Challenges for governments and public administration organizations
To become operational excellent and deliver an excellent “customer experience”, governments and public administration organisations need to address a wide variety of challenges, a.o.:
- Become lean: streamline operations through application of lean management methods, redefining the operational model, optimizing the workflows, flexibility and capacity utilization, eliminating waste. Optimize non-core activities through carefully managed outsourcing, partnerships and development of shared services.
- Measure and manage performance: challenge and reshape the vision and mission, in line with community and politics expectations. Define and monitor performance indicators, not only on output but also on outcomes. Measure impact on citizen and society as well as internal operational performance. Benchmark actively, develop and implement best practices.
- Promote: be transparent on the administration performance, create visibility for innovative services and programs adding public value.
- Become citizen-centric: involve the stakeholder. Use proven voice-of-the-customer techniques for driving operational improvement and service delivery transformation. Respond to the expectations of the “on demand” world. Work on cultural change in this area.
- Optimize the workforce: focus on talent management and a motivating and more flexible work environment. Reinvent compensation and benefits structures for performance-based rewarding. Evaluate the activities and added value of the different services, increase the mobility of staff. Anticipate the challenges of the ageing workforce.
- Work End-2-End: Design and implement both structures and processes guaranteeing the required level of interaction and coordination between entities: the end of the silo-operations era. Implement a balanced and professional approach to stakeholder management.
- Manage the transformation: managing the change in organisational structure, processes, technologies and workforces is a major challenge in itself. There is the need to install the appropriate business-ICT ‘governance’ – processes and structures to guide the transformation process –, as well as professional project and program management. Leadership needs to take its responsibility in creating the sense of urgency and the ambition level. Creation of ownership and commitment to the change by civil servants is needed, using proven change management methods and techniques.