Administrative employees who work in the home office and access digital files instead of rolling over mountains of paper in the authority? For a long time it was difficult to imagine. The corona pandemic could change that now. Because the appeal to work at home if possible has also reached the administration.

“When it comes to working from home, cities have a steep learning curve behind you, “says Helmut Dedy, General Manager of the German Association of Cities. At the beginning of the pandemic, devices were procured and digital access set up in a very short time.

Surprisingly good switch He was surprised himself how well the changeover worked at the beginning of the pandemic, says district director Dirk Lönnecke from the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Soest. There they have been relying on digitization of the administration for some time and have made home office possible even before the start of the Corona crisis. Lönnecke admits that he still had concerns that IT could collapse: “The pandemic has of course significantly changed the proportion of work that is done at home.”

According to Lönnecke, some of the 1500 district administration employees work around 60 to 60 percent at least temporarily at home – including areas in which home office even not possible. This includes, for example, the rescue service or the building yard. Also in the vehicle registration office, presence is required because of customer contact. “The district building is currently only occupied by a third, if at all,” says Lönnecke. However, in some areas the employees would have to come to the office at least temporarily, for example to bring back paper files.

However, even in the pandemic, it is not a matter of course that government officials work from home. In every second municipality, home office is generally not possible, in 20 percent of the municipalities only for a few employees. This was the result of a representative survey at the beginning of December among around 600 mayors and those responsible for digitization, the digital association Bitkom and the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB ).

IT as the main obstacle To The biggest obstacles in the home office are therefore poor IT. Thus 40 percent of the respondents stated that the lack of technical equipment was the decisive factor. Another 24 percent said that there was not enough financial means for necessary investments.

According to district director Lönnecke, employees in Soest work on their own devices and have access to the district network through a so-called soft token. Other municipalities are currently upgrading their technology and equipping their employees with notebooks, company cell phones and screens. The Berlin Senate Interior Administration announced on Friday that it 5000 was delivering more laptops to the districts. However, the acquisition is not a direct reaction to Corona – but part of a five-year strategy of the Senate to convert all possible workplaces in the Berlin administration to mobile devices.

At the end of last year, the Well 23.800 Employees of the Berlin district administrations only have about 2600 laptops – after delivery the number increases accordingly to 7600. This means that not quite a third of the administration could work on the move. The equipment at the Senate Department for Finance is better. According to a spokeswoman, 80 to 80 Percent from home. At the tax offices the proportion is 41 percent.

Digitization not fast enough For the German Association of Civil Servants, the digitization process is currently not fast enough. Deficits also hindered the fight against the corona pandemic, criticized dbb chairman Ulrich Silberbach at the annual conference last week in Berlin. “Due to technical deficiencies and a lack of staff in the health authorities, there are considerable problems in the transmission of data that are necessary to trace contacts with corona infected people.”

Despite all the problems, many heads of administration believe that Corona administrations modernize – also in terms of home office. In the survey by Bitkom and the Association of Towns and Municipalities 41 percent of respondents stated that they use the home office Want to make the regulation more flexible after the pandemic.

District Director Lönnecke from Soest has also noticed a rethink among the executives in his house. The pandemic and the need for mobile working have changed many people’s minds, he says. “Most notice: It works.”

(mho)