• Strengthen customer and community relations. Support the Postal Service's drive toward business success by providing the resources for understanding and reaching its diverse marketplace.

     These initiatives will help the Postal Service honor the diversity of its employees, customers, and suppliers in a way that allows the Postal Service to develop people, improve service, manage costs, grow revenue, and pursue reform.

     Since 1996, the Postal Service National Awards Program for Diversity Achievement has recognized the outstanding achievements and contributions of those individuals and teams that have encouraged and promoted diversity within the organization. Since its inaugural year, the awards program has recognized 230 employees nationwide across five award categories: Individual, Leadership, Team, Partnership, and the Dot Sharpe Lifetime Achievement Award.

     In 2003, this employee-based program was redesigned to focus on the three overarching strategies that are aligned with the Transformation Plan: Growth through Customer Value, Operational Efficiency, and Performance-Based Culture. Eligibility is based on excellent performance in achieving diversity goals as they focus on the customer, the employee, and the business. The National Diversity Recognition Program is the largest peer recognition program within the Postal Service. It demonstrates the promise and strength of the organization and the importance of sharing values and building unity.

The Postal Service uses regular competitive procedures in selecting individuals with disabilities for employment. Individuals with targeted severe disabilities receive noncompetitive employment consideration through referrals from individual state departments of vocational rehabilitation or the Department of

Veterans Affairs. In 2003, the Postal Service's career workforce included 46,445 employees with reported disabilities, and 7,015 employees with targeted severe disabilities.

     Equal Opportunity Publications hailed the Postal Service as one of the top 20 government agencies for individuals with disabilities. Careers and the Disabled magazine also gave the Postal Service an outstanding employer award. Each year, the Postal Service submits an affirmative employment plan and an accomplishment report for Individuals with Disabilities to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The affirmative employment plan is disseminated to Postal Service field performance clusters where each cluster leader is responsible for its implementation.

The Postal Service is one of the largest employers of veterans and disabled veterans in the nation. At the end of the fiscal year, the Postal Service employed some 223,796 veterans, including 73,899 who received injuries while in uniform. Of that number, 18,529 have disabilities of 30 percent or more. The Postal Service prepares an annual report of accomplishments and plan certification for disabled veterans and submits it to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

• Streamlined and standardized the AEP multi-year plan report process. Being granted conditional approval from the EEOC for report consolidation, the number of reports for the AEP multi-year plan and/or yearly report of accomplishments and plan update required for submission dropped from 96 to 11.