Imagine if your government employees had an extra 240 hours per year — what could they accomplish with all that time? Most likely your answer wouldn’t have anything to do with pushing paper. In an ideal world, you’d have them apply those hours to imagining and implementing ways to better serve the public — activities that will pay dividends in terms of civic engagement and public support.
Thanks to government workflow automation, it’s possible to actually give those hours back to your employees.
Workflow tools are playing a significant role in the widespread digital transformation movement, in which many government agencies are doing away with their traditional manual processes and looking to digital tools to help them get work done faster and more efficiently. (Hence all those extra hours!)
In this article, we’ll cover the different ways your office can take advantage of government workflow automation and offer some suggestions for tools you can use to reach your productivity goals.
Areas where government workflow automation shines
Public sector organizations tend to involve a lot of processes. Most of those processes go unchanged for years and include multiple steps and stakeholders; they also usually require signatures, approvals, and plenty of rubber stamping. Many of these workflows are related to citizen services, an area that could see greatly improved outcomes — such as quicker turnaround times — with the use of automation tools.
By using technology solutions to automate government workflows, public sector employees can enhance the speed and quality of their operations in order to better meet citizens’ needs. However, this change may require making a fundamental shift in the way some government agencies and departments operate.
“Governments don’t change their old ways of working to meet the requirements of modern software,” says Bryon Kroger, founder and CEO of Rise8, a full-stack digital transformation firm for the public sector. However, modern software, such as workflow automation solutions, are built around modern ways of working, explains Kroger.
As a result, in order to experience the full benefits of workflow automation software, some government agencies may need to refine and shift their operating procedures to ensure they can improve the speed and quality of their work.
With the right technology solutions and processes in place, government workflow automation can significantly enhance these key areas:
- Communication: Government workflow automation software can build communication bridges between departments and agencies, ensuring all stakeholders are automatically included in project-related correspondence to keep them up to date. Keeping all employees in the loop improves outcomes for citizens.
- Productivity: Manual and time-consuming tasks, such as data entry, can take employee attention away from more pressing, valuable activities, such as engaging with citizens. The right automation tools take over low-value manual tasks so employees can focus on high-priority issues.
- Data security: With workflow automation tools, only the necessary individuals have access to information. This can improve data security measures and reduce the chances of data theft.
- Decision-making: Workflow automation tools make it easy for employees to access all the necessary data and information they need to make decisions more accurately and quickly. For example, to approve a permit, employees can review the application and all the necessary documentation all in one place without having to search for files or repeat requests for the same materials from citizens.
Workflow automation tools for the public sector
There are many different tools that support government workflow automation. Regardless of which one you choose, Kroger offers some sound advice: “Look for software with a customer service function that is focused on change management. We see this missed so often, but this is what is required for the product to be successful in government. They require a higher touch and have much longer timelines.”
Customer service and customer support departments, as well as a comprehensive knowledge base and resources, are essential when choosing workflow automation tools for the public sector.
Here are some leading technology options for your government office to consider.
Jotform Approvals
Jotform Approvals is best for public sector agencies and departments that want to expedite and streamline approvals-related processes that involve multiple stakeholders. For example, a government agency can use Jotform Approvals to manage the process for permit applications, automatically notifying the stakeholders and moving the application to the next step.
monday.com
If you’re looking for a highly visual interface, monday.com is a great choice. With it, you can create specific triggers and actions to automate both simple and complex workflows, such as for web page chatbots.
Integrify
For government offices that don’t have anyone on staff with coding or web development experience, Integrify is a good option. With it, you can set up simple workflows that have task dependencies, child processes, and automated reminders, such as office supply purchases, HR routing, and customer service tickets.
Jotform Approvals: Workflow automation support for government agencies
Jotform Approvals is an excellent solution for government agencies and departments that need to streamline their approval workflows.
With Jotform Approvals, your government employees can create forms for a number of government processes (such as permit applications, for instance) and quickly set up an automated workflow for form submissions. Employees can add approvers and conditional branches to their approval processes to create the exact flow they need.
Creating your first approval workflow is a snap — you can even use a Jotform approval flow template. You can customize any template to meet your government agency’s specific requirements.
Once someone submits a form response, employees can track approvals throughout the entire process, send automated reminders to recipients for signatures, and respond to approval requests.
Best of all, Jotform Approvals is available on mobile, so government employees can manage and track all their approval workflows from anywhere and at any time, ensuring they can always meet your citizens’ needs.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
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