurately describe their current positions. It would be at this time when the officers could request that their positions should be described by category-specific billets.
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