Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many state and local governments had not adopted remote work practices. As offices everywhere shut down, some agencies had preparations in place for remote work, but many were left scrambling to adapt to a remote work setting with very little notice.
Employees, managers, and leaders transitioned to new methods and ramped up their remote work capabilities rapidly.
Two Primary Types of Remote Government Employees
The government employee workforce's size is enormous; there are 16 million state and local government employees. When they aren’t working on-site, these employees fall into two primary categories:
Achieving success for remote teams can be a challenge for employees and government office leaders who are trying to navigate complex changes.
COVID-19 Impact on Local and State Government Operations
Regardless of how ready government offices were for remote work, the cloud environment was crucial for continued operations during the pandemic. They still faced challenges, especially in having access to IT hardware and equipment, managing the remote workforce, and getting technology access that employees required. They also experienced an impact on revenue and cybersecurity.
There’s no denying that every employer faced some level of challenge related to the unanticipated impact of COVID-19. Due to the varied nature of their operations, state and local governments faced several unique challenges.
Remote Work Isn’t Going Away
Estimates indicate that nearly 27% of employees will continue working from home through 2021. The trend will continue, with 36.2 million Americans working remotely by 2025, an 87% increase from the number of remote workers before COVID-19. As government employers strive to attract job candidates, it’s also worth noting that 74% of workers say they would gladly leave their current jobs in favor of a job that had a work-from-home option. View these stats and more remote work information in TCP's remote work infographic.
Whether you’re a government organization that’s managing employees remotely or managing a mobile workforce, it’s time to consider how workforce management software can help your operation succeed at working remotely.
TCP offers an integrated solution that makes it easy to view time and attendance, schedules, leave and more in one system. This not only enables remote access but also provides you with data to gather insights about organizational efficiency. Our industry-leading web- and mobile-based time clocks make it easy for both remote and mobile government employees to clock in and out, regardless of their location. We also make it possible to deploy and manage complex schedules that empower employees to swap, drop or offer shifts to coworkers from anywhere. By adding integrated employee leave to the solution, as managers make the schedule, they can see the dates when staff will be unavailable to work.
With the continuation of remote work, officials must address these challenges by implementing workforce management technology. If they don't, they're at risk of losing the capacity to get the necessary work done due to an inability to adapt. Partnering with TCP allows you to empower your government operation with the best tools so you can deliver the services your community needs – regardless of the circumstances.
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