Postal reform necessary

There must be deliberate policy in place as part of the repositioning of the Barbados Postal Service to ensure that the development and management of human capital is paramount.
This was the call from Attorney-General and Minister of Home Affairs, Freundel Stuart, as he addressed postal workers and guests at the Barbados Postal Service Retirement Banquet at the Plantation Restaurant recently.
Making the observation that postal reform had become necessary for all postal institutions, a process shortly to be resuscitated in Barbados, the Home Affairs Minister said several dynamics, including human resource development, came into focus.
He said postal services traditionally have been institutions established on the basis of legally protected public monopolies, and were now faced with the challenges of a technological revolution, globalisation and the opening up to competition in respect of the services they provide.
Among the dynamics impacting on modern postal development, Stuart said, were the principles of management independence, enhancing business/commercial strategies, improving operations, meeting customer needs through enhancing quality of service, and development and management of human resources.
That employees are the backbone of an organisation, are its most valuable asset, and not infrequently, its single largest investment, is an axiom of modern-day business enterprise. It must therefore be deliberate policy in the postal reform process that due attention be paid to development and management of our human capital, and as any good human resource practitioner would propose one must ensure a suitable staff complement, appropriate recruitment processes, personal and professional development, adequate compensation and appraisal systems and the like, Stuart said.
Noting that the present loss of human resource capital to retirement was significant for the Barbados Postal Service, Stuart said he hoped that appropriate succession planning had been undertaken to smooth the process and to minimise any negative impact on the organisation.
The Barbados Postal Service presently boasts a staff complement of six hundred, but Stuart said the loss of eighteen officers to retirement over a two-year period was nonetheless significant considering that this exodus represented a combined total of five hundred and five years of service. Three of those retirees, had each given in excess of forty years of service.
Furthermore, positions lost to retirement involve eight ranks ranging from as high as Assistant Postmaster General to postmen, affecting a wide range of activities across the Post Office.
This loss will undoubtedly be felt given the unmistakable value to the organisation of such a vast level of experience, Stuart said.