NSIPS

NSIPS

NSIPS

Section I: Executive Summary

The Navy has long faced shortages in certain critical shore billets. A variety of methods have been used to fill these billets, including involuntary assignments and sea duty credit for rotational purposes. However, these methods are inflexible, affect endstrength, and reduce retention. To better alleviate shortages in hard-to-fill billets, the Navy began offering Pay and Entitlement Information (PEI) in three locations. PEI levels are determined by a market- based system; Sailors submit the amount of pay they require to volunteer for less preferred locations. Sailors submit their bids along with their applications and application preferences in the Job Advertising and Selection System (lASS). Submitted bids are constrained only by PEI caps set by the Navy. These caps vary by location, by pay-grade, and, in some cases, by rating. At the end of the job cycle (about 2 weeks in length), detailers review all applications for each billet and select the Sailor with the lowest PEI bid from all who are qualified for the billet. If selected, Sailors begin receiving their stated monthly PEI upon arrival at their new assignments.

The Navy implemented PEI as a pilot program to allow for system adjustments and ongoing evaluation. Since its implementation, the main adjustments have been increases in PEI caps and the addition of new PEI-eligible locations. To support the PEI pilot program, the Director, Military Personnel Plans and Policy Division (N13), asked CNA to provide ongoing evaluation of the PEI system. This annotated briefing summarizes our analysis of the effectiveness of PEI.

Section II: The Pay and Entitlements information section in NSIPS

Over the years, the Navy has offered a number of incentives to alleviate shortages in certain critical billets. Some recent incentives for hard- to- fill shore billets have included the promise of a future preferred assignment and sea duty credit for rotational purposes. If these critical billets were not filled, Sailors were assigned to them involuntarily (slammed). The main problems with this system are that (1) the actual cost of filling these less preferred billets is not revealed, (2) sea duty credit for rotational purposes reduces Navy readiness and has to be compensated with higher endstrength, and (3) retention was lower among Sailors who were slammed. In addition, it was difficult to change the system in response to short-term shore billet manning requirements.

Although the true cost to the Navy of the previous system was not known, research suggested that it was not cost-effective. Previous CNA analysis found that the cost of the existing system could be viewed as either (1) a cost to the Navy of at least $195 million annually for the higher endstrength necessary to support sea duty credit to overseas shore billets, or (2) $83 million in sea pay annually to offset the fleet readiness loss from the use of sea duty credit as an assignment incentive. Because of the previous system's shortcomings, the Navy developed PEI to mitigate shore manning shortfalls, decrease turnover in these critical billets, increase retention, and increase flexibility in the assignment ...