Chapter 3 Our Workforce

Employee Communications and Outreach

VOICE OF THE EMPLOYEE

Every quarter, one-fourth of career employees receive the Postal Service’s Voice of the Employee (VOE) survey at their work location. Participation is voluntary. Employees are given time on-the-clock to complete the surveys and seal them in postage-paid envelopes that are mailed to the contractor for data analysis and quarterly reporting. Six of the questions are used as key indicators of workplace factors that can impact employee performance and business outcomes. Survey results help identify organizational issues and establish improvement strategies. For 2007, the national employee response rate was 62 percent. The national index score was 63.6 percent favorable, up slightly from 63.4 percent in 2006.

EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATION

The Postal Service uses a variety of media — print, online, radio, television, and graphic design — to deliver key messages to employees and other postal stakeholders. Shortly after passage of the Postal Act of 2006, the Postal Service launched an effort to inform employees about its provisions through communication vehicles that included electronic newsletters, on-demand video and publications mailed to every employee. Employees were able to submit questions about the new law and the responses were published online.

The communications focus was on informing employees and other stakeholders about efforts to improve service and add new value to the mail, including new shape-based pricing, introduction of the Forever Stamp, and other initiatives, through national and local media. An online newsroom at usps.com was also created to provide one-stop access to news releases, speeches, postal facts and other information resources, including broadcast-quality video, photo stills, and multimedia files.