The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed several deficiencies in public sectors across the Caribbean region, which to varying degrees have suffered a decline in productivity, due in large part to the remote work and work-from-home measures that have had to be instituted.
In November 2021, global professional services firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), released key findings of a recent Future of Work and Skills Survey it had conducted. The exercise secured responses from over 3,900 business executives and HR-focused leaders in 28 industry sectors and 26 countries or regions, which included the Caribbean region, on current workforce challenges and how the future of work is evolving.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations have had to move to remote working and work-from-home arrangements, which pre-pandemic, many of them had either resisted altogether, or only permitted in limited or unique circumstances. However, more than half of the PwC survey respondents globally (57%), and 46% of Caribbean respondents, indicated that “their organisation performed better against workforce performance and productivity targets over the past 12 months” (Sources: PwC; Jamaica Observer). On the other hand, only 4% of respondents globally indicated that “their company performed significantly worse in that time” (Source: PwC)
Remote work is here to stay… in some quarters
For many organisations, accommodating remote work modalities would not only have required them to adjust their traditional business operations and practices, but it would also have been expensive to implement. To varying degrees, organisations would have needed to procure suitable equipment and systems for staff and for the organisation to coordinate and manage remote work, which may have required significant capital outlay. But thereafter, they would also have needed to invest in the continual maintenance and upgrading of their systems, to ensure optimal performance.
Although initially reluctant to embrace remote work, as supported by reports of increased productivity, more and more organisations – even here in the Caribbean region – have decided to either maintain existing remote work arrangements indefinitely, or not fully revert to the pre-pandemic arrangements. However, one sector that seems to have been challenged by remote work is the Caribbean public sector.
Public sector productivity suffers during pandemic
In addition to work from home, and in order to reduce staff numbers in offices, some Caribbean governments introduced a ‘shift system’, whereby staff members rotate in and out of the office on a rostered basis, for which there can be numerous permutations and combinations. For example, employees may be required to be in office for half day every weekday, or for the full workday a few times a week. However, regardless of the arrangement, and in many instances, government operations has become less efficient, with consumers experiencing longer wait times for in-person service. Additionally, and even for services that are being conducted remotely, or transactions that require internal processing, processing times have increased considerably.
At the time of writing, the Government of Jamaica had implemented a mandatory work-from-home order for all ministries, departments and agencies. However, the current order will expire on 31 December 2021, and the Prime Minister has announced that it will not be renewed, due to concerns about the decline in productivity across Government (Source: Jamaica Observer).
Caribbean governments not 21st century-ready
The Jamaican Government no longer making work-from-home mandatory is indeed bittersweet. Some ministries, departments and agencies indeed experienced a significant decline in their productivity, and in having the option to have more staff on site, should hopefully result in improved performance and customer care. However, and at the same time, it can be argued that it reflects not only how poorly the Government has been in leveraging technology, but also the fact that their systems and processes are not 21st century-ready.
It is worth emphasising that the Jamaican Government is not the only government that has been challenged productivity-wise over the past 20-plus months. Most Caribbean governments would have been similarly challenged, as there had been complaints and reports about the long lines outside government offices, and just how difficult and time-consuming it had become to do business with government.
It is also worth highlighting the longstanding effort and attention across the region on electronic (e-)government, which countries have been implementing for well over a decade. We also have to acknowledge the adoption of the concept of seamless and joined-up government, in order to realise a more cohesive and coherent government, in which transactions between ministries, departments and agencies can occur more efficiently and with less bureaucracy.
In our recent discussion of the 2020 e-government survey administered by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, we noted that generally, the e-government development index (EGDI) scores for the 16 Caribbean countries included in the survey have been improving, but have not kept pace with the rate of e-government development globally. Moreover, of the three indices that comprise the EGDI – human capital index, telecoms infrastructure index, online services index – and with the exception of four countries, across the region, the online services index scores lag behind those for the other two indices.
The online services index examines the scope and quality of the online services delivered, and so may also be reflecting the fact that Caribbean government’s online presence is still underdeveloped. In other words, the depth and breadth of the transactions and services that can be conducted online, are still limited in most countries. Moreover, and since the start of the pandemic, the challenges government offices have been experiencing have been exposed, and most likely have become more pronounced.
Parting thoughts
In summary, and noting that we are nearly two years into the pandemic, Caribbean governments can no longer just see the measures they have implemented as ‘a stop-gap until things return to normal’. The pandemic is likely continue into the foreseeable future, and so more cogent measures that will improve public sector productivity are urgently needed. Although technology is likely to be a crucial ingredient in whatever new measures are implemented, the systems and processes must also be adjusted. It is only when there is comprehensive integration of technology and processes that meaningful improvement will be realised, to the benefit of all citizens.
Image credit: Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free
