These are the findings of new research conducted among local government HR leaders and published today in a new joint report “Skills for digital change” by Eduserv, a not-for-profit provider of IT services to the public sector, and the Public Sector People Manager’s Association.
Although 61% of PPMA members surveyed said that digital skills had improved in the last year, 66% said they needed to go further in developing a plan to improve digital skills in their organisation.
HR leaders reported digital knowledge had improved among the corporate management team (78%), finance (68%), HR (67%)and IT teams (81%) across the council but only minority reported significant improvements.
Four in ten HR leaders said there had been no change in the digital skills of frontline workers and a similar number rated digital literacy of this employee group “inadequate”, significantly more than any other employee group.
While a lack of digital literacy at all employee levels was reported to hold back digital change programmes, the issue was most marked among front line staff with 85% of HR leaders saying it held their organisation back.
Around half (51%) of councils are bridging digital skills gaps by using the support of external specialists while 34% have created a dedicated plan to improve digital literacy and 29% ensuring recruitment and performance reviews explicitly reference digital skills.
Jos Creese, principal analyst for the Eduserv Briefing Programme and author of the report said:
“This research shows that although councils are taking significant steps to improve digital skills across their organisations, those responsible for delivering services on the front line are getting left behind on the digital journey in terms of understanding and adoption.
Digital is about people more than technology so it is vital that councils put their HR teams at the heart of planning, working with IT and digital teams to ensure the right skills and knowledge are in place to ensure digital change projects succeed.”
Sue Evans, President of the PPMA said:
“While it is important that HR teams take steps to build digital capability for employees, digital practice in leading councils shows the value of changing expectations of all employees to become digitally competent and to become digitally self-sufficient.
It is clear that senior leaders in councils need to work closely with HR teams to create a digitally aware culture which will support and sustain their future efforts to deliver a new generation of public services.”
