PMG to managers: New Strategic Transformation Plan focuses on customers

"It's all about the customer," Postmaster General (PMG) Jack Potter told Headquarters officers and executives about the Postal Service'sTM Strategic Transformation Plan 2006-2010.

The new plan combines key elements from the Five- Year Strategic Plan, Annual Performance Plan, the original Transformation Plan and the Transformation Progress Report, according to Strategic Planning Vice President Linda Kingsley.

"We challenged ourselves to do the right thing with the first Transformation Plan," Potter said, "and it's important that we go back and challenge ourselves again." The new Strategic Transformation Plan, he said, "is about a vision - the vision of where we want to be five years out."

The plan will emphasize the importance of the Postal Service becoming a customer-focused culture across all points of the Star. That focus includes service, costs and employee engagement to grow the business.

The PMG said the new plan will do what USPS® did in 2002 - narrow our focus to the basics. "That's what we did then, and the results have been phenomenal," he said. "We can't do everything, so we will focus on what matters to our customers, to our employees and to what will help us survive."

USPS will put its resources against the things "we have to get done." Potter said that as the details of the Plan are developed, "We want ideas to bubble up." He said many employees have good strategic ideas and he encourages them to submit them, and to "think bold and think cross- functionally - beyond the next few years."

"If we have a vision," Potter said, "we make it happen."

Share your ideas via the Strategic Transformation Plan Web site at: http://liteblue.usps.gov/news/link/stp 2006_2010.htm.

Changing of the guard: Pat Donahoe named USPS's new Deputy Postmaster General

Chief Operating Officer Pat Donahoe has been named the Postal Service's new deputy postmaster general. Donahoe will assume his new duties April 30.

He has served as chief operating officer and executive vice president since September 2001. As deputy PMG, Donahoe will serve as a member of the Board of Governors. He will retain responsibility for most of the activities he performed as chief operating officer. These include mail processing, transportation and delivery, field operations, engineering, delivery and retail, facilities and network operations.

Access is everything: USPS continues to make our products and services quick, easy, convenient

What do 37,000 Post OfficesTM, 250,000 letter carriers, 2,500 Automated Postal Centers® (APC®), 92 million computers, 1,480 Kmart stores and 200 Wal-Mart stores have in common? They all are quick, easy and convenient ways to access our products, supplies and services.

USPS-branded shipping supplies are now available in Kmart stores nationwide and soon will be available in Wal- Mart stores.

Our Post Offices are in virtually every city and town in America and our carriers in every neighborhood. Our highly-regarded Web site, usps.com®, is a virtual Post Office accessible from millions of computers with Internet access in s across the country. Our new APCs are available in many Post Office locations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our customers can have their packages picked up at their front door using Carrier PickupTM Online Notification.

And about those Kmart and Wal-Mart stores. Postal Service-branded shipping supplies are now available for our customers while they are shopping, in addition to the ReadyPost® supplies they can pick up at our Post Offices.

USPS shipping supplies, named The Shipping StandardTM, are already in Kmart stores and will be pilot tested in 200 Wal-Mart stores beginning the first week in May. You may see The Shipping Standard products on
LiteBlue at http://liteblue.usps.gov/news/link/2005apr14 gallery.htm.

The Shipping Standard is the latest example of our transformation efforts to expand access to USPS products, supplies and services for our customers. Whether at one of our many Post Offices, at your fingertips on usps.com or in a Kmart or Wal-Mart store, we're making it easier than ever to do business with the Postal Service - anywhere, anytime.

Hey, Angie! Going to the Post Office? New usps.com commercial hits the airwaves

Poor Angie can't make it from one end of the office to the other without coworkers besieging her with packages headed for the Post Office.

In the newest usps.com commercial, Angie struggles to make it to her desk after coworkers have piled on the packages.

But Angie has a secret - usps.com and John Dock, her letter carrier. She uses usps.com to purchase postage, print labels and - with Carrier Pickup Online Notification - notify her letter carrier she has packages to be picked up during his regular mail delivery.

That's the gist of the newest commercial featuring real- life Mahwah, New Jersey, Letter Carrier and Postal Ambassador Dock, who shows up at the end of the commercial to collect all of the packages Angie's coworkers have heaped on her.

And what's Angie doing while Dock and USPS are making her life easier? See for yourself. Catch the commercial on television, or on USPS-TV On Demand, on the Postal Service Intranet.

• Go to http://blue.usps.gov.

• Under "Hot Topics" in the middle column, click on USPS-TV On Demand.

Clean sweep: APC takes top honors

Call it the best darn kiosk, period. The Postal Service's Automated Postal Center (APC) received top honors at the 4th annual KioskCom. com interactive kiosk excellence awards for each category in which it was entered: best kiosk deployment in a retail environment - large deployment, best kiosk deployment for a government agency and best new kiosk deployment - large deployment.

USPS Retail Service Network and Access Management Manager Janet Webster was named deployer leader of the year.

APCs came about as part of USPS efforts to make customer access quicker, easier and more convenient. It's nice to be recognized for being so good at it.

Pay for performance update: Mid-year reviews ready to roll

Pay for Performance (PFP) program participants can enter their fiscal year 2005 mid-year accomplishments now through May 30. Participating employees must create a mid-year accomplishments draft for positions held as of April 20. Evaluators must review the accomplishments, schedule a one-on-one mid-year review discussion with the employee and then record the date of the discussion afterwards.

The Performance Evaluation System (PES) at https://performance.usps.gov now accepts input from employees who have changed PFP positions or whose evaluators have changed since the beginning of the evaluation period. The new feature allows employees to change objectives when necessary and lets evaluators give interim reviews or ratings, as appropriate.

The PFP Web site has updated information - including detailed guidance about conducting mid-year reviews and how to manage employee changes.

• Go to the Employee Resource Management Web site at http://blue.usps.gov/hrisp/.

• Under Organizations, click on Selection Evaluation and Recognition.

• Under Featured Content, click on Pay for Performance.

Questions? Contact your PFP coordinator. A list of coordinators is available on the PFP Web site.

• Go to http://blue.usps.gov/hrisp/ser/pfp/welcome. htm/.

• Under Additional Information, click on PFP Coordinators.

The Vision 500: Postal Vision delivers the news

More than 500 Postal Service facilities across the country are now connected to USPS-TV on Postal Vision, with 60 more to be added by the end of this month.

The new version of Postal Vision carries USPS-TV programs, giving employees four newscasts a week with breaking news; the latest on health, benefits and safety; plus information to help improve our workplace. Real-time news from the Associated Press is updated every hour in a crawl at the bottom of the screen.