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The Postal Service employs a range of training and performance support strategies to help employees be successful in meeting performance goals. Training will include more learning activities that simulate real work situations and provide the learner with the opportunity to practice and strengthen job-related skills. These learning activities begin with new employee orientation and continue throughout the employee's career. The newly designed city carrier and rural carrier training programs incorporate new operational initiatives such as Customer Connect and Carrier Pickup as part of the day in the life of a carrier. A full spectrum of highly interactive and hands-on courses is designed to evolve in step with changing business needs. Systematic assessment of all courses will be conducted to ensure that training is linked directly to job performance. Examples of other key craft development efforts include the Associate Supervisor Program, which helps craft employees transition into management positions, and specialized skills-focused training in the areas of maintenance, safety, revenue generation, and driving. Effective job skills training is dependent on the quality of the total learning experience. The Postal Service will emphasize the currency of all training content, establish standards for a model Postal Employee Development Center, and require certification of all craft skills academies and instructors.

As the Postal Service continues to review knowledge, skills, and abilities, training curriculums will be linked to ensure new and current positions are supported by the appropriate training. So that employees can quickly and readily access learning that is relevant to their job and developmental needs, the Postal Service will conduct a comprehensive review of training curriculum. It also will catalogue and map the test training titles to competencies and job classifications. The goal is to ensure that training and development infrastructure and learning systems are effective, comprehensive, and responsive to the business environment. Where appropriate, on-demand learning opportunities will be created through Web-based technologies.

3. Establish and Maintain Market-Based Compensation

Maintaining market comparability is a key Postal Service strategy and opportunities to keep wages and benefits in line with the private sector will be reviewed. The Postal Service must ensure that compensation is comparable to the private sector, and must not pass on any unnecessary costs to its customers. The Postal Service continues to use comprehensive studies of bargaining and nonbargaining unit jobs to establish and maintain wages and benefits comparable to the private sector, which is in keeping with its statutory mandate. In negotiations with unions, the Postal Service has applied the principle of moderate restraint of wage growth in seeking to address wage rates that exceed comparability standards.