Jeffrey C. Williamson, Chief human resources officer and executive vice president, USPS

Postal Service uses innovation to increase revenues but also needs Congress

The U.S. Postal Service saw revenue growth in 2013 but it lost money for the seventh consecutive year.

The number of first-class mail pieces dropped by 2.8 billion pieces and mandates that require the Postal Service to pre-fund health benefits for future retirees, helped account for a $5 billion net loss. Meanwhile, the Postal Service’s packaging service business added 210 million more packages that helped increased revenues in that department by 8 percent to $12.5 billion.

Jeff Williamson, chief human resource officer and executive vice president for the Postal Service, was in Madison recently where he met with commercial customers from some area businesses. He took time after the meeting to answer a few questions.

Q: But, operationally, the Postal Service is profitable, right?

A: Correct. And that’s a combination of both expense reduction as well as revenue growth. We’re very optimistic about being able to move the needle, but we need to do other things in order to bring the expenses down. From our perspective, comprehensive legislative reform is absolutely a must. In order to make the necessary long-term investments in infrastructure, in vehicles and technology, we need comprehensive reform.

Q: How do you maintain morale?

A: I think from a leadership standpoint, at all levels both locally and at a national level, we recognize the efforts of a wonderful workforce that goes above and beyond. The other thing that has helped, particularly over the last couple of years, it’s been more than just cutting. They’re seeing us invest in technology and come up with innovative solutions.