The COVID-19 era showed the decision-makers that remote work is possible. The early days of the pandemic were exciting and frustrating at the same time. On the one hand, employees found a new way of doing their jobs by working from home. On the other hand, lack of proper communication tools, high-speed Internet and other logistics made it frustrating to accomplish their tasks. Those who lived in rural areas suffered the most, since Internet access is spotty in some locations. Although it was not an easy task, most entities were able to provide necessary tools for the employees to continue working from home.
As time went by, slowly but increasingly, the quality and responsiveness of services in certain areas started to be affected. Some services to citizens such as licensing, taxation, permits, certain payments and other services have suffered. This is due to various issues that were not foreseen by management. Here are a few areas that have contributed to said issues:
Lack of Available/Skilled Staff: Since the start of the pandemic, many employees have retired, and it has been difficult to recruit skilled staff to fill the vacancies.
Home Environment: Working from home has benefits such as not having to spend one, two or more hours to get ready and commute to work or having to pay for child care or such. However, conducting meetings on webcam, trying to concentrate on the work at hand, conducting phone calls or trying to read a legal document, for example, when there are interruptions in the background is not easy, to say the least.
Missed Opportunities in Learning from Colleagues: Some of the many benefits of working in the office environment are things like knowledge sharing, getting answers to questions about work procedures, tips and tricks of the trade and other face-to-face interactions. It is a lot easier to look over someone’s shoulder and learn something than to read instructions/manuals.
In summary, remote work full time hasn’t been as seamless and/or in some cases sustainable. Although it is a viable solution for some tasks, it has not been efficient for others. To bring back service levels, the public sector must rethink its remote work policies and, at a minimum, bring employees who deal directly with the public back to the office at least a few days a week for 2023 and beyond. As the saying goes, “Everything in moderation” — including telework.
Before retiring in 2020, Andrew Armani was deputy secretary and agency chief information officer for the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency and for the California Government Operations Agency. He was known by many as the dean of state CIOs and AIOs and was a fixture for decades as a speaker and leader at state IT conferences. He is the co-founder and CEO of AnSurTech Consulting.
