Background
The U.S. Postal Service is undergoing a significant transformation to modernize its network and operations as part of the Delivering for America plan. We have noted variations in impacts to communities across the country, even when the changes themselves have been similar. Differences in workplace culture may help explain regional variations in operational efficiency and service experienced throughout this transformation. As labor makes up 76 percent of the Postal Service’s $89.5 billion annual expenses, the workforce is critical to its modernization success.
What We Did
Our objective was to evaluate operational culture and key performance indicators in places where the performance was varied. We judgmentally selected five low-performing and five high-performing districts for review and conducted site visits and interviews with personnel at facilities in each of these districts.
What We Found
A resilient and engaged workforce is essential for the Postal Service to carry out its Delivering for America plan and achieve long‑term goals. However, the Postal Service has faced workforce and culture challenges for years at low-performing sites that have consistently struggled with employee satisfaction, engagement, attendance, and retention; and costly union grievances. We also identified several ineffective management practices that negatively affected workplace culture and performance, such as non-value-added tasks and inadequate operational oversight.
Although these issues occurred across all facilities, they were more severe at low‑performing sites, widening regional operational and financial gaps and slowing the Postal Service’s progress. We estimate the Postal Service incurred nearly $437 million in annual questioned costs due to facilities operating below the national efficiency average. However, we identified best practices used at high-performing sites, that, if adopted, could improve leadership effectiveness, employee morale and engagement, and operational performance.
Recommendations and Management’s Comments
We made two recommendations to address the issues identified in the report, and Postal Service management disagreed with both. We will pursue the two disagreed recommendations through the audit resolution process. Management’s comments and our evaluation are at the end of our recommendations.
Low-performing Sites:
Louisville, KY P&DC
Birmingham, AL Annex
Birmingham, AL P&DC
Little Rock, AR P&DC
Saint Louis, MO NDC
Saint Louis, MO P&DC
New Orleans, LA P&DC
Postal Service Response:
Management disagreed with the report’s findings,
conclusions, recommendations, and monetary
impact estimate.
Every employee should dive into the PDF of this report and read it thoroughly. It’s probably one of the most damning investigations ever by the OIG, and there have been many. The findings in this report could apply to any postal facility in the country. It documents failures by management on so many levels and reinforces what employees have been saying for years, but no one would listen. The waste, the abuse, the unaccountability are rampant, and this time there’s a dollar figure attached, $437 million dollars. The vast majority of managers simply do not know or care to motivate employees to work for them and not against them. Instance after instance was documented where managers weren’t even on the floor. Millions were paid in grievances, and it just goes on and on. The two recommendations are common sense beginnings to try and rectify the problem, but the USPS says no to both. This report comes at a bad time for the Steiner/ Tulino regime with a BOG meeting in early August. I’m sure Senator Hawley and his colleagues will be all over this, as they should. Steiner will of course disagree if he admits to knowing anything about it, which he may say he doesn’t, as that is his go to response. With every passing day, the American people and their representatives are finally seeing how poorly this agency is run and the consensus is it’s time, as Hawley told Steiner, to fire someone, or several someones.