The U.S. is on the forefront of the technological and digital revolution that is changing the way humans interact with each other, as well as their governments. However, according to a new survey from Deloitte, U.S. federal employees aren’t seeing the same returns as their foreign counterparts.
U.S. feds were notably less confident about their government’s ability to incorporate and respond to digital trends than government employees in other countries. Here are five areas where the contrast was most apparent.
Digital Maturity
A survey of 1,200 government leaders worldwide showed that some 60 percent believe their government’s digital posture is developing, with 13 percent saying it is maturing and only 26 percent saying it is still in the early stages.
Conversely, 55 percent of 212 U.S. federal employees polled felt the government was developing its digital maturity, with 36 percent saying it is still in the early stages.
Responding to Digital Trends
While U.S. feds were only slightly less likely to say the government has a coherent digital strategy (40 percent, compared to 46 percent globally), they were much less confident in the government’s ability to respond to digital trends.
Only 25 percent of feds said they were confident that the government could respond to emerging trends and only 25 percent said they were satisfied with the government’s reaction to current trends. Globally, those numbers were 36 percent and 37 percent, respectively.
Improving Customer Experience
American public sector employees were also less rosy about the positive effects of digitization on the customer experience. While 68 percent of U.S. feds said digital trends are improving the delivery of citizen services, that number was 78 percent for respondents from other countries.
Driving Transformation
U.S. government employees ranked budget pressures and administration priorities as the main drivers behind digital transformation, whereas government employees globally placed citizen demand almost on par with cost savings.
Skills Development
On the positive side, U.S. feds were slightly more likely to believe their peers have the skills to execute on a digital strategy (39 percent to 34 percent), though they were generally less satisfied with the resources to hire and train employees (29 percent to 33 percent).
Survey respondents included the full range of agency leadership, including directors, administrators, CFOs and CIOs. The single largest group (28 percent) held IT positions.
