We recognize that governments require digital transformation, and that they require it immediately.

They must do more with less, offer services quicker, more fairly, and in a personalized manner, and avoid corruption. We’re also familiar with the tools that can help us get there: the cloud, interoperability, digital ID, digital signature, digital services, and so on.

In addition, we’ve recognized a shared foe: paper. 

But who will develop, construct, and deploy all of these digital tools? Who will make use of them?

Jobs will be changed as a result of digitization and automation.

Who will be the first to adapt? 

The solution to these issues is civil servants, the all-important yet underappreciated secret sauce in each government reform initiative. Simply said, unless governments priorities civil servants in their digital transformation programmers, there will be no transformation.

What will happen is all too familiar: strategies that sit on shelves, large IT projects that are a never-ending money pit, and systems that are left idle while procedures continue to be carried out on paper. 

Worse than spending money is wasting one’s zeal. Following the emergence of the Covid-19 outbreak, governments around the area have turned to digital means to maintain some sense of continuity.

This is a significant shift.

In the early 2000s, e-government was a fringe subject championed by a small group of ardent supporters.

In the 2010s, digital governance emerged as an upstart in comparison to more established development themes such as health, infrastructure, and education.

Digital transformation appeared as a cure in the 2020s, sometimes with overblown hopes and unproven claims. 

Even with its downsides, prominence on the policy agenda is a finite, valuable resource that must be capitalized on. Delivering is the finest way to grab the moment.

Providing services, Providing effectiveness, Providing transformation. 

A formidable task 

A few figures from the recent IDB book, “Digital Transformation and Public Employment: the Future of Government Work,” show that we face a formidable challenge: 

• In the previous five years, 64% of the over 700 public managers polled said they had been involved in a technology project that ran into issues owing to a lack of employee capabilities. 
• According to 51% of public managers polled, there is now a critical scarcity of data analytic capabilities. 
• Budget constraints prevented 18 of the 24 national digital government directors polled from employing the necessary employees the previous year. 
• According to 67 percent of public managers polled, resistance to change is a significant impediment to reforms such as digital transformation, which can alter and destroy jobs. 

These figures depict governments with significant digital skills shortages, limited budgets to attract digital talent, and likely reluctance to change. 

The next step 

Based on case studies from around the world, expert consultations, and a series of unique surveys of public managers, digital government directors, and Chilean civil servants, we have compiled four recommendations to assist governments in addressing the human capital-related challenges of digital transformation: 

• Increase the effectiveness of the methods for attracting and keeping digital talent: Some digital professionals will want to work in government for a long time, while others will only want to complete a two-year tenure. To To satisfy these diverse interests and also promote efficient and technically-focused recruiting procedures, governments should therefore provide various job options.
• Invest in extensive online training: The fast speed of technological change implies that all public employees, from leaders to managers to digital experts, will require not just a foundational grasp of digital transformation, but also ongoing knowledge updates and skill upgrades. 

• Create systems for present public workers to adjust to interruptions in their work: In the context of digital transformation, a variety of techniques, including as participatory design, communications, retraining, internal transfers, and, on occasion, separations, take on increased relevance, particularly in projects with automation components that might remove some paper-based employment.
• However, “change management” is only beneficial if it is planned alongside the changes themselves. 
• Gather the major individuals in charge of digital government, civil service management, and budgeting: Authorities in digital government understand what changes are coming and which functions will be affected; civil service authorities understand who the public servants are, their competencies, and the options for training and internal transfers; and budget authorities understand the fiscal space available to finance recruitment, training, and other structural changes.
• These three institutions are rarely seen at the same table – but this must change if governments are to face the human capital issues of digital transformation straight on. 

Digital governance looks to be here to stay. But how transformative it remains to be seen. Putting people first is a fantastic way to start.