The last few years have been challenging for Australia and its citizens.
We’ve had devastating floods and fires, the ongoing pandemic and now what seems like constant change and volatility from macro economic factors.
In emergency situations, citizens rely on government agencies and departments for help both at the response and recovery phase: providing vital information to government agencies, lodging emergency requests, seeking temporary accommodation, and receiving grants and assistance to get their lives and businesses back on their feet.
Navigating the different agencies is a challenge for citizens at any time, particularly during an emergency. Having to identify themselves multiple times or repeat their stories to access the assistance they need is sub-optimal.
Government tends to be siloed, so agencies needing to communicate with one another fall back on a technology they have been using for 30 years, email. A technology that creates additional silos in everyone’s inbox.
Delivering on citizen expectations is a big reason governments must embrace new technology to collaborate and work together.
In fact, PwC’s recent Australia’s Citizen Survey 2022 found Australians have similar expectations of governments as they have of other industries they deal with. Unfortunately, only 22 per cent of citizens in January 2022 felt governments were exceeding their expectations in digital service delivery, a drop from 30 per cent in June 2020.
The pandemic was a catalyst for digital transformation
According to James Enoch, head of public sector, APAC, at collaboration platform Slack, the pandemic pushed agencies and departments to find new ways to break down information silos and collaborate to deliver a response in a rapidly changing environment.
A great example of the ability to pivot during this challenging time, according to Mr Enoch, was the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions who rapidly transformed its grants management experience.
This change ensured 100,000 applications could be processed in less than 10 weeks for COVID-related programs, improving the citizen experience and ensuring businesses were able to get the support they needed during an emergency.
“There were silver linings within the challenges of the last three years. We have seen government departments operate like agile startups when needed. We have seen increasing collaboration between departments and agencies. We want to take this foundation and expand on it,” says Mr Enoch.
“The benefits are already apparent. There have been productivity improvements and innovations in finding new ways to solve problems.”
If anything, he adds, the interest in finding new ways to collaborate in a digital-first, flexible manner is only going to continue to rise, along with citizen expectations of digital government.
The benefits will be across service delivery, as well as employee experience in the public sector.
True flexibility goes beyond hybrid locations, into schedule flexibility
A recent report from Adaptavist called Digital Etiquette: Reinventing Work, found Australia is a global leader when it comes to flexible work. Just over a third of Australians, or 34%, were working under a hybrid model, compared to the US, UK, and Canada, where the average was 29 per cent.
Employees want to work differently to how they did before the pandemic took hold, but ensuring they are productive means having access to the right digital tools.
For government agencies and departments seeking to improve digital service delivery, those tools are also critical to ensuring staff don’t get caught in an endless loop of video calls and email trails.
“Organisations who have adopted flexible work models have seen productivity improvements of 4 per cent when they implement location flexibility. This may sound minimal, but it equates to 1.5 hours per employee per week.”
“Even more impactful, this number rises to 29 per cent higher productivity when schedule flexibility is added into an organisation’s ways of working,” adds Mr Enoch.
“Future Forum’s quarterly pulse surveys highlight the value of full schedule flexibility in terms of connection to an organisation’s values and culture, people, as well as productivity and focus,” says Mr Enoch.
“Add on the benefits that come from using collaborative technology to power new digital ways of working such as up to 60 per cent fewer emails, 36 per cent less time in meetings, and information being freed up from silos. These all help make employees’ work lives more pleasant and productive, and play an important role in improving talent retention.”
One challenge seen by all organisations when thrust into a remote work model, was the loss of ‘hallway’ conversations. These ad hoc, informal meetings often result in new collaborations, creativity and an exchange of ideas.
Instead, communication was formalised, and aspects of culture and collaboration seemed to fall by the wayside. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
For example, Slack’s huddle feature allows teams and individuals to rebuild these office relationships by providing a platform for casual collaboration and information sharing that formal meetings don’t allow. An added bonus is the average length of a huddle is 11 minutes, far less time than a formal meeting, while allowing employees to maintain the informal spark previously triggered by a hallway conversation.
Australia is doing well with digital government – but there’s room for improvement
The recent United Nations E-Government Survey 2022 has positive news for agencies and departments focused on digital service delivery. The report finds Australia ranks in the top 10 countries for e-government development, behind nations like New Zealand and the top-ranked Denmark.
But there is room for improvement, particularly relating to moving beyond email and towards more efficient, collaborative ways of working.
“Now is the time for governments to cement the progress made during the pandemic and become more efficient and collaborative. The digital-first, flexible model of work is here to stay and what is needed is a collaboration platform that is designed to succeed in a digital-first world,” says Mr Enoch.
The value of this particularly comes to the fore when placed in the context of the last few years. Fires, floods and the pandemic, among other challenges, have forced governments to transform how they deliver services.
With increasing collaboration, departments and agencies can improve their productivity, enhance citizen experiences and improve their retention of talent.
Now is not the time to take the foot off the accelerator of digital transformation.
For more information on how leading public sector organisations are preparing for a digital-first future, click here.
