IT Workers Want Better Tech Tools

Public sector organizations are falling short when it comes to creating a more efficient and open government through the use of technology and social media, a new survey of government IT workers suggests.

The report, released Friday by Forrester Research, found that when it comes to creating a more modern and empowered IT workforce, public sector IT workers believe the government is lagging in three key areas: mobility, collaboration and access to cutting-edge technology.

The report -- which analyzed the responses of 669 North American and European local and federal government information workers -- found that government lags behind other sectors when it comes to untethering employees from a cubicle. For example, 63 percent of government employees work in only one location, compared to 56 percent of nongovernment workers. In addition, technology often anchors employees to the office, with 87 percent of government workers saying they use desktop computers and only 11 percent saying they use laptops. Just 9 percent of government IT workers said they have smartphones that they use for work, which trails the rest of the information workforce, the report found.

Forrester also found advanced collaboration tools that could help boost efficiency play only a minor role in the daily work lives of government IT employees. Ninety-three percent of North American government workers said they rely on e-mail to collaborate, compared to just 19 percent who use instant messaging and just 3 percent who use social media tools, the study found.

One in three government workers also said their technology is better at home than at work, the study reported, and only 45 percent said they were satisfied with the tech tools they regularly use at work. "This suggests that the locked-down government employee may see gaps in her tools that aren't being addressed and she can't fix on her own," the report states.

Still, some agencies are working to remedy many of the problems cited in the survey, Forrester found. The federal government is encouraging employees to work remotely through a new telework law, while local governments are increasingly using cloud services to reduce costs and accelerate access to new tools. Federal agencies like the Defense Department also are leveraging social platforms for internal collaboration, and some agencies also are beefing up their engagement with citizens via collaboration platforms and social media, said the study.