The Benefit of Technology for Local Government Managers and Supervisors
Department managers play a vital role in local government. They execute the mission of the department while also ensuring the frontline workers who handle the day-to-day tasks have what they need to make the department function. Managers and supervisors play a critical role in helping local government agencies operate more efficiently – an important task considering the number of agencies being asked to do more with less – but also in helping to engage and retain staff.
When employees are engaged, they perform their roles better, helping to provide better outcomes for the department and the organization as a whole. While many factors affect employee engagement and retention, a report from the Institute for Public Sector Employee Engagement found that in local government in particular, supervision is a top driver of employee engagement.
A strong supervisor-employee relationship where the supervisor has time to recognize and provide feedback on employees’ work, helps them see how their work contributes to the mission of the department and organization, and motivates their employees to be better at their job go a long way toward creating a more efficient, effective department overall.
But between managing the demands of their department, reporting to leadership and stepping in to assist frontline employees with the day-to-day tasks as-needed, many department managers don’t have time to build the kind of supervisor-employee relationship that creates that effective engagement. So how can local government agencies give their managers enough time back to improve their departments?
By arming supervisors with the necessary tools to make management more easy, local government agencies will reap the benefits of increased efficiency and employee engagement. One effective tool that all agencies can utilize is software. From automations to reporting, here’s how software can benefit local government supervisors.
Benefit #1: High-level visibility of each employee’s workload
Department supervisors are responsible for knowing what projects their employees have going on – but when workloads are high, it can be difficult to keep track of the status of each employees’ work, as well as any challenges they might be facing.
With software designed for local government agencies, department supervisors have the high-level visibility to see what everyone is working on. Products such as Comcate’s Animal Control Manager, Code Enforcement Manager, or CRM come equipped with a dashboard, from which a supervisor can quickly view all open cases. Dashboards can be filtered to view caseload by employee, date created, case status and more, so supervisors can quickly identify where things might need help moving along with the department.
Benefit #2: Streamlined case management for increased departmental efficiency
With shrinking budgets more and more common, many departments are being asked to do more with less staff these days – and unfortunately case volume is not determined by how many employees you have, meaning small departments often have to handle major work loads.
For those overworked departments, software can help by streamlining case management. Not only does software create one central database to house all contacts and case information, which is helpful when it comes time to report, but it greatly reduces the time it takes to create a case. With a product like Comcate, creating a case can take as little as 90 seconds thanks to features like tap-to-select-location, pre-uploaded violations and a database of contacts – not to mention cloud-based capabilities that work just as well in the field as they do in the office, saving employees the time-drain of having to come back to the office to file a case.
Benefit #3: Automated check-ins to expedite follow-up
One of the biggest time-saving features of local government software is automations. Automation involves setting up rules and logic within a program so that taking one action triggers another to be done automatically. With local government software, departments can:
Schedule follow-ups straight from the system, then be reminded of the follow-up when the time rolls around – saving employees from having to remember and supervisors from having to remind them.
Notifying involved parties, from the citizen who submitted the request or complaint to supervisors or other stakeholders in the agency, when major actions are taken on a case.
Notify supervisors if an employee has overdue work or a case that isn’t moving, allowing them to easily identify roadblocks and step in when necessary.
Benefit #4: Advanced reporting to identify trends and increase efficiency
Reporting is necessary for every department – why make it harder than it has to be? With local government software, reporting can be as easy as one click of a button – but users also have the ability to create customized reports should the occasion call for it.
With software that compiles the data for you, not only is it easy to fire off the reports that leadership needs to see, but it can help supervisors to identify areas within the department that need improving. Is one employee routinely getting stuck at the same step in the process? Does one step in every employee’s process take longer than it should? By uncovering these insights, it becomes easier for supervisors to spot problems and find ways to improve efficiency for the department.
Empower Supervisors with Local Government Software
Tired of running after your employees, trying to track down details on what they’re working on or where their time is going?
As a company founded by local government leaders, Comcate believes in well-run agencies with data to prove it. By combining the power and usability of private-sector software solutions with a deep understanding of agency needs that comes from our 20 years in the industry, we were able to create products that help municipalities provide better government for all. From our Code Enforcement Manager to our CRM solution, each of our products was designed with local government efficiency in mind.
Interested in learning more? Schedule an intro meeting with one of our consultants by filling out the form below.
Schedule a Meeting with Comcate Today!
Learn how Comcate can help make government delivery simple, and offer a modern digital experience to help you increase transparency, efficiency, and performance across your departments. If you have any questions about implementing our software, please fill out the form below or call us directly at (415) 632-1248.
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