B. The Workforce

1. Opportunity

A. EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY ENHANCEMENTS

In 2006 more than 55,000 reassignment requests from 26,000 employees were submitted through eReassign. From this number, more than 4,800 career bargaining unit employees have been successfully reassigned. Approximately 20% of bargaining unit vacancies were filled through eReassign. In 2007 eReassign will be migrated to the Human Resources Shared Services Center in Greensboro, North Carolina.

During 2006 the Postal Service continued efforts to highlight the importance of careful, complete suitability screening of applicants. The screening policy was revised to require a criminal record check in each county where the applicant resided for the past 5 years and investigations training was conducted for personnel staff. eScreening, the process for obtaining criminal and motor vehicle records electronically from a secure Web site, was enhanced to include new features. The number of hiring sites using eScreening more than doubled.

B. TECHNICAL AND CRAFT EDUCATION

The National Center for Employee Development (NCED), Norman, Oklahoma, continued to provide employee courses that supported efforts to manage and maintain postal systems, upgrade mail processing, improve automation system performance, upgrade networking infrastructure, and deploy new vehicles. Core NCED programs provided business and employee education on automation systems, customer service equipment, facilities, and vehicles. Other courses included business mail management, information technology, network supervision, and safety and environmental compliance.

The NCED expanded in-depth campus programs, field-site delivery, distance learning, and eLearning courses. The Postal Service provided 500 courses through 3,500 offerings to 229,000 students — 25% more students than the previous year. NCED satellite and audio distance learning networks not only supported NCED’s courses, but delivered other Postal Service training and information broadcasts to another 240,000 students in their home offices. NCED revenues exceeded expenses for the sixth straight year. Training and conference support for nonpostal clients generated more than $2.2 million in revenue.

The Postal Service created new national training programs to support the implementation of the Safe Driving Program. This involved expanding driver training from 2- to 3-days (affecting 48,000 employees per year) and redesigning Driver Safety Instructor Training for all designated driver safety instructors.