Sign On 
Over the years there’s been a mass exodus of workers from the public sector, known as the Great Resignation, which was accelerated during the 2020 pandemic. During the great resignation, seasoned professionals exited the workforce and government workers moved into the private sector seeking competitive compensation, creating more work on existing staff. Today, government staffing continues to be a challenge. Until this tension can be relieved, local governments must lean into automation and technology in order to maintain operations and alleviate pressure on staff. Automation is about collaborating with staff and empowering them to get more done in less time. For local governments with limited staff, below are a few ideas to help maximize your team’s capabilities and achieve operational efficiency through automation.
Start with your staff. Start from the ground up with a thorough examination of your operations and staff. The goal is to identify where best to invest in technologies and process improvements for the greatest impact on workflow and staff. One of the easiest ways to understand your staff’s pain points is to simply ask them. Solicit feedback from staff to get perspective on where processes can be improved. The people closest to the work shed the greatest light on what needs to be changed. If you can condense a process that normally takes a staff member 1 hour and reduce it to 15 minutes, then it’s a win. The less time a task takes the more efficiencies you create. This collaborative approach gives staff an opportunity to take ownership in the organization and share ideas to resolve pain points that if left unchecked could create workplace tension and fatigue.
Manual processes must go! There is a cost to an operation that is manually intensive. Invest in technologies that alleviate workflow fatigue and create operational efficiencies so staff can juggle fewer tasks and accomplish goals quicker. Governments should look to their banking partners for an outside examination of their operations. Banking partners will identify areas where processes can be improved and quantify the potential savings. It’s important to regularly meet with your banking partners, and also have them meet with your Payables and Receivables departments for insight into their process and procedures. Again, staff play a key role in the day-to-day operations, so their input is essential to creating a solution that is specific to your operational needs.
Constantly re-assess. Change is constant, and it doesn’t come without challenges. So, after you’ve assessed the needs of your staff and implemented the new process or technology, give it time and then ask for feedback. Learn to embrace a culture of automation and efficiency by constantly assessing your team’s needs through regular surveying. Based on your findings, you might find that automation exceeds your goals, or that additional steps such as training may be needed to fully maximize the benefits of automation. In all, incorporate automation and continue to refine and improve as more technologies become available, as new feedback is obtained, and as your operations grow alongside the needs of your community.
Partner and collaborate. Wells Fargo has a specialized team of bankers that work exclusively with local governments and are dedicated to helping governments overcome operational challenges with automation. Local government staffing is a complex issue so it will take partners with industry expertise to work with your team to address staffing shortages. As a leader in government, you should ask yourself the below questions as you assess your staffing challenges, banking partners and how automation can benefit your operations:
- Did a new process or technology deliver as we expected? Were the savings and efficiencies realized?
- When has our banker conducted a business process review with our staff to understand their pain points and how we can make improvements?
- Do we regularly request feedback and ideas from our team? Has our staff shared dissatisfaction over a particular process?
- Does our banker understand our government’s collections and disbursement processes? Are they bringing ideas to help improve our workflow?
It will take collaboration between local government leaders, staff members, banking partners, and other stakeholders to help navigate the current staffing shortages.
