Home Office uses crowdsourcing for efficiency drive
The Home Office, the ministry of state responsible for policing and immigration, has launched an internal marketing drive to encourage staff to suggest efficiency improvements in the face of cuts to its operating budget.
Permanent Secretary Dame Helen Ghosh has called on staff to find ways to establish “the Home Office we want it to be” to improve working practices in an environment of fewer resources.
Chancellor George Osborne announced in October that overall resource spending for the department would be cut by 23%, with spending on capital projects dropping 49% as part of Government efforts to reduce public sector debt.
The coalition, led by the Cabinet Office, has called on Whitehall departments to find ways to improve efficiency, following the cuts to their budgets.
Crowdsourcing, using an internal online forum, was used to ask staff for suggestions on how to improve the performance of everyone in the department. Ideas were also requested on improving flexible working practises and departmental and external relationships.
More than 90 ideas have been generated to date.
A spokesman for The Home Office, adds that a “large scale but low cost” staff engagement programme has also been launched in a bid to “involve staff at all levels in shaping the Home Office we want to be.”
