[Interview] Usability of Local Government Officials is the Key to Improving Administrative Services
Contents
- Person in charge
- Aim to reduce the burden on everyone involved in receiving benefits
- Creating an environment where local government employees can concentrate on their "work to be done"
- What I tried to do was to eliminate all "negative" such as anxiety and dissatisfaction.
- Create a place where all parties involved can talk face to face
- Thoroughly verify ease of use by involving administrative officials
- Related Pages
Person in charge
Senior Expert SUMIDA Tomoko
In 2022, private sector personnel participated in "Local Government Shared SaaS," the predecessor of the benefits support service, and is currently actively participating in projects involving a wide range of stakeholders, including Visit Japan Web.
*The affiliation and job title are those at the time of the interview.
Aim to reduce the burden on everyone involved in receiving benefits
- What are the objectives and characteristics of this initiative?
It is a thorough verification, including an effort to have Digital Agency staff who do not know the specifications of the Sumida , Sumida First of all, one of the backgrounds of the birth of the benefits support service is the spread of the novel coronavirus. In the before the corona disaster, benefits were not so frequently provided, and application procedures were carried out using paper. However, the situation changed completely when the special cash handout payment administration started due to the coronavirus crisis. Many local governments are facing a situation where it takes a huge amount of time, effort and money to speed up the payment process. Therefore, measures were required to shorten the time to provide benefits to residents and reduce the burden on local government employees. In this context, the concept of the benefits support service was launched. I believe that a major feature of this initiative is that it pays attention not only to residents who are the end users of the service but also to the usability of local government employees.
Creating an environment where local government employees can concentrate on their "work to be done"
- What role did you play as the person in charge of the project?
It is a thorough verification, including an effort to have Digital Agency staff who do not know the specifications of the Sumida Local Government so that I could help them create an atmosphere in which they could concentrate on more essential tasks. One of the things I was trying to be aware of was the workload of the staff of the local government. In the private sector, there is a strong motivation to reduce the labor cost of the staff, but in the administrative organization, I feel a strong awareness that government officials himself will try to solve the problem by doing his best. However, I think that the original role of the staff of the local government is not to handle the procedures, but to deliver administrative services to the residents and to be close to those who need support. Reducing the workload is necessary to secure that time, so it is necessary to improve efficiency with services such as the Benefits Support Service, and I conveyed this idea to them and built a consensus.
What I tried to do was to eliminate all "negative" such as anxiety and dissatisfaction.
- Please tell us what you were careful about and what you devised when cooperating with local governments.
It is a thorough verification, including an effort to have Digital Agency staff who do not know the specifications of the Sumida local governments, we believe it is most important to resolve concerns and uncertainties and build a relationship of trust. For this reason, we answered all the questions we received at the briefing for local governments, even if it took time. In addition, we implemented functions to properly resolve complaints that were hidden in our work, and tried to make people feel the usefulness of the service. For example, we responded to inquiries. In fact, many of the inquiries from residents were about "checking the progress of application status." To solve this problem, we added a function to the benefit support service that allows residents themselves to check the application status.
Create a place where all parties involved can talk face to face
- How did you organize the opinions of multiple stakeholders?
It is a thorough verification, including an effort to have Digital Agency staff who do not know the specifications of the Sumida Sumida In the case of projects involving multiple ministries and agencies, where there are many parties involved, it is difficult to form a consensus because if we listen to the requests of each party individually, they will come up with different requests. In such cases, even if it takes time, we try to gather the parties concerned in the same place as much as possible and set up a place where they can communicate.
By listening to the opinions of employees in their own words rather than in passing, we can better understand each individual's situation and make it easier for everyone to reach a consensus. As a result, we believe that consensus building will proceed smoothly and lead to a sense of satisfaction among all employees.
Thoroughly verify ease of use by involving administrative officials
- Is there anything I should pay attention to in order to guarantee the usability of the service?
It is a thorough verification, including an effort to have Digital Agency staff who do not know the specifications of the Sumida in depth operate it and check for points that are difficult to understand and malfunctions in behavior. Some people hesitate to comment because they are not familiar with the system, but I think it is better to ask them to give their opinions even if they are trivial, so that they can try it from the same viewpoint as the actual users.
Personally, I would like to recommend that the administrative officers themselves operate it. This is because by actually touching it, the administrative officers themselves can check whether "anyone can use it intuitively" and "whether the procedure can be completed smoothly." Trying to touch the service with the same feeling and situation as the user. It is a basic thing, but I think it is very important.