Postal Pulse Survey

FY2015 Performance Report — Improving employee engagement is a top priority for our organization. Creating a dynamic, highly engaged workplace where employees work with passion, perform at consistently high levels and drive innovation benefits both our employees and our organization.

One way we measure our progress towards increasing employee engagement levels is by administering an employee survey. In FY2015, we replaced our longtime Voice of the Employee (VOE) survey with the Gallup Q12 Employee Engagement Survey, which was introduced to employees as the Postal Pulse. This twice-a-year survey is far superior to the VOE survey as an instrument for measuring employee engagement. It’s shorter, simpler to complete and includes actionable items. Moreover, the survey questions are research based and have proven to be statistically valid and reliable over time for measuring employee engagement and its relationship to key business indicators like overall employee well-being, profitability, customer service, accident reduction and employee retention.

In FY2015, we focused on the following objectives:

• Establish executive level oversight of the USPS national employee engagement strategy;
• Establish a performance baseline by administering a census survey;
• Train USPS leadership at all levels of the organization — starting with the ELT — on the principles of employee engagement and leadership’s role in creating an environment
• that fosters high levels of engagement;
• Provide officers, executives, managers and supervisors training and access to a robust reporting platform for assessing and acting on survey results; and
• Establish a group of engagement leaders and champions to coach other leaders in workplace practices and behaviors that promote engagement and foster collaboration and teamwork deep within the organization.

FY2015 results:

• Appointed an executive director of employee engagement who reports directly to the Chief Human Resources Officer, a member of the ELT.
• Delivered a census survey to 595,000 career and non-career employees. Forty-seven percent of employees completed and returned the survey. The grand mean engagement score result was 3.16 on a scale of 1 to 5. These results equate closely to the overall response rate and favorability ratings of our FY2014 end-of-year VOE survey results.
• Provided managers with access to an online application that enables them to view, understand and communicate their employee engagement results. The application also provides a wide range of tools to help them collaborate with their teams on developing solutions for improving the work environment.
• Trained over 400 engagement leaders and champions at every level of the organization on the principles of employee engagement.

FY2016 Performance Plan — Looking ahead, the Postal Service will provide more targeted training to executives, managers and supervisors to equip them to take concrete actions to create and sustain more engaged work environments. Leadership training and development programs will include content about employee engagement. We’ll implement communication and change management initiatives to help increase employees’ overall understanding of the purpose of employee engagement and the benefits to them and the organization. In our ongoing efforts to increase employee participation in the Postal Pulse Survey, the Postal Service will reach out to employees for their input on how to make it easier to take the survey.

While we recognize achieving a culture of high employee engagement will be challenging and require time, we are committed to making it happen. A highly engaged workforce is in the best interest of our employees, our business and our customers.