When rapidly decreasing mail volumes call for more innovative social and economic approaches

Abstract

Postal operators have gone through drastic changes for several years. However, the optimization measures used in the past may no longer be sufficient to deal with rapidly decreasing mail volumes and the impact this is having on employment. In employing innovative responses, postal operators (POs) have to take into consideration several constraints, internal ones with in particular their long-standing structured social framework and external ones in view of their major social role in society. Postal operators can follow two main directions. On the one hand, they have to reduce employment whilst aiming to improve the flexibility and quality of their workforce. On the other hand, they have to find new business opportunities, which are driven by their human resources assets. To what extent, then, do successful future strategies have to be employment-driven?.