Over the past few decades, public administration has been undergoing profound changes as part of a historic shift. For generations, public services were managed mainly through physical archives, with large numbers of paper files, using mostly manual methods of administration and management of services provided to citizens. In the main, these types of work were just accepted as the norm and were part of the ‘way things were done’. Yet while the core mission of public services has remained unchanged, the tools available to implement that mission have been through absolute and radical transformation. Today, public administration is at a crossroads, as it is meeting digital change on an unprecedented scale.

There’s more to preparing the next generation of public service workers than teaching them public policy, ethics and community leadership. They need to be prepared for a forward-looking approach to training and education that includes building digital literacy into every layer of public administration. Future civil servants need to be able to handle complex data systems and to meet the expectations of modern citizens. Above all, they need to use technology to make government services more accessible, transparent, and efficient.

The Changing Expectations of the Modern Citizen

So why does digital preparation for future public servants matter? Above, I summarized how communities today live in an instant-update, easy-availability, smooth-online-experience society. Their experiences in private business, such as getting to order (and have delivered) groceries via their phone, or reviewing and conducting transactions on their accounts at any hour of the night or day, can and should translate to their experiences with public agencies.

However, when it comes to public services, many citizens are frustrated with long waits, lack of clear information, and complicated processes for obtaining permits, records, and social services.

So, why should public interactions feel any different?

Public sector workers of the future will have to overcome many anachronisms in day-to-day administrative work in order to meet citizens’ expectations. That is to say, in order to implement change in government, civil servants of the future will need to feel comfortable experimenting with new solutions as well as designing public services with the average user in mind.

Bridging the Gap Between Policy and Technology

For decades, University programs in public administration and policy have focused on subjects of Public Finance, Organizational Behavior, Legal Frameworks, and Political Theory. While these core subjects remain fundamental, they are no longer sufficient to prepare the next generation of public sector leaders. Each and every policy decision today entails a host of technological considerations, and every digital system is, in fact, a physical embodiment of underlying policy choices.

1) How can you build classes that combine to give students a solid grounding in the fundamentals of public administration while at the same time opening their eyes to new technologies, and how can you avoid overloading them with too much information?

Schools and training programs can prepare future public leaders for this new era of public administration by integrating digital skills into their study programs. These future public servants don’t have to be programmers or data analysts, but they need enough digital literacy to work with tech teams, test software, and analyze how digital tools can be used to deliver public services. They need to understand how to analyze public data in an ethical way, understand basic cybersecurity, and understand how to use digital tools to make processes more efficient.

In addition to analyzing public data ethically, future civil servants will also need to understand basic cybersecurity and how to use modern technology to cut down on the time spent on operations. Thus, study programs will need to merge public policy with awareness of the latest technology.

Software Built for the Future of Public Service

Administrative workflow management is one of the areas where public administration is benefiting from technology. The challenges of managing huge volumes of work, including handling inquiries, managing regulatory requirements, processing applications, and dealing with constituent cases on an ongoing basis, are substantial. Managing work using paper, or using discrete software tools to manage individual aspects of work, creates huge inefficiencies and major problems in terms of delays, cost, and lost information.

Many important documents, records, and other information are lost when systems are not able to talk to each other. The point of many modern public sector systems is to share information across systems.

Government case management software, for example, enables public sector organizations to serve their constituents better. Government agencies use these tools to manage high volumes of constituent service requests more efficiently. Case Management Software combines all interactions into a single case, enabling public servants to better serve their constituents.

When future public service workers learn to use modern software during their training, they will enter the workforce with the ability to handle large volumes of work accurately. No longer will there be the need to search for physical folders and to read through scattered email correspondence in overcrowded offices with poor lighting. Public servants will be able to focus on the real work of solving complex community problems with the aid of digital government tools.

Cultivating a Culture of Innovation and Adaptability

Technology in the public sector is not a goal that will be reached in the future, but rather it is an ongoing process of improvement. What the public sector uses today will most likely be outdated in a few years and then will be replaced by a new technology.

Tools change. Mindsets have to change too.

Preparing the next generation of public service professionals for the use of one specific tool is not enough; we need to create a culture of adaptability and of ongoing learning and development within public services.

In the history of public administration, there has often been a risk-averse approach to issues of workflow. This is because administrators have traditionally operated within a set of established procedures and, with few exceptions, change has been avoided purely because that is how things have always been done. In preparation for the future of public administration, institutions must develop workplaces that are able to foster, test, and then expand new ideas within a framework of action that is responsible.

Professional development in public administration has to focus on problem solving, flexibility and change management. Public servants who are able to deal with change are also able to guide their public organization through technical changes without problems, and continue to deliver services in an adequate manner.

Ensuring Equity and Accessibility in Digital Government

Additionally, as government services transition to digital formats, the public administrator of the future must facilitate equitable and accessible services to ensure that all individuals and groups are able to access the necessary public resources as needed.

Future public servants will be trained to look at digital transformation for public government services through an equity lens. This means developing online tools that are accessible to people with disabilities, which are written in clear language and that allow for non-digital alternatives for vulnerable community members in order to ensure fair and equal access to public resources.

When we train new public service workers to consider issues of accessibility in relation to the adoption of technology in order to serve the community, agencies can develop the most effective digital systems to serve everyone fairly and include them all.

Conclusion: Building a Public Workforce for Tomorrow

For a moment, let’s imagine a future where the challenges of public health, urban planning, and social support will be met by a capable public service. This future will require a public workforce that is of a caliber and nature different from what currently exists.

Preparing future public service professionals for high-volume work, within and across organizations and sectors, is critical for public institutions to remain relevant, resilient and responsive to the evolving needs of citizens and communities. Investing in civil servants today is critical to meeting the challenges of tomorrow.