Championing People
Anthony Vegliante
Chief Human Resources Officer
and Executive Vice President
What’s New
- New flexible work arrangements allow eligible employees to telecommute or use an alternate work schedule.
- Saved 10 million pieces of paper a year through two new electronic programs.
The Postal Service continuously works to provide high-quality service as consistently and efficiently as possible.
We do this by focusing on our employees and recruiting a highly qualified workforce. We provide competitive compensation and benefits, offer effective job-based training and career development, and foster a conservation culture.
We measure the service provided by our employees using a continuous customer satisfaction survey.
In fact, our customer satisfaction levels and on-time delivery records have been consistently high for the past several years.
And we have been rated the most-trusted government agency for the past five years.
Facts and Figures
2.7
million
pounds of GHG emissions reduced through telecommute/alternate work schedule program
10
million
pieces of paper saved through online hiring and job bidding systems
$300
thousand
saved in travel costs by monitoring and auditing injury claims cases online
Compensation and benefits
Compensation and benefits for current employees and health benefits for retirees make up nearly 80 percent of our operating expenses.
Federal law provides that compensation and benefits for our employees be comparable to the rates and types of compensation paid in the private sector. Most USPS bargaining units meet or exceed private-sector levels. In FY 2009, the average pay and benefits for career bargaining unit employees was $70,140.
Career employees enjoy excellent benefits. These include annual and sick leave that can be accumulated, and the opportunity to donate a portion of that leave to other employees in need.
Basic life insurance is paid for by the Postal Service with additional options at the employee’s cost. And pretax health benefits are offered with most of the cost paid by USPS.
Also included are pretax flexible spending accounts for out-of-pocket dependent and health-care expenses, and the option to enroll in pretax dental and vision insurance. Employees have the opportunity to apply for longterm-care insurance, and receive coverage under the Federal Employees Retirement System or Civil Service Retirement System plans.
These two retirement plans provide pension benefits. One of them, the Federal Employees Retirement System plan, includes Postal Service contributions to a thrift savings plan for employees.
Participation rates and employer costs can be found in the 2009 corporate annual report.
Employee assistance
We believe our high customer satisfaction results come from maintaining a safe and healthy environment for our diverse workforce, encouraging and providing for their career development, and maintaining an interest in the health and well-being of employees and their family members through programs like our Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
EAP has an easy-to-use website with information and links to resources covering just about any life issue — from helping employees develop their retirement plan to assisting them with finding child or elder care.
Susan LaChance
Vice President
Employee Development
and Diversity
Employee development and diversity
The Postal Service continues to provide talent management and leadership development programs that help us prepare employees to reach their organizational potential.
Two resident training centers — the Bolger Center for Leadership Development in Potomac, MD, and the National Center for Employee Development in Norman, OK — provide venues for learning and meetings for employees and external clients.
Both training centers use innovative recycling programs that contribute environmental savings.
The Bolger Center improved its annual business recycling and waste reduction rates, exceeding the county’s 50 percent recycling requirement with a rate of 64 percent.
The National Center for Employee Development recycled 33.7 tons of paper throughout the year, resulting in an estimated environmental savings of 573 trees and 138,170 kilowatt hours of electricity.
Employee resource management
The Postal Service is dedicated to fostering a conservation culture among its employees and in its work practices.
Our Employee Resource Management organization leads numerous efforts in support of the Postal Service’s commitment to providing essential employee services while making a positive impact on the environment.
Flexible work arrangements
Partnering with Information Technology, we have implemented flexible work arrangements for headquarters and related employees, which allow employees to work remotely, reducing commuting costs.
Approximately 2,500 employees now either telecommute or participate in the alternate work schedule program, saving an estimated 125,000 gallons of gas and 2.7 million pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
Shared services
Our human resources shared services technology and process improvements enable us to realize greater efficiencies, including significant paper reductions for hiring, job posting and bidding, and accident reporting.
eCareer
In 2009, eCareer, our online hiring system, accepted and managed more than 400,000 online applications.
Additionally, our automated job bidding program offers employees from three of our labor unions the ability to view and bid for vacant positions through our employee self-service portal. That portal processed 1.2 million electronic bids in 2009.
The environmental savings of these two programs was a reduction of more than 10 million pieces of paper.
Employee health and safety
This program management system is designed to automate accident reporting and manage injury claims.
It will eliminate or significantly reduce the use of more than 140 forms and reports. Also, USPS will save an estimated $300,000 in travel costs by monitoring and auditing cases online.
eOfficial personnel folder
As a result of our electronic personnel folders, more than 800,000 paper personnel folders were scanned into the system. That has eliminated printing previously required for various personnel actions.
This year, an estimated 1.5 million personnel action forms were electronically linked to personnel folders and are now available to employees online through our self-service portal.
Employee Resource Management is continually automating processes and developing new self-service capabilities for USPS employees.
Because our work is paper-intensive, these efforts will make significant contributions to our sustainability goals.
