The Postal Service would benefit from implementing more flexible personnel practices, the postal IG has said, adding that such a change would be a “win-win-win” by benefitting employees and customers as well.
“The Postal Service could attract and retain a higher quality workforce and increase productivity. Employees would have more control over their lives and have higher work morale and commitment. Customers would benefit from improved service and lower costs,” a white paper said.
It said a more flexible environment would improve morale, aid recruitment and retention, and reduce absenteeism while offering prospects for cost reductions that the agency needs to achieve in its present fiscal environment.
In order to get buy-in from postal unions and management associations, there must be a focus on employee well-being, implemented through a strategic partnership that would build trust through flexibility advocacy teams at all levels of the organization that would identify common ground and potential solutions to divisive issues, it said.
It recommended piloting a portfolio of initiatives to study issues such as annualizing work hours and allowing workers to trade overtime in busy periods for time off in slow periods, job sharing, shift trading, cross-training of employees in skills of other jobs, variations in daily schedules, and voluntarily reductions in work hours for employees who have pressing family care or other outside responsibilities.
Better information on workflow and continuous feedback from employees through surveys and other monitoring also were recommended.
The white paper is here: https://www.uspsoig.gov/document/white-papers/flexibility-work-human-resource-strategies-help-postal-service
