OnlineUC in Local Government – Recruitment, Retention and Productivity

How can cloud hosted unified communications (OnlineUC) increase the levels of employee recruitment, retention and productivity in Local Government?

Addressing the headaches and issues that public sector and local government organisations face when recruiting and retaining staff while increasing productivity and efficiency can be a headache in itself. But much of the pain can be alleviated by upgrading to a cloud-hosted unified communications platform.

How can OnlineUC help local government staff?

The benefits of both unified communications and mobility solutions are well-established.

OnlineUC enables your organisation to benefit from increased productivity, higher staff satisfaction and engagement, better user experience (UX) for both citizens and stakeholders, and an all-round more professional image throughout.

The best part is that switching from an on-premise to a hosted cloud UC solution will actually save you money as well as enabling you to benefit from all of the features these tools provide.

What are the key challenges in local government?

So apart from the above, how does this directly benefit organisations in the local government sector specifically? Let’s use local councils as an example. According to the Local Government Workforce Survey Report 2016/17_­­­¹, the outcomes around flexible working and issues retaining and recruiting staff were as follows:

• Three quarters of councils (74%) said their council was currently experiencing recruitment and retention difficulties.
• In 2016/17 there was a median of 12 apprentices, 12 work experience placements and 0 graduate placements per council.
• Almost all councils (97%) said they encourage staff to work flexibly.
• Nine out of 10 (90%) said flexible working is available to employees at all levels and across all departments within the organisation, where it is operationally feasible.
• Just over half (51%) included a statement in job adverts to say they are open to discussing flexible working options from day one e.g. that there can be flexibility on hours or location, or start and finish times for the right candidate.
• Nearly six out of 10 (57%) said hiring managers and recruiters are trained in how to answer questions from candidates about flexible working practices during the recruitment process.

These findings clearly show three key factors:

1. That low levels of retention and recruitment are crippling councils
2. That the remedy for this is flexible working
3. Councils are trying to convince candidates that they offer flexible working, but that staff are actually only able to work flexibly ‘where it is operationally feasible’.

So how can OnlineUC help?

How does OnlineUC directly challenge low recruitment, retention and productivity levels in Local Government organisations?

Utilised correctly, OnlineUC solutions can help local government organisations to recruit and retain staff.

They can do this by giving staff the tools they need to work flexibly – something which the data suggests is crucial if vacancy rates and staff churn are to be reduced.

There is also significant financial benefits for moving to the cloud. Free calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, mobile numbers and between sites, reduced travel time and costs between locations, significant reduction in labour cost, no maintenance fees and no capex purchasing parts, phones or another PBX equipment all add up.

The dangers of getting mobile working wrong

The pressure of letting staff work flexibly undoubtedly pushes organisations to offer mobile working but without the tools necessary to do this securely and effectively. Staff are therefore more likely to get frustrated and feel isolated and out of the loop. This frustration leads to low morale between staff and results in high staff churn, forcing councils to keep hiring young inexperienced workers and losing their more experienced workers to the private sector. What’s more, staff are also more likely to carry and share sensitive data on devices that are not approved. This can end in security breaches, hacks and other serious consequences.

What are the steps Local Government organisations need to take to update to OnlineUC?

At Daisy Corporate Services we know that procurement in local government and the public sector can be drawn out, complex and frustrating. We understand that keeping up with technological innovation, moving targets and a range of stakeholders, can be difficult and time consuming and that once you figure out what products are out there and which are best suited to your needs, you still have to choose from a range of providers, SLAs, hardware and potentially upgrade other parts of your infrastructure to be able to use these services.

We can help you manage this process. Our extensive portfolio of products powered by our leading edge technology partners, enable us to provide bespoke services across a wide range of solutions, so that whatever your challenge, we can provide you the answer and connect you to the unconnected.

Daisy is on a range of frameworks providing savings, choice and flexibility for all publicly funded organisations; whilst ensuring compliance with the wider government technology strategy through our ongoing engagement with the Government Digital Service (GDS).

Daisy is also on the G Cloud 11 framework which is a commercial agreement that allows UK public sector bodies to choose and purchase cloud computing services covering infrastructure, platform, software and specialist cloud services.

To speak to one of our experts and find out how we can help you reach your goals, get in touch by filling out the form below.

Sources:

1. https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/LG%20Workforce%20Survey%202016-17%20-%20report%20final%2020180718.pdf