The Postal Service’s focus on customer service is important to Somerset, KY, Postmaster Mike Noritis.
Helping his 81 employees feel connected to the mission is job one.
“I try to get across to them that whatever it is they do, it is worthwhile to the Post Office,” Noritis says. “I try to break it down: If this office takes care of its own little piece of the pie, and if all offices take care of their own pieces of the pie, the Postal Service will be successful.”
USPS encourages this kind of approach. Research shows employees who feel engaged work safer, have better attendance rates and provide better customer service.
Noritis, whose office improved its performance on the past three Postal Pulse employee surveys, offers three tips for managers and supervisors who want to help employees connect with the USPS mission:
• Let every employee know he or she has value. “It doesn’t matter what your job title is, the years of service you have, whether you are career or non-career — every employee has a significant value to the Postal Service and its success,” he says.
• Have a positive attitude. “If your office is on a not-so-good top 10 list, there is no need to take it out on your employees. … They are definitely the resource you need to get off of it.”
• Be honest. “Good or bad, they want to hear it. If your employees see you supporting the mission of your superiors, they will support you.”
Noritis continues: “The employees of the Postal Service are what makes this organization great. Great leaders can’t lead without their supporting cast behind them. We need them.”
“Best Practices,” a series on employees who demonstrate on-the-job excellence, appears regularly in Link.