While the reinventing government effort in the 1990s sought to empower frontline workers, subsequent reform efforts sought to strengthen the role of human resources and managers.
Leveraging technology with speed, reliability, and risk management has never been as important as in today’s world of distance work, virtual meetings, and IT development via geographically dispersed teams.
Moving to distance work arrangements have suddenly shifted from a “nice to have” to an agency’s “continuity of operations” survival in the age of coronavirus.
There’s a lot of media about the heroic work of federal employees engaged in responding to the epic health, economic, and social effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
As the coronavirus has disrupted society over the last few weeks, some of the distancing measures that once seemed drastic have become acceptable — in a few cases even preferable to the way things worked before.
The effects of COVID-19 will be significant for the global postal industry, and indeed the entire world. The essence of the challenges the world’s postal operators face is akin to that of other businesses affected by COVID-19: identify where the impacts will be felt; and determine how to respond.
How well are agencies managed? Given long term structural priorities as well as the immediacy of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting government action, well-managed agencies will be critical to an effective response.