A Two-Pronged Approach to Improving Government Case Management Work

Government organizations have a bad rap for being inefficient. But with outdated technology and limited spending, they aren’t exactly set up for success. And the expectations from stakeholders are high, with funding provided primarily by taxpayer dollars.

Case management work is at the core of your government department’s or agency’s mission—even if you and your team may not call it that. Gartner® describes case work as a universal workstyle of government and states that, as such, the integration of government services depends on designing and developing case management solutions as composable products and services that can be shared across the programs, verticals, and levels of government. This work drives your organization’s overarching goal, whether that is delivering public services, ensuring compliance, or furthering your state, local, or national interests.

Because many government organizations depend on legacy, siloed systems, case management work is often inefficient and delivers a less-than-ideal experience for stakeholders. In an effort to make government casework more efficient, agency CIOs should consider two key stakeholders: citizens and government employees.

Improve government case management work in these two areas.

Prioritizing citizens.

First, focus on the most apparent stakeholder for public sector organizations: citizens. Whether directly or indirectly, all government organizations are set up to serve the citizens of their jurisdiction in some way, and citizens are negatively impacted by the inefficiencies of government work. Maybe business and recreational licenses take longer to obtain, or government-sponsored benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid are delayed. Disparate systems and siloed data across departments and agencies means that citizens have to file similar versions of the same form with several agencies. We think of this burden placed on individuals trying to navigate bureaucratic processes as the ‘citizen time tax.’

Not only do governments strive to deliver goods and services effectively and efficiently, they are increasingly looking for ways to improve the citizen experience when interacting with the government. Unfortunately, the current state of government tech and the fragmented processes within government workflows often don’t support this goal.

Empowering employees.

Much like the private sector, public sector organizations have come to realize that employees are a critical stakeholder. Providing a positive employee experience greatly impacts an organization’s ability to retain its talent. For many public sector institutions that are facing a “silver tsunami” of retiring public servants, carrying forward institutional knowledge is a critical concern. This makes more effective technology an imperative for government agencies.

When it’s difficult for staff to do their jobs on a day-to-day basis—when they’re bogged down by rote, administrative tasks that take them away from the higher, value-add work they were hired to perform—they may seek professional advancement elsewhere, often outside of the public sector altogether. With case management such a core tenet of government work, the outdated systems many agencies have in place today fall short in helping the government set their staff up for success.

Implementing a case management solution to enable adaptability and efficiency.

Recognizing that government work is built on a foundation of case management is the first step in optimizing workflows because it opens the door for a solution built for that unique need. Case management work involves myriad different parts and can easily get messy. With a case management solution built on a low-code platform, government departments and agencies can unify disparate data systems, streamline disjointed workflows, and in turn, improve both the employee and citizen experience by getting to decisions faster and more efficiently. This means when a crisis emerges, vital community businesses can apply and receive economic relief sooner, and interruptions to public service delivery can be avoided. Overall, citizens can expect the same level of responsiveness from their government institutions that they experience as consumers in the private sector.

Employees also greatly benefit from low-code case management solutions with increased visibility into the data that matters to their mission, less time spent jumping over, around, and simply going through red tape, and being able to focus more energy on the overall goal, rather than on unnecessary bottlenecks and roadblocks. When employees are freed up to focus on the work they were hired to do and operate at a more strategic level, they’re more likely to stay motivated and engaged and less likely to experience burnout–a key concern for many public sector organizations today.

To learn more about the benefits that a low-code case management tool can bring to your government organization and what to look for in a solution, check out the new eBook, The Secret to a Streamlined Government.

Note: This blog was originally published on Appian.