Creating a new government service in a changing world
In the coming decade several factors such as an aging population, the rise of a digital native generation, budget shortfalls, and ballooning entitlement payments will reshape the way government delivers services. In this environment, government leaders are required to make decisions more quickly in the face of constant evolution.
Challenges for leaders
The challenge for government leaders is, they face multiple and complex barriers to transforming the government service, such as:
- competing priorities
- lack of organizational agility
- lack of a collaborative culture
- insufficient funding of programs and projects
- security concerns.
Barriers to great service
Coupled with these barriers and, in most cases because of them, there are mounting issues with the current service delivery, which include:
- limited knowledge of citizens
- disconnected services
- unique service challenges — services for citizens with specific challenges such as homelessness, mental illness and unemployment require a particular level of service design to understand and incorporate needs outside of common experiences
- inadequate digital platforms
- unresponsive customer service
- complex regulatory environments
Changing systems and tackling these issues to create a seamless and simple experience is hard and with the rise citizen expectation and faster technology cycles, this change continually becomes harder.
Five focus areas
To deliver new government services in this changing environment, public agencies need to focus less on securing internal buy-in and focus more on delivering for customer need. Focusing on five areas will help agencies create the change to their business model to build the transformation that is desperately needed:
- Strategy — what is the vision of the future?
- Citizen focus — how can citizens co-create services that better meet their needs?
- Culture — what steps are being taken to strengthen a collaborative digital culture?
- Workforce skills — how are government agencies introducing new digital skills?
- Procurement — are existing procurement processes suitable to provide digital solutions?
Public expectation about how public institutions function and perform are rapidly increasing. Citizens expect public services to be responsive, timely, and personalized. Failing to meet these expectations erodes public trust and confidence. It causes citizens to question the effectiveness of their government and the need for some government agencies.
To be an effective and positive institution in citizen’s lives, government agencies need to focus on the five critical areas to create the simplicity of new service delivery models.
