This article is written by Erica Lavecchia, senior economist at the Ontario Treasury Board Secretariat

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis. Most obviously, it's impacting our physical and mental health, with about 7.8 million confirmed cases worldwide. In efforts to minimise these health impacts, we're changing our social norms and relations. Coupled with increasing uncertainty and the closure of non-essential commerce, we’re making a huge dent in our economy.

But even the stormiest of days lend way to sunshine and rainbows (and maybe the occasional unicorn).

For public servants, the COVID-19 pandemic is also creating a unique window of opportunity. Here are three ways we can ensure this crisis doesn't go to waste.

Rethink time and place

First, let's rethink where we work.

Public programs and services aren't always designed around user needs. Sometimes, we can only access them during core business hours. At other times, we need to visit a service provider in person. And, more often than not, we wonder, "Why am I even doing this?"

This matters because time-limited, in-person and unintuitive services can create unintentional barriers — especially for our most vulnerable.

We now have a strong business case for shifting public programs and services online. Let's get digital by enhancing the availability of our online services and ensuring they are user-friendly. Importantly, this can apply both to front-line delivery (such as court proceedings) and back-office functions (consider digitising the processing of program applications).

Unpeel the bureaucratic layers

Second, let's re-imagine how we work.

Public servants know that our internal processes and rigid teams don't always encourage innovation and foster flexibility. As a result, new, worthwhile ideas can take years to approve or are found guilty on multiple accounts of not conforming to the status quo.

This is a problem because it means we may be missing opportunities to provide better public services and negatively impacting employee morale.

Rules don't matter as much as results do. Let's ask uncomfortable questions about the effectiveness of our processes and the agility of our teams. Re-imagining how we work may mean streamlining processes and creating cross-functional teams that prioritise outcomes. For example, instead of establishing permanent structures that do not offer flexibility, we could learn from Natural Resources Canada's Free Agents program to support innovative problem solving and enhance employee engagement.

Take a look in the mirror

Third, let's self-reflect – what is our value add?

Western political thought largely sees the role of government as bringing people together to solve collective action problems. Today, this should involve harnessing the power of big data. Like most public-facing organisations, the government collects peoples' data – consider, for instance, applying for a program or paying your taxes. However, we typically do not share or analyse inter-departmental datasets and tend to shy away from reporting outcomes.

The business-as-usual approach is concerning because it means we fail to use and communicate meaningful information. Indirectly, it also implies delegitimising the role of government.

Evidence-based decision-making is more than a catchphrase. Let's ask ourselves if we're doing more harm than good by shielding data while working toward building an outcomes-driven culture that reports on our impacts, not inputs. This can mean sharing data within and across the public and private sectors and being more transparent on the effectiveness of government programs and services. For example, with appropriate user consent, imagine the value we can offer in contact tracing by merging data collected from mobile phones with government health records.

Summing it up

COVID-19 is not just a crisis — it's an opportunity.

We have an opportunity to rethink the services we provide by enhancing their digital presence and making them more user-friendly.

We also have an opportunity to re-imagine how we work by making our internal processes more flexible and by building agile teams.

And we have an opportunity to leverage the power of big data to inform our decisions and communicate our outcomes in an ever-changing world.

It's definitely a challenge, and I know we're up to it. — Erica Lavecchia

(Picture Credit: Unsplash)