3. EMPLOYEES AND THE WORKPLACE
In 2002, the Postal Service addressed the long-term goal of creating a motivated, productive and inclusive workforce with two primary goals: improving employee and workplace safety and, striving to ensure that employees are committed to USPS success. Our progress against these goals requires commitment of system-wide resources and is measured against specific quantitative indicators and targets. In themselves, these two goals and our achievements in meeting them are significant. In a broader context, they overarch and are supported by all other employee and workplace environment goals that we continue to pursue in programs and policies throughout the Postal Service.

Our long-established initiatives such as employee training programs, Affirmative Employment Plans, and the REDRESS mediation program, help drive accomplishment to the organization-wide employee and workplace goals. They promote change and growth, provide opportunities for all employees, and enhance the value of the workforce through recruiting, retention and training strategies. Formerly organization-wide goals measured under GPRA; these initiatives are now institutionalized within the Postal Service and performance is measured at the program and unit level. Continued successful performance in these areas contributes to the results attained on the organization-wide 2002 performance goal indexes of employee and workplace safety that are the focus here.

In 2002, the Postal Service made progress toward improving its employees’ safety, security and well-being. The 2002 indicator and target for the employee safety subgoal was a 2 percent decrease in the OSHA Illness/Injury Rate. The goal was exceeded with an 8.2 percent reduction from 2001 incident rates. In 2002, the Postal Service did achieve this target, realizing an OSHA Injury/Illness Rate of 7.72 accidents/illnesses per 200,000 work years. Data validation and analysis included a 100 percent review of our record keeping at year end as well as randomly conducted reviews throughout the year. In addition, we gained additional experience in interpreting OSHA’s complex reporting system.

In 2002, the Postal Service met the employee Survey Index subgoal of equaling or improving the 2001 VOE Survey Index score of 58.1. In 2002, the Postal Service achieved a score of 58.8, an improvement of 0.7 of a point over 2001’s baseline index.