A decade has passed since the UK Government unveiled its Digital Strategy in 2012, as a part of its commitment to transform its services. Despite this, the public sector continues to face workflow challenges as teams continue to work on disparate digital systems. According to a study from Deloitte, almost three-quarters of government officials said that COVID-19 accelerated digital transformation efforts. Yet 80 percent believe that this has not gone far enough.
Employees are still working with a range of legacy systems that are impacting their ability to operate efficiently. These issues are compounded by the need to upskill government workers to ensure they can flourish in a more digital-focused public sector. By leveraging emerging technologies and reducing the amount of time spent on admin, employees can be freed up to innovate across central government and, in time, benefit the country they serve.
Barriers to progress
The experience of the COVID pandemic over the past two years is, however, clear evidence that government can transform. Service provision across the public sector transformed practically overnight, not least in healthcare, where the shift to telemedicine and a rapid scaling of the vaccine programme have proven vital in limiting the spread of the pandemic.
The main reason this didn’t happen sooner – and hasn’t yet filtered through to the rest of the public sector – is sheer complexity.
Consider the differing security classifications that each and every government department works with, for example, or the lack of system interoperability that hinders productivity, slowing down vital digital processes like sharing data.
In most central government organisations, there are countless silos that need to be eliminated to solve these problems. Until consolidated systems are leveraged, teams will not be able to collaborate in the right way, and this will have a direct impact on innovation that hinders the organisation, but also taxpayers, who are left to carry the burden of disparate, disconnected services that are difficult to access and which lack continuity.
The end result might be incomplete medical records, for example, or unwieldy paper documents. It could also be slow passport applications, or difficulties accessing front-line emergency services, like the police and paramedics, who are effectively trapped by the sheer weight of admin they need to complete.
Enter emerging tech and digital skills
Tech will play a huge part in streamlining the administrative side of day-to-day work in the public sector, allowing employees to be more productive, and citizens to benefit from better government services.
As part of responding to these challenges, businesses should look to implement automated technologies. One example is the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), where ‘bots’ learn and mimic user actions to automate regular tasks such as making calculations, moving files, and filling out forms. The technology helps to move monotonous and repetitive tasks away from employees, allowing them to dedicate more time to innovation and creative thinking. Artificial intelligence (AI) brings similar benefits. By using AI-driven analytics, central governmental organisations can spot areas of improvement and rapidly deploy advancements to processes that improve workflows.
To make the most of these emerging technologies, it is essential to improve employee’s digital skills. Cloud Industry Forum found that 40 per cent of public sector workers lack the skills they need for digital transformation. Internal training and development programmes will help public sector organisations with this but there are also a number of other external initiatives too. An example is ServiceNow’s NextGen programme, which helps train people so they can take part in the digital economy while working with a network of top tech employers. It helps to widen the talent pool and tackle the skills shortage head-on, giving tailored training to talented graduates. It also shows how the government can train workers to have digital-first skills, so that they may be able to benefit the workforce.
While this transformation is instrumental to creating better public services, it’s important to note that it can’t be a single once-off process. In a world where citizens have grown used to innovative, bespoke consumer tech in every sphere of their lives, public sector organisations will be defined and judged by their ability to keep up the same pace of change, maintaining top-quality services whatever happens in the future. Ultimately, this means developing, optimising, and developing resilience at exactly the same rapid pace and frequency as the private sector.
Now is the time to transform
Digital transformation is no longer a nice-to-have function for government bodies, it needs to be a core and integral part of public sector strategy. Government departments should be consistently looking for ways to provide faster and more effective services, while ensuring that employees have the skills to make the most of new technologies.
Using automation in the right way, and ensuring staff have the right skills in place, will transform central government. This will help public sector organisations innovate in the same way as their private sector counterparts, ensuring they are doing a lot more than just reaching the targets set out in the Government’s 2012 Digital Strategy.
