Survey Reveals Remote Work Poses Productivity Challenges for State and Local Governments

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the United States, all signs point to state and local government finance and administrative departments functioning offsite for the foreseeable future. However, there is no playbook or precedent for what is happening to government departments.

New research commissioned by the SAP Concur organization uncovers the key challenges and opportunities for state and local government organizations as they determine how to operate effectively in this prolonged remote and hybrid work environment.

We surveyed 500 finance and administration decision-makers working in state and local government across the United States. The results highlight the current challenges that hinder their teams’ ability to stay productive in this new normal and the technology solutions that would best support their departments’ financial operations in the future.

“State and local government finance and administrative teams are under extreme duress,” said David Ballard, senior vice president, U.S. Public Sector, SAP Concur. “They have accepted an unprecedented amount of back-office responsibilities amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This is amplifying their need for cloud-based and mobile-friendly technology to ensure they can maintain operations and meet existing and emerging reporting mandates.”

Some of the key highlights from this research include:

Many back-end operations cannot be managed remotely:

• Only 11% of respondents say they have a fully automated platform that allows employees to track travel and expenses. 
• In fact, nearly 2 in 5 (39%) say they have not yet made any investments in expense and travel-related technology at all, leaving these offices in danger of decreased productivity and efficiency moving forward.  
• Twenty-eight percent of staff, on average, can continue to work from home without decreasing productivity when states fully open back up.  

Finance and administrative teams have increased workloads due to the pandemic: 

• More than two-thirds of state and local government decision-makers (67%) are managing three or more additional work tasks due to the impacts of COVID-19.
• In fact, more than half (55%) of state and local governments have the added responsibility of redirecting funds for essential services, such as public health and safety.  
• In addition to increased workloads, respondents note that the combined impact of an unprecedented public health and economic crisis made it challenging to keep up with staffing needs. Half of local government decision-makers (50%) and a third of state decision-makers (33%) say their organization experienced staffing challenges during the transition.

Reporting policies may need an overhaul to sustain workforce productivity:

• Nearly half of all state and local government decision-makers say complying with required state and federal reporting policies (48%) and adapting outdated organizational policies to remote work (46%) were major challenges of transitioning their department to remote work environments. 
• Baby Boomers (61%) indicate that complying with these reporting requirements is a greater challenge for them than their Millennial counterparts (41%).*
• A lack of flexible reporting policies has taken a toll on workforce productivity and continues to present delays and problems for citizens that state and local governments serve. In fact, 63% of state and local government decision-makers say employee productivity within their department has either decreased or remained the same due to remote work.  

The impacts of COVID-19 have accelerated adoption of cloud-based technology solutions:

• An investment in technology may relieve the extreme duress that state and local government finance teams face. A wide majority (70%) acknowledge that adopting mobile practices or adapting outdated policies would give finance and administrative departments a better handle on financial operations in the future if all or a portion of their staff worked remotely. 
• To change how state and local governments manage their budgets, 75% of respondents report COVID-19 has accelerated their department’s decision to invest in cloud-based solutions.  
• Because expense and invoice management is a critical back-end office operation, more than half (51%) of state and local governments took steps even before COVID-19 to invest in this type of tracking technology platform.       

“The impacts of COVID-19 have resulted in many public sector employees taking on new responsibilities,” said Adelaide O’Brien, research director, IDC Government Insights. “As government workers continue to work remotely, department leaders will need to identify the manual processes that are slowing down back-office operations, and invest in modern, cost-effective technology. This investment will help employees manage their increased workload now—and create efficiencies longer term coming out the pandemic.”  

State and local government decision-makers can use Concur Invoice to strengthen cost control and always track government spend, wherever they are.  

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*This generational sub-audience represents a small sample size and findings are directional. 

This survey was conducted among 500 US state and local government decision-makers, which includes elected officials and senior civil servants who have financial decision-making authority, between July 20 and August 7, 2020, using an email invitation and an online survey.

About Wakefield Research:

Wakefield Research supports the world’s most prominent brands and agencies, including 50 of the Fortune 100, in 90 countries. It is a leading provider of quantitative, qualitative, and hybrid market research and market intelligence.

To learn more, visit: www.wakefieldresearch.com