What’s Top of Mind for Public Servants Lately?

In March 2020, we surveyed 500 GovLoop community members to learn what’s top of mind for govies. We wanted to know what resources they are perusing on GovLoop.com and other platforms, and how their agencies responded to the coronavirus.

Here’s the breakdown of who responded to our survey:

For the first quarter of 2020 (January-March), here’s what your peers said they were reading on GovLoop. com and other platforms. They selected their top three responses.

When the GovLoop survey was initially created and released in mid-March, COVID-19 was very much a novel virus in the U.S., and many agencies had not yet released a clear response plan for employees. Even then, we heard from several readers that COVID-19, business continuity, crisis management, telework and change management were top of mind. That still holds true today.

Key takeaways from the data

In times of crisis or calm, the focus must be on people. Employees are looking for tools and resources to help them lead effectively, whether that’s peer management or learning how to manage up by figuring out who they are, who their boss is, and finding where they both meet.

What we saw in the survey data was a tale of two workforces:

• Those where upper management and IT leaders worked together — long before COVID-19 — to empower and equip employees for work beyond the office.
• Others that were scrambling to not only communicate changes but also to provide the necessary direction and technology for the influx of teleworkers.

“I would like to see IT and upper management better understand the effect [that] updates they implement have on the workers in the field,” one community member said. Another added that “planning for these types of situations, instead of playing catch up while it gets worse” is vital.

Questions to consider: In my current role, how can I lead from where I am, especially during times of crisis? What’s one action I can take today to prepare myself?

This article is an excerpt from GovLoop’s new Community Pulse, a snapshot of issues and resources that matter most to the GovLoop community. Download it here.