Customer Stories 
Summary
With over 31,000 facilities, a workforce of 640,000 and service to more than 167 million addresses nearly every day, the United States Postal Service (USPS) faces immense recruiting demands. To meet these needs at scale, USPS implemented Avature to automate the recruiting process and increase efficiency.
A pilot in Denver proved the success of this approach, with time to fill slashed by 81 percent and 400 roles filled in just one month. Now, USPS is using Avature to scale recruiting and other talent transformation initiatives as part of its ten-year Delivering for America strategy.
About USPS
The United States Postal Service is the second-largest employer in the US. Its diverse team includes mail carriers, cybersecurity experts, healthcare professionals, legal and HR specialists, marketers, finance staff and a nationwide salesforce, among other roles—all united under the mission of serving every community in the country.
The Challenge
One of the biggest challenges for the Postal Service is the sheer scale of its operations. With 16 million applicants annually and a lean recruiting team, managing candidate flow efficiently is as critical as it is challenging.
So, when faced with the urgent need to fill 400 blue-collar roles across the country in record time, USPS recognized it needed a talent acquisition platform that could handle volume at speed, with advanced automation capabilities that helped make the most of limited recruiter bandwidth.
The Solution
USPS implemented Avature ATS, Events Management and Onboarding and built an automated workflow to reduce manual effort and improve speed and consistency across the entire recruiting cycle.
Rather than embarking on a large-scale recruiting transformation all at once, USPS opted for a phased, controlled approach. The team began with a pilot program in Denver, Colorado, to test Avature’s capabilities in a real-world setting and benchmark its performance against existing systems used in other regions. The pilot focused on three core areas:
- Automating screening to streamline the review of high volumes of applications so recruiters could quickly identify and prioritize the most qualified candidates.
- Career fair optimization, where USPS would measure application completion rates and overall candidate experience using the Avature platform compared to locations where other solutions were used.
- Dynamic onboarding, presenting each new hire with tailored documentation based on location and role to accelerate completion while offering a centralized and consistent experience.
The Impact
The Denver pilot delivered impressive results, setting the stage for broader adoption of this Avature-powered, automated strategy:
- 81 percent reduction in time to fill
- 400 roles filled in just one month
- 100 percent vacancy fill rate, a first in nearly a decade
- More intuitive and faster application experience
A Vision for Long-Term Transformation
Following the success of the Denver pilot, USPS expanded its use of Avature beyond recruiting to support broader talent initiatives with Avature Refer and Avature Internal Mobility.
The implementation of these systems aligns with USPS’s commitment to employee engagement, career development and dedicated pathways, which are essential to maintaining the institution’s reliability and reach that Americans depend on.
There’s an incredible commitment and loyalty to the organization. People come in and stay five, ten or twenty years. And we’re still seeing that.”
Jenny Utterback
VP of Organization Development, USPS
But even established organizations like USPS are not exempt from the changes reshaping the business landscape. At the heart of USPS’s transformation journey is Delivering for America, a ten-year, $40 billion plan designed to modernize infrastructure, improve service standards and meet evolving customer expectations.
The initiative includes bold goals, such as transitioning to an electric delivery fleet by 2035, overhauling processing and IT systems and cutting workforce turnover by 50 percent. Needless to say, talent transformation is a central part of this vision.
To hear more about how one of America’s most iconic institutions is navigating change, listen to this episode of The Talent Transformation Podcast, which provides insights into how USPS is reinventing itself by modernizing operations and empowering its people.
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
