Bhubaneswar, Oct. 15: Officials of the India Post are gearing up to cope with the increasing competition they are facing nowadays.

The officials can be spotted at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, where they will be taught useful business skills by de-learning a few traditional systems of government functioning.

XIMB is hosting the first-of-its-kind training programme for the postal department officials in an effort to empower them with the skills of studying and working in changing the rural market, communication and relationship management and team building skills.

The programme has been designed by the B-school considering the department’s manpower capabilities, outreach to customers and the competition faced in the market.

The tailor-made programme will be held in three phases. The first phase will be a training need analysis workshop while the second phase beginning November 24 will be to monitor the performance of the officials. The third and final phase will be in February to further reinforce useful business skills.

“The officials will be trained to take proactive business developer role without forgoing their reputation of post office. The idea is to make these officials learn modern management techniques and concentrate more on rural India where they already have the advantage of reach and established credibility over their competitors,” said programme director Niraj Kumar of XIMB.

“It’s a gigantic task considering the number and spread of 155,204 post offices,” he said.