Human Resources Management

Employees

In 2005, the total number of postal staff stood at 689,000, of whom 389,000 were in service.

Achievements in Three System Reforms

With regard to the personnel system, the modes of selecting and appointing officials were improved constantly and the selection channels and scopes were further expanded. The mechanisms of inspecting cadre with fore-notice and keeping the public informed were implemented commonly. The systems of recruitment and probation were explored in cadre appointment. In the process, the ordinary people had rights to know, to participate, to choose and to supervise, creating a sound environment which makes it possible for outstanding people to come to the fore. The meeting for supervision over officials was held and institutionalized.

It was regarded as a strategic task to continue to standardize the employment system according to law. The task focused on contract management aiming to better the work from the source. By the end of 2005, nearly all the staff members have signed labor contracts. Various forms of employment were introduced in line with the nature and demand of postal operation. The numbers of posts and employees were fixed in a scientific manner while the competitive services and universal services were given different management in terms of employment.

The salary system reform has made achievements as follows. First, the macro-control over total salary amount was strengthened. Guided by the principle of giving priority to efficiency and contribution, the State Post Bureau has further perfected the practice of setting the provincial postal enterprises' salary amount according to their performance. Second, the national standard for job wage was regulated in line with the principle of controlling the total amount, adjusting the structure, focusing on dominance and implementing the standard gradually. The wages for front-line workers and marketers were increased appropriately. As a result, the role of job wage mechanism was given a full play and the staff members were encouraged enormously. Third, a variety of salary distribution systems were explored. Piece rate system and merit pay were adopted flexibly for jobs of express delivery, marketing and internal operation. The reasonable wage disparities among different posts gave great incentives to the staff.

Development of Human Resource Project

Leadership was boosted by the structure adjustment and efficiency enhancement. Among the leaders of provincial post bureaus, 9.2% were under 40 years old and 71% held bachelor degrees or above. Exchanges of officials were expanded and improved. The inter-provincial exchanges mainly took place between the east area and the west area among 27 bureaus while 58 staff members were selected from the provincial bureaus to work in the State Post Bureau for exchange. Accordingly, the leader groups were optimized and the officials' talents were nurtured.

The third batch of officials were selected and designated to work in Tibet for assisting the regional development. After consulting with the departments concerned, the State Post Bureau conducted the selection strictly in accordance with the criteria, so as to ensure the quality of the selected officials. Of those 20 officials who had an average age of 29.5, 75% held bachelor degrees.

More efforts have been made to select and nurture professional talents. Candidates were nominated for “Special Government Allowance”and “China Youth Science and Technology Prize” Appraisal for senior engineer of professor rank was completed. By the end of 2005, China Post has employed 70,300 professional talents nationwide, of whom 6% held high qualification and 24% middle qualifications. 35 postal staff in service enjoyed special government allowance and 2 experts made outstanding contributions.

Education and Training

Education and training mainly served the postal development strategies and aimed at the growth of postal businesses. In 2005, about 364,800 postal employees nationwide participated in on-job training, indicating an annual training rate of 52.97%, among whom 306,000 attended vocational training, 20,100 received continuing education and 35,000 were involved in secondary and higher education. Funds invested in education and training totalled about RMB 169 million. By the end of 2005, 45.7% of postal staff held secondary educational background or above, including 0.19% with postgraduate education, 6.16% with undergraduate education and 18.88% with junior college graduate education. Today China Post has 220 training centers at various levels, staffed with 673 full-time lecturers and covering an area of 814,300 square meters.

Vocational training programs largely focused on big projects and dominant business. As regard to the big projects, the programs were held for the system connecting postal savings network and postal remittance network, foreign currency deposit system, Kahala service system, and on-line payment system, which generated a great support for the project's progress. The training programs for the dominant business were related to express delivery, logistics, senior financial management, marketing, and business management at director level. All such programs accounted for 64% of the total.

A distance education and training network was established, consisting of one first-class center at national level and 31 second-class at provincial level, to enhance China Post's capability of training. The on-line training programs centered on marketers, key staff members of postal enterprises nationwide. By the end of 2005, over 10,000 staff members have registered.

Vocational Skill Appraisal

In 2005, China Post continued the vocational skill appraisal of postal communication sector. Throughout the year, 77,314 post staff participated in the appraisal, of whom 35,652 were granted qualification certificates, accounting for 46.1% of the total. By the end of 2005, the aggregate number of postal staff who held vocational qualifications hit 271,350, occupying 51.5% of the total and 1,023 of them held technician qualifications.

Priorities were given to propose a national classification standard for the special jobs of postal communication and formulate a plan for the standard's revision. The Ministry of Labor and Social Security approved the new classification, according to which the former 26 types of work in 9 classes will be transformed into 12 jobs and 2 new ones for information and distribution services be added to make the total number to 14. This classification will be introduced in 2006. Reference books for those 14 special jobs appraisal were compiled and published. Moreover, the post part of the national questions bank for vocational skill appraisal was completed.

Shijiazhuang Posts and Telecommunications College (Shijiazhuang Training Center of State Post Bureau)

As the largest comprehensive training base of China Post, Shijiazhuang Posts and Telecommunications College (Shijiazhuang Training Center of State Post Bureau) in 2005 played an important role in supporting postal HR development and promoting the advance of postal technologies and the modernization of China Post.

In 2005, the college organized 96 training classes for 6,862 persons. The job-oriented training was pushed forward in an all-round manner. The college recruited 1,466 freshmen in 22 majors including post, software and communication, and its students numbered 3,518. 14,000 postal staff participated in the distance training via the newly established network. 2 out of the 7 research projects it conducted won the third science and technology prize granted by the State Post Bureau. The college was also involved in the revision of postal vocation standards, the compiling of the relevant reference books and the development of the questions bank, which provided the SPB with a great support in the vocational appraisal.