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4. Manage Complement to Assure Flexibility

Managing the workforce, combined with increased productivity and efficiency in all areas, has allowed the Postal Service to take costs out of the system and improve customer service. Through productivity and workforce management, the career complement has been reduced to pre-1985 levels.

Workforce planning will also be critical for future success and will contribute to greater flexibility and efficiency. The Postal Service will continue to review the organizational structure to realize other performance improvements. Redundancies and overlaps of responsibility will be eliminated and the organizational structure will be aligned with business goals.

Standardize Complement Management Tools

The Postal Service uses a national complement planning, tracking, and management system with standardized procedures and processes. By standardizing complement management, district level managers have forecasting tools to help determine appropriate complement plans by installation and function. Emphasis in complement management has concentrated on:

• Providing standardized analysis tools to plan complement requirements.
• Developing accurate models to project future needs.
• Utilizing more detailed data to drive complement decision-making.

In the future the Postal Service will build on competencies developed under Transformation for data-driven complement management. Standard complement planning tools and processes are now being used by complement committees, formed within each district and area, to create district and area-level complement and staffing plans. To anticipate and respond to changes in operations, these efforts will focus on transitioning the workforce to capture efficiencies while minimizing disruptions to service.