3 Easy Tips for Helping a Local Government Run More Efficiently
Depending on who you are asking, the words “government” and “efficiency” may not conjure up similar feelings, or even belong in the same sentence. That’s because many individuals around the globe have been made witness to years – even decades – of government mismanagement, frivolous spending, and low levels of transparency. According to Pew Research, only about 20 percent of Americans trust the United States Federal Government, let alone believe it to be running efficiently and smoothly.
Despite low polling opinions and a public service that many believe to be antithetical to efficiency, it’s never been more important for governments – big and small – to prioritize improving efficiency and efficacy. Like many things, change is most easily brought about from the bottom, starting small (and local) to prove a move’s worth before rolling it out on the grand stage. Below are a few easy, simple, and straightforward tips to help your local government run more efficiently.
1- Spend Less and Stay Small
It’s not surprising to many to learn that, according to research, the bigger a government gets the more inefficient it becomes. A small administration in a local government could be a smooth running, easy to manage ship whose goals and ideals are aligning with the desire to create public change. Like scaling a business, though, scaling up a government takes a tremendous amount of hands-on work, forethought, and a well-considered plan. As a government grows, the levels of bureaucratic red tape pile up; every new addition to the team is not only a new onboard that requires more time and attention, it’s a new individual to be trained, a new person to have plans or paperwork eyeballed by, and a slowly constricting strain on the previously expeditious and efficient governmental body. To keep your local government running smoothly, consider hiring thoughtfully and consolidating tasks and responsibilities where possible – a smaller government is usually a more efficient government.
2- Use Land Record Monitoring Software
A potential niche subject amongst the deep depths of data management, land record management is a notoriously laborious, time-intensive, and resource-sucking facet of small government, particularly when done manually. Fortunately, a myriad of land management software have come to light in recent years, allowing for huge gains in the efficiency of land record management. By streamlining the workflows and utilizing fantastically-efficient cascading autonomous software can improve not only the efficiency and workflow of your local government but also have a palpable impact on the citizens you serve.
3- Improve and Prioritize Transparency
Transparency is considered a must for many in today’s modern, data and number-focused age. Increasing transparency via frequent, regular data releases can allow for not only your citizens to feel more trusting and understanding of processes and procedures, but also save time on the front end by allowing data access to all of those who want it. This data can – and likely will – help weed out instances of fraud, overspending, and items that have fallen through the cracks, all of which tie up and hold back efficiency.
