3. Personnel

        a. Postal Career Executive Service
There were 1,002 individuals in the Postal Career Executive Service (PCES) ranks at the close of 2001. Of this total, 838 individuals held PCES-I positions. The remainder (other than officers) served in Executive and Administrative (EAS) positions. There were 45 PCES-II officer positions in the Postal Service at the end of the fiscal year. The makeup of the PCES officers and executives is representative of the Postal Service’s diverse workforce.

        b. Succession Planning
Succession planning is the deliberate and systematic effort by the Postal Service to ensure leadership continuity and build talent from within the organization. The objectives are to identify individuals who can move into executive positions, to develop people for corporate needs, and to foster diversity among the leadership ranks. Individuals are identified as potential successors based on their leadership skills, functional and management expertise, and performance results. Succession planning has been designed to place the right people in the right jobs. After completing the seventh full year of succession planning, fewer than 1 percent of executive vacancies were filled by outside hires, 20 percent were filled by promotions of EAS employees to PCES, and the remaining 79 percent were filled from within the executive ranks.

During 2001, the Postal Service also piloted EAS Leadership Development, a process designed to build a cadre of well-prepared individuals with leadership and functional skills to assume key field management positions.

        c. Equal Employment Opportunity
The Office of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and the REDRESS® (Resolve Employment Disputes, Reach Equitable Solutions Swiftly) program enjoyed its first full year as an integrated organization. A renewed effort by EEO professionals at the district level has focused attention on dispute resolution at the early stage of the conflict. For the third consecutive year, the number of EEO pre-complaint counselings in the Postal Service decreased.

This continued reduction in precomplaint counselings is attributable in large measure to the Postal Service’s EEO mediation program, REDRESS. REDRESS and traditional EEO counseling are both offered as alternatives to individuals seeking precomplaint counseling. The mediators in REDRESS are non-postal contractors who are neutral and practice a form of mediation that is built on the “transformative” model. Through empowerment and recognition, the parties to the mediation are encouraged to listen and respond to one another’s views effectively and with better understanding of their differences.

In 2000, the participation rate in REDRESS for those seeking precomplaint counseling was nearly 73 percent. In 2001, the participation rate rose to 76 percent nationally. Successful resolution of disputes that go through mediation is nearly twice the rate of resolution of disputes that remain in the traditional counseling process. As a continuation of the Postal Service’s commitment to the resolution of workplace conflict, REDRESS was implemented in the U.S. Postal Inspection Service during 2001 and is now available to Inspection Service employees who seek precomplaint counseling through the Office of EEO.

Additionally, the ongoing implementation of REDRESS II is under way. REDRESS II brings transformative mediation to the formal complaint process through the hearing stage. This program is being implemented across the country through cooperation with the Office of the General Counsel. Initial indications show that REDRESS II is a highly successful tool in resolving formal EEO complaints. The success of the entire REDRESS program is encouraging. It will continue to be emphasized as a means of bringing employees and managers face to face to learn to deal with conflict and misunderstanding in the workplace.

        d. Combined Federal Campaign
The Postal Service joins other federal agencies in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) drive each fall. In 2001, postal employees nationwide pledged a total of $39,505,281.66 in payroll deductions to the charities of their choice. The average gift was $190.

        e. Injury Compensation
In 2001, the Postal Service had an increase in workers’ compensation cash outlays of approximately $56 million (8.8%) over 2000, for a total cash payout of $694.1 million. Total paid compensation claims increased by 856 (3.2%), and total medical claims increased by 5,433 (4.5%).

The Postal Service cost control strategy was again directed through the continued efforts to manage disability cases. Approaches include Nurse Case Manager services, which assist injury compensation staff with medical management strategies to help employees with work-related injuries or illnesses move into safe, positive, and productive assignments. The Postal Service also began pilot agreement with First Health Corporation, the nation’s largest preferred provider organization, to help reduce workers’ compensation medical costs. The pilot is now operational in four Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs district offices, and it will expand nationwide during 2002.

The Postal Inspection Service continued its efforts to investigate fraud associated with postal employees’ compensation claims. As a proactive measure to identify and eliminate fraudulent claims earlier in the process, Postal Inspectors’ efforts in the past fiscal year emphasized continuation-of-pay (COP) investigations. This resulted in $93.8 million in long-term cost avoidance and $5.5 million in COP savings, totaling $99.3 million in savings. As a result of Postal Inspectors’ work, there was a 30 percent increase in COP cost savings from 2000 and a 24 percent increase overall in identification of employees defrauding the workers’ compensation system. Specifically, Inspectors identified 403 individuals as defrauding the workers’ compensation program and 40 employees were arrested.