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Federal Agencies Still Have Work to Do in Incorporating a Full Range of Digital Tools
Despite efforts to digitize the federal workplace, organizations are still lagging in their employment and diversification of digital tools and services.
The digital revolution has given rise to profound changes in the quality of our everyday interactions with one another – a cultural shift that has carried over to the workplace. Spurred by the 2012 Digital Government Strategy, organizations are increasingly putting a premium on incorporating digital tools and services in an effort to bolster productivity and collaboration; however, according to Government Business Council’s recent survey of 396 federal employees in more than 30 agencies, workplace digitization is still very much a work in progress. The study finds that respondents are largely supportive of existing digital services, with 3 out of 4 identifying improved productivity, better customer service, and other positive outcomes as a result of these tools.
However, in spite of this encouraging feedback, agencies have yet to deliver on fully expanding their range of digital services – while 86% of the respondents use at least one digital collaboration tool (i.e., Google Docs, internal employee chat, social networking tools, etc.), only 40% use three or more of them. This trend is mirrored in organizations’ investment in customer-oriented tools: while the majority of agencies use websites to engage with customers, the percentage of respondents employing other possible digital services is significantly lower.
Ultimately, while federal agencies are experiencing favorable results from their use of digital tools, they face difficulties in diversifying the array of services they provide. We’ll be back next week to examine specific obstacles to digital progress and what agencies can do to address these challenges.
Methodology: GBC deployed a survey to a sample of Government Executive, Nextgov, and Defense One online and print subscribers in September 2014. The 396 respondents were senior-level federal employees, including those of GS/GM-11 to 15 grade levels and members of the Senior Executive Service. Click here to see the full report.
This post is written by Government Business Council; it is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Government Executive Media Group's editorial staff. For more information, see our advertising guidelines.