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For almost 250 years, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has provided an essential service to the nation, connecting communities and supporting commerce by delivering mail and packages to more than 160 million addresses. Yet, decades of financial challenges, aging infrastructure and shifting customer demands have highlighted the urgent need for transformation.
In a recent episode of The Talent Transformation Podcast, Dimitri Boylan visited their headquarters to talk with Jenny Utterback, Vice President of Organization Development at USPS, and get an inside look at how one of America’s most iconic institutions is navigating profound change.
Central to their transformation is the ten-year strategic plan, Delivering for America. This $40 billion initiative seeks to modernize infrastructure, enhance service standards and adapt to evolving customer needs. Initiatives like transitioning to an electric delivery fleet by 2035, reducing non-career workforce turnover by 50 percent and upgrading processing facilities and IT systems demonstrate the organization’s focus on immediate improvements and future readiness.
The lessons from USPS’ transformation resonate far beyond the public sector. The Postal Service demonstrates that even organizations steeped in history can adapt, innovate and thrive in today’s business landscape by modernizing operations and empowering their workforce.
Let’s explore how they’re doing it.
Transforming the Public Sector
Transformation in the public sector is no small feat, and USPS’s journey has been shaped by formidable challenges. Over the past 14 years, the organization has faced $87 billion in financial losses, partly due to chronic underinvestment in infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated these issues, as workforce illnesses, quarantines and a sharp shift from mail to package volume placed additional strain on operations. Outdated networks, redundant structures and high turnover among non-career employees have also underscored the urgency for systemic change.
Despite these hurdles, USPS is rewriting the narrative. With 640,000 employees, 31,000 facilities and daily service to 167 million addresses, one of the biggest challenges for the Postal Service is the sheer scale of its operations. In fact, if it were a private sector organization, the Postal Service would rank 52nd in the 2023 Fortune 500. As Utterback highlighted, its unique position—independent from federal funding yet committed to universal service—requires the organization to function with the agility of a private corporation while fulfilling its public service mandate. This dual role amplifies the urgency behind its transformation efforts.
We service over 167 million addresses, five to six days a week. That’s an incredible responsibility, and we take pride in it.”
Jenny Utterback
VP of Organization Development, USPS
What’s more, USPS competes directly with private sector giants like FedEx and UPS. In this sense, Boylan noted the unique standpoint of the organization in the face of modernization efforts:
Most government agencies don’t have that kind of direct competition. It adds an entirely different layer of complexity.”
Dimitri Boylan
CEO of Avature
Redefining Leadership: Meeting Workforce Needs Across Generations
Amid this vast endeavor, the institution’s approach to digital transformation is rooted in process redesign. Upgrading systems is just one component of the equation; equally important is fostering the cultural and behavioral changes necessary to support those systems. In this context, technology serves as an enabler rather than a standalone solution. The ultimate goal is to deliver personalized and adaptable experiences for both employees and customers. To achieve this, agility and efficiency are central to USPS’ roadmap for replacing legacy solutions.
One critical aspect of USPS’ strategy is balancing its deep well of institutional knowledge with the need to modernize. Utterback highlighted that preserving the expertise and practices developed over decades is equally critical while adopting new technologies and processes.
At the same time, fostering innovation and testing new approaches is essential to stay aligned with a rapidly changing world. This dual focus ensures that USPS leverages the wisdom of its experienced workforce while becoming agile and forward-looking.
Utterback noted that transformation involves addressing the diverse needs of one of the country’s most varied workforces, “a microcosm of the nation,” in Utterback’s words. With employees spanning multiple generations, USPS recognizes that a one-size-fits-all approach is not enough.
Taking learning and development programs as an example, Utterback highlighted that while younger workers gravitate toward collaborative, technology-driven learning environments, more tenured staff often prefer structured, in-person training. By tailoring training methods to these preferences, USPS fosters a cohesive, inclusive culture that values diversity while driving progress.
The newer generation learns differently. They are used to working in groups and using technology constantly, which makes their needs very different from those of previous generations.”
Dimitri Boylan
CEO of Avature
To meet modern workforce expectations, USPS is also redefining the role of managers. Traditionally burdened by administrative tasks, managers are now equipped to focus more on engaging directly with employees.
We need our managers to be agile, resilient and ready to embrace technology. It’s about creating an environment where employees want to come to work.”
Jenny Utterback
VP of Organization Development, USPS
To achieve this, USPS has redesigned its leadership programs, ensuring supervisors and mid-level managers gain next-generation skills such as agility, resilience and digital literacy. These programs provide frameworks for embracing digital transformation and applying it effectively to daily operations.
Component-based learning ensures consistency across soft and technical skills, fostering a new generation of leaders who balance operational oversight with employee engagement: “Instead of being behind a desk trying to crunch numbers and reports, we want to retain our new employees coming in, and who will become that next generation of leadership,” Utterback explained.
These efforts also extend to frontline supervisors, who are encouraged to focus on setting performance expectations, providing feedback and fostering a motivational workplace environment. This shift enhances the broader employee experience and supports the retention of new hires who represent USPS’ future.
Retention Through Career Growth
USPS is renowned for its long tenure of employees. However, in an era of increasing employee turnover, the organization is working to buck the trend by practicing exceptional retention strategies.
There’s an incredible commitment and loyalty to the organization. People come in and stay five, ten, twenty years. And we’re still seeing that.”
Jenny Utterback
VP of Organization Development, USPS
These initiatives include USPS’ career conferences, which function as internal job fairs where employees can explore new opportunities. “In the past three years, we’ve had over fifty national conferences to educate the broader workforce about advancement. We offer virtual supervisor job fairs, which allow us to share the expectations of the job. Employees hear directly from our operations leaders and learn how to apply. They also learn what skill sets we’re looking for,” she pointed out.
Boylan was notably impressed by the muscularity of the mobility program: “You might be ahead of some of our corporate customers on that.” He added that although a robust internal mobility program can serve as a powerful driver of organizational success, many organizations face hurdles in achieving it because of the politics of mobility, mainly because of resistance from line managers reluctant to lose top talent to other departments.
However, companies that overcome these barriers can unlock significant value. As Utterback pointed out, securing support from operational leadership transforms internal mobility into a win-win proposition:
We actually have an incredible amount of buy-in from our operational leadership, who also see the value because they’re beneficiaries too. They are the people who come in as our frontline employees, get promoted to supervisors, get promoted to managers and then make for more productive admin and support staff because they know the business.”
Jenny Utterback
VP of Organization Development, USPS
Such alignment ensures that mobility benefits not just individuals but the business as a whole.
USPS also invests in professional certifications and leadership development programs and tailors employee value propositions for diverse roles, from mail carriers to cybersecurity engineers. “We have employees who start as letter carriers and retire decades later, having built multiple careers within USPS,” Utterback shared. “It’s about creating lifelong opportunities in one organization.”
A Vision for Sustainability
Utterback’s leadership is guided by a commitment to sustainability, not just environmental but organizational. By embedding data-driven decision-making and commercial best practices, USPS ensures that changes are not temporary but build a lasting foundation for success that reaffirms its fundamental role in American life.
Transformation doesn’t have an endpoint. As our customers and employees evolve, so must we. That’s how we stay relevant and competitive.”
Jenny Utterback
VP of Organization Development, USPS
Through transparent communication, investments in infrastructure and consistent leadership, USPS is positioning itself to thrive for another 250 years. The ultimate goal is to continue serving Americans reliably while evolving to meet the needs of future generations.
In this sense, Boylan concluded, “What USPS is doing is nothing short of remarkable. They prove that even public sector organizations can set the bar for innovation and transformation.”
