Developing a hybrid and human-centric digital town hall

In public administration, too, there is no way around working from home and hybrid work. The future of work in public administration will be characterised by flexible, hybrid forms of work. The desire for flexible forms of work does not stop at public administration. Particularly in view of the age pyramid of employees in public administration and the increasing shortage of skilled workers, important challenges arise here. 

It is not only public administration employees who want the freedom to work from their desks and better balance their professional and private lives. An increasingly large proportion of the population also wants up-to-date access to public administration services.

However, the following questions arise when it comes to digitalisation of the public sector: How will the human roles and relationships change after the digitalisation? What will change for the employees in the administration? Do citizens want to interact with the administration exclusively via digital interfaces? What changes will digitalisation bring for the decision-makers in the public sector?

As we shift towards the future of hybrid work, how do we ensure the technology we use is human-centric and maintains the bonds between employees and citizens? Where do we cross the line between digitalisation and human interactions?

The discussion on digitisation in public administration is currently very focused on human-to-machine interaction. However, the digitalisation of public administration brings with it further-reaching challenges for the various stakeholder groups, which also manifest themselves in the question of the digitalisation of human-to-human interactions.

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Employees

The employees of the public sector will enjoy the benefits of a hybrid work model, which will bring a better work-life balance and flexibility to organise their life more efficiently. The struggle will be to maintain the interpersonal relationships between colleagues, but also between employees and the citizens who look for their guidance.

Even if the citizens will do mostly everything themselves digitally, they will still need human guidance when they encounter issues with handling their administrative tasks. This is even more common if the people accessing these services are not “digitally natives”. In this sense, we are facing a massive role change, as today’s clerk workers are becoming “coaches” who support citizens in using digital services.

The technical challenges come from having a GDPR-compliant solution that not only allows employees to work together and maintain the team spirit, but also allows them to properly assist citizens when accessing their services. 

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Citizens

One indisputable role of technology is for life-improving, and one can’t deny the perks of having the possibility to solve administrative tasks from the comfort of home. No more appointments at the office or long waiting periods… The future looks efficient. 

However not all administrative tasks can be 100% digitalised and some require complex processing and queries. And most importantly, there must be a way to get immediate online help if one gets stuck in the administrative process. 

There must be a way to get support from a "real person" if the citizen gets stuck in an administrative task. After all, not all citizens are so digitally affine that they can immediately use all the public services on offer without any problems. Users must "grow" with the development of digital services. 

Thus, end-to-end, media disruption-free digital delivery of public services remains a challenge and will continue to involve human-to-human interactions in the future.

On the other hand, citizens are offered new opportunities to participate in municipal development. From digital participation in committee meetings to participation events or other municipal offerings, there are a multitude of ways in which digitally affine citizens can participate in the actions of the municipality. And they also expect corresponding digital participation opportunities. 

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Decision-makers

Managers will have a new task on their hands: creating a suitable hybrid work model for their organisation and also help their teams adapt to it. Creating flexible working models for their employees is mandatory for retention and employees’ satisfaction, and remote cooperation should be as intuitive and easy as it was in the physical office.

The challenge of flexible working models is not only to design efficient work processes ("How do we want to work together remotely in the future?") but also to maintain the sense of community and connectedness that employees had when working locally.

The same challenge applies to local councils and the work of committees. Without digital offerings, it will be difficult to attract participation in municipal development, even for younger generations. At the same time, digitalisation will open up new horizons, as municipal development is no longer limited by physical space. Local actors can be organised quickly and efficiently in networks - this offers completely new opportunities for dealing with current challenges, e.g. in accommodating refugees or responding to crises such as the current one in Ukraine.

Many of the challenges described can be met by virtualizing administrations. Regardless of whether it is a town hall, district authority or public institution - the ivCAMPUS virtual office solution takes internal cooperation, contact with citizens and networking in the region to a new level.

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The virtual town hall - already here

ivCAMPUS is a virtual office solution that enables daily collaboration, meetings, peer support, and social interaction for the public sector, with immersive features and permanent presence to foster trust-based work.

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A fully immersive, modern, and beautiful workplace

Workers spend their time on ivCAMPUS as they would do in the physical office. They check in at the office in the morning, exchange information with colleagues when needed, resolve cases quickly, and they spend their day working as part of a community. No isolation at home even if they work from home. 

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Retain employees and attract talent

Become an attractive employer as you meet the increased demands for workplace flexibility without losing efficiency. 

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Easily accessible

Whether it’s a citizens’ meeting or an appointment in the administration: receive your guests in your digital meeting room - quickly, easily, and securely. 

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Public services made easy

With one click to your personal room, supporting citizens who have problems using the new digital public services it’s as easy as opening a browser tab. It doesn’t get more service-oriented than this!

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To find out more about ivCAMPUS and how it can help your public administration, book a free demo using the button below.