Love it or loathe it – and it is usually both – technology is an ever-increasing part of the workplace.
While we haven’t quite reached the levels of automation and robotics predicted in the sci-fi novels of the past, increasing numbers of job are being assisted by – or even replaced by – technology.
Local government is no exception.
In a survey of local government by innovation foundation Nesta and The MJ, one in 10 frontline workers said they believed their roles will be automated in the next decade – but less than 5% of council managers agree.
But they are sceptical about the prospects.
Less than half of our respondents believed parts of their job would benefit from being automated.
Moreover, a whopping 94% of frontline staff said there were parts of their job that could never be well done by automation – with 88% of managers agreeing with them.
There is an acceptance that technology supports the modern workplace well, with 63% of frontline workers and 74% of managers agreeing it helps them do their jobs more effectively.
But just 35% of respondents felt they were given adequate training to work with new technology.
Nesta’s executive director of programmes, Vicki Sellick, says: ‘I see this as a real opportunity for local government – automating some tasks to free up officer time for things which only a human can do – face to face interactions with citizens, kindness and empathy.’
She says Nesta is working with six councils around the country on data analytics which will help local government target resources.
But she warns: ‘Technology is not a silver bullet to solve complex social challenges but it can help us all do more.
‘That will only happen when officers feel confident about using technology – whether that be new forms of digital participation, data analytics or deploying household technologies, like Alexa of Google Home, for social good.’
Around half the survey respondents think they are making good use of data to do their job, but eight out of 10 are confident when it comes to privacy issues that come from data use.
When asked if their employer was ready to innovate and handle the challenges of the coming decade, 30% of frontline staff agreed while 38% of their managers were also positive – although that leaves two-thirds of respondents who don’t think they are ready.
Ms Sellick says: ‘These results back up our experience working with local government colleagues up and down the country.
Officers and leaders want to embrace innovation, but aren’t always sure where to start or if they have the right tools.’
As a result of this experience, Nesta has published a digest of 20 tools for innovating in government.
Just under three quarters of our respondents said they were supported to try new ideas while 42% said their leaders were innovative, and 48% said their employer listened to ideas from the front line.
But there is a massive gap between the views of frontline council staff and their managers when it comes to knowing how to take ideas forward.
When asked if they were confident in knowing how to prototype new ideas, 74% of managers said yes, compared with 45% of workers – while 62% of managers said they could scale up new ideas, compared with 26% of the frontline.
Ms Sellick says leading councils embrace ideas from the frontline, and have clear paths to try them out.
But she adds: ‘We should also not forget the elephant in the room – failure.
'Not all new ideas or innovations work which is challenging when the stakes of public scrutiny are high.
‘Councillors have a role to play in creating safe space for officers to prototype new ideas and that experiments are quick and cheap – so money follows success.’
However, lack of support was not a huge feature in our survey.
Just 4% of respondents said they didn’t feel supported by their managers – and 0.6% said they feared something would go wrong.
By far the biggest barrier, according to 45% of our survey respondents, was a lack of staff and funding – and a further quarter claimed they lacked the time.
‘Years of austerity has left many public services creaking under the burden of responsibility with fewer staff and resources,’ says Ms Sellick.
‘That’s why it’s vital every council in the country embraces innovation and new ways of working.’