Digital learning: Smoothing the Digital Transformation Journey

There’s enormous pressure in the public sector for digital transformation. Digital transformation improves efficiency and effectiveness, but only if you take your people with you on the journey. 

My latest article demonstrates how digital learning in the flow of work can engage your people and help drive transformation success. 

“The challenge is substantial: the public sector will have to deliver the same or better outcomes with less labour available.”  

Stark words from the 2022/23 House of Lords Public Services Committee Report: Fit for the future? Rethinking the Public Services Workforce. 

Improving operational and workplace processes through digital transformation can improve public sector efficiency and effectiveness.  

And it’s worth defining the much-used term “digital transformation” regarding how it affects the public sector. 

Our recent blog, “What is Digital Transformation?” defined it as “the implementation of digital technologies that allow organisations to reconfigure business processes and deliver a better customer experience.” 

If the public sector is to become more “citizen-centric”, then delivering a better customer experience lies at the heart of this. 

Playing catch up

Undoubtedly, the public sector is playing catch up with its private sector counterparts, who are further down the road on the digital transformation highway. 

And it’s not just a UK factor. According to a Deloitte survey of 1,200 government officials worldwide, nearly 70% reported their digital capabilities lagged behind the private sector. 

So, there’s much work to be done. In my travels around Government bodies and their agencies, I’ve seen how public sector bodies strive to transform their working methods. Time and resources are spent implementing new ways of working, developing new software and reconfiguring traditional paper-based processes with digital equivalents.  

The road map to digital transformation in the public sector

The cross-government Central Digital and Data Office (CDO) has just released a roadmap document titled “Transforming for a Digital Future,” developed in partnership with government departments. This document outlines the sector’s aspirations for the adoption of digital technology, presenting three broad visions it wants to see in place by 2025: 

“…to exceed public expectations with policies and public services fit for the digital age; to equip civil servants with the necessary skills and capabilities; and to enhance government efficiency and security.”

Six missions make up the programme:

• Raising the provision of public services to an exemplary “great” standard as measured by industry benchmarks. Effectively, this entails matching the customer experience in the private sector – they quote online grocery orders and the buying of train tickets online as examples
  

• These would be measured by specific metrics such as digital adoption rates, successful digital completions, user satisfaction feedback, cost per transaction analysis, and adherence to WCAG 2.1 Guidelines

• Further development of the GOV.UK One Login service, whereby individuals can manage accounts and gain access using a single login

• Improved decision-making by providing better, more accurate data. This would involve improved data sharing across the entire public sector and the use of AI
  

• Modernising and ensuring the security and sustainability of government technology. This includes replacing outdated systems and establishing standardised and simplified processes for building and procuring technology
  
   
• Building digital skills at scale, including a drive to recruit around 2500 tech and digital specialists through apprenticeships and talent programmes and piloting a digital secondment programme

• Unlocking Digital Transformation, facilitating the adoption of agile and product-centric ways of working across government, ensuring legislation is fit for digital delivery and “teams have the flexibility to adopt new solutions quickly.” 

These six missions are laudable in their aims. However, the size and scale of achieving the task by 2025 should not be underestimated. This is a massive transformation from where the public sector currently sits in the digital transformation.

I have several observations:

Mission 1:

Whilst we’ve seen much progress in digitalising the customer experience in areas such as passport renewals, driving licence applications, online tax returns, etc., much work remains to be done. For example, over 8500 forms on Gov. UK remain inaccessible. 

Mission 2:

Streamlining login access requires much focus. Astonishingly, there are currently over 190 different ways to set up accounts and access government services. 

Missions 3 and 4:

With public sector budgets under pressure, the costs of improving data usage and access and replacing existing infrastructure may be under intense scrutiny. 

Mission 5:

With regard to recruiting tech and digital specialists, attracting and retaining talent in the public sector has been challenging in recent years. As I highlighted in my recent blog, pay and benefits have fallen behind the private sector, resulting in a drain of top performers. More than 41% of senior civil servants are actively seeking new jobs. According to the most recent Office of National Statistics data, the private sector experienced an annual average regular pay growth of 8.2% from April to June 2023, in contrast to the 6.2% growth in the public sector. 

Mission 6:

The agenda for digital transformation is often designed and driven by technical digital specialists. Yet those using the technology daily are mostly non-technical people who may struggle to navigate their way around new working processes and software.  

There can be a disconnect between the design and set-up of the newly transformed working processes and the ability of those carrying out the work or delivering the customer experience.  

How to take your people with you on the digital transformation journey

Bridging the gap between extensive training and development of new and existing employees is the way to unlock digital transformation to facilitate adoption of agile and citizen-centric ways of working. 

However, traditional learning and training can be cumbersome and slow. Much of the learning is forgotten within hours. This is a scientifically proven fact. The 19th-century psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus called this the “Forgetting Curve”.  

Art Kohn quantified this in his article “Brain Science: Overcoming the Forgetting Curve”, carrying out research that shows “on average, students forget 70 per cent of what we teach within 24 hours of the training experience”. 

So, bearing in mind that there’s usually a bigger gap than 24 hours between an employee receiving training and applying it in the flow of work, most learning is forgotten before the employee has a chance to use it. 

So, there’s a danger your people can get left behind, compromising the successful implementation of the transformation roll-out. 

I’m not suggesting that traditional L&D methodologies should not be used. They have a part to play and must be in place to drive the adoption process centrally. 

But traditional methods of delivering L&D per se aren’t effective. They’re too slow and lack practical relevance, operating outside the flow of work. 

Even when delivered online, they usually rely on a classroom-based approach from a trainer providing the learning to a group audience. There’s often little interactivity and engagement to ensure effective learning. 

For digital transformation adoption, traditional L&D needs underpinning with more flexible, adaptable digital learning in the flow of work to improve the chances of success. 

This can be achieved in several ways, whereby learning is delivered precisely when needed – when the actual work is being carried out.

Providing help and support in the flow of work

Digital Adoption Platforms such as Omniplex Guide empower employees and customers with in-app support, step-by-step walkthroughs, and on-demand assistance for seamless systems and software training…in the flow of work.  

The broad principles and training staff receive via up-front classroom learning can be reinforced with personalised onboarding, guidance, and support in real-time. You can connect your people to workflows, reducing the complexities and fears of the “new” whilst reducing support tickets and management time in sorting out problems. 

Digital Application solutions can also drive a great customer experience by prompting and supporting anyone engaging with your working software to navigate your digitally transformed services effortlessly. 

Learning retention is massively improved. The “forgetting curve” effect is reversed. Employee confidence is enhanced, and productivity is increased with uninterrupted workflows… 

…making the journey to successful digital transformation a lot easier.

About the author 

Antony is part of Omniplex Learning’s public sector team. They work with many public sector organisations, advising them on all aspects of online learning. If there’s anything regarding your digital L&D programme you’d like to discuss, you can get in touch with Antony at [email protected]