• Man-made or natural disasters, cyberattacks, work stoppages, or civil disorders that may impact operations.

• Mail transportation disasters.

• Missing Postal Service vehicles.

• Suspicious activities in and around Postal Service assets that may indicate terrorist involvement.

• Any incident that may generate significant media attention.

The Chief Postal Inspector and the Deputy Chief Inspector of Headquarters operations will determine notification requirements for the Postmaster General, Deputy Postmaster General, Chief Operating Officer, members of the Board of Governors, Inspector General, and any other executive officers. If appropriate, the Deputy Chief Inspector of Headquarters operations activates the Command Center to coordinate the critical incident.

5. Planning

a. Enterprise Resource Management System

The Postal Service's future success as an organization will be influenced significantly by its ability to use workhours efficiently and to maintain stability in staffing relative to workload. In July 2004 Resource Management deployed Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technology and provided updated enhancements to the software application to improve complement management, cost effectiveness in operational efficiency, and automated system-generated reports to all management levels. The key components deployed in 2004 were:

• One automated call-in number using IVR technology to handle the majority of employee call-ins.

• One centralized Call Center to receive calls not handled by IVR.

• Fulfillment center to mail out required information for new Family and Medical Leave Act cases.

• Enterprise Resource Management System (eRMS) software enhancements to provide more user-friendly features.

• System-generated, automatic reports to management for better accountability

• A positive, proactive communications plan which includes videos, service talks, Site Transition Guide, Field Tool Kit, and other postal publications.

As the next generation program was implemented in 2004, an integrated approach to link Time and Attendance Collection System (TACS) with the Resource Management System was completed to provide real-time data. This integration provided a robust tool to manage the daily business operations and reduce operating costs. Several eRMS integration efforts with eReassign, the Employee Ideas (eIDEAS) Program, and the Enterprise Injury Compensation Performance Analysis System (EICPAS) are in progress to provide users with an extensive resource tool in 2005.

By the end of September 2004 IVR was implemented in 73 sites, covering more than 350,000 employees. IVR conversion was completed in 2004 and will be rolled out to the remaining sites during 2005.

b. Family and Medical Leave Act

An outgrowth of the Resource Management process was the standardization and consistent decision-making process involved with administration of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). In order to maintain continuity and provide effective administration of FMLA cases, FMLA coordinator positions were authorized at the district level to offer subject matter expertise to Postal Service employees and customers. A comprehensive, three-day training program was required for certification of all FMLA coordinators. However, to increase operational efficiency, a fulfillment center was established to eliminate the manual transactional tasks normally performed by the FMLA coordinators.

c. Human Capital Enterprise/HR Shared Services

Human Capital Enterprise and HR Shared Services have begun to implement PostalPEOPLE, a project that transforms the Human Resources function. Over 3,800 HR professionals at the Postal Service rely on more than 200 processes and some 70 systems to support more than 700,000 employees and facilitate millions of personnel changes each year. Many of the current systems are at maximum capacity, not integrated, and use software that is no longer supported by industry.