7. In cooperation with the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission we have entered into a program of training persons from the economically disadvantaged areas so that they may become useful employees. This program is just now getting underway. This effort also involves training opportunity for present post office employees who unable to pass examinations for advancement. We take pride also in the success of Concentrated Employment Programs (CEP) in 26 cities, as well as our past summer's employment programs for youth utilizing the "buddy system."

8. To reduce our high labor turnover, we are expanding our "all regular" program and are instituting an analysis of the reasons for separations collecting the data through exit interviews. We are also looking at the hours when our employees work in an attempt to shift as many as possible to more conventional working hours.

9. We continue to stress the hiring of the physically handicapped, retarded minority groups, needy and other economically disadvantaged persons. Our experience with these programs indicate employees so hired are not economic liabilities but are more than paying their way. The Department intends to broaden its Alcoholics Anonymous Program. The outstanding progre of our Alcoholics Anonymous Program in San Francisco indicates the economic and social feasibility of such an expansion,

While we point with success to our efforts during the past year we are still very much concerned with working conditions, lack of promotional opportunity, the long way we have to go in training, turnover in the metropolitan area and the providing of medical examinations to the new hires.

Planning and Marketing Program Administration

Witness: Ronald B. Lee

Assistant Postmaster General

Bureau of Planning and Marketing

The Bureau of Planning and Marketing was composed

initially by combining several existing units in the Department.

units it absorbed. Furthermore, the bureau has been operating

from existing funds already appropriated.

The organizational configuration is shown as Chart I.

In addition to the headquarters complement, this

bureau exercises technical control over some 480 Directors of

Marketing, Customer Relations Officers and Customer Relations

Representatives in regional offices and post offices throughout

the country.

I am happy to say that

the myriad job descriptions

and functional statements have been written and rewritten and

finally approved. The organizational phase is over and production

has started.

The Planning responsibility, in broad terms, includes: preparing the Departmental forecasts and developing

planning assumptions.

recommending Departmental goals for Postmaster

General decisions.

developing quantified objectives to meet goals. recommending strategy to accomplish objectives. coordinating the integration of bureau plans into the

overall Departmental plan.

providing planning assistance to the bureaus.

assisting to devise systems for evaluating actual

performance against our predicted performance and to recom

mend corrective action.

designing the planning system that will pertain

throughout the Department.

performing special analytical studies.

and other similar functions.

Unfortunately, the vital activities engaged in by this

organization, with one notable exception, do not pay off directly

in dollar savings or immediate mail service improvements. They help chart the course of the whole organization. The exception is the special study area. This group frequently identifies programs and projects of a cost savings and service improvement nature. The kiosk delivery units being used in Columbia, Maryland, resulted from such a study. It has been estimated that kiosk delivery in Columbia, Maryland alone will save the Department $400,000 per year when fully operational.

This program has obvious applica

bility to many new housing units and to areas in which curbline delivery is now offered. The Mailgram product was largely developed by this unit. Anticipated revenue after a full year's operation will be somewhere around $1.25 million according to current estimates.

I am happy to report that for the first time in my

association with the Post Office Department, there is a unified

approach to planning and a uniform realization that rigorous action and major changes are necessary to improve mail service and

organizational performance in general. We are aiming for

September to publish the first explicit plan of action in post office history. This plan will outline how the Department will go about accomplishing its agreed upon objectives.