Facebook and government - Digital innovation: bringing your staff along with you

Editor's Notes

• #3 Welcome to the Using Facebook to Engage with Victorians seminar, brought to you on behalf of the Victorian Government by the Department of Justice and Facebook Today’s seminar is designed to give you useful and practical insights into how Victorian agencies can more effectively engage on the platform that more than 12 million Australians actively use. You’ll hear from people at Consumers Affairs Victoria, the CFA, the Arts Centre Melbourne, and the Departments of Premier and Cabinet, Health, and Planning and Community Development I’d like to kick things off by briefly talking about: The authorising environment for digital innovation in Victoria Where to find out what others are doing How widespread Facebook now is in government The way we approach digital innovation at Justice
• #4 There has been an authorising environment for digital innovation and engagement in Victoria for quite some time now Going back a few years to the VPS Innovation Action Plan (2010) and the Gov 2.0 Action Plan (2011) And most recently with the much anticipated new Victorian ICT Strategy which provides high-level direction on the design and use of information and technology to deliver better government services. It has been developed in response to three drivers: changes in citizen expectations of government services and ICT use; advances in technology; and current gaps in ICT leadership, governance and skills. Maria and the panel will talk about these later Of course many of us have our own strategies which build on these enabling frameworks, and I’ll speak about the one at Justice shortly
• #5 The state of digital innovation in Victorian Government was well documented last year in the Victorian Government Innovation Review conducted by Craig Thomler for the Department of Business and Innovation The review found (add detail) Case studies included… Department Of Justice – Bringing Your Staff Along With You Country Fire Authority – A Seat At The Table VicRoads – Building On Experience Tourism Victoria – Leading By Example Parks Victoria – People, Places And Passions Information Victoria – Leading From The Centre State Library Of Victoria – Cultural Reach Transport Accident Commission – The Road Less Travelled The full report, case studies , and other great resources are available on the award winning eGovernment Resource Centre website
• #6 Facebook is becoming an increasingly important channel for governments around the world to engage with citizens There are currently more than 250 Facebook pages managed across all levels of Australian Government 142 of these are managed by Victorian Government agencies, and these are listed in the social media section of the recently revamped vic.gov.au along with 169 Twitter accounts 78 YouTube channels 55 mobile apps And numerous blogs, podcasts, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ accounts Within the Justice portfolio there are currently 15 Facebook pages across such diverse areas as CFA Victoria Police Victorian Emergency Services Volunteers Consumer Affairs Victoria Wingman The various aquatic agencies involved in PISBTW Anti Hate
• #7 Digital innovation has a long history at Justice and much of this can be attributed to the involvement of staff and the department’s willingness and ability to equip and empower them Today I’d like give four examples of how we do this at Justice: by setting our online vision with our Digital Services Strategy, Digital First seeding innovation with our innovation fund empowering staff for digital engagement and working with staff and citizens to design services Also, thanks to Craig Thomler, who covered some of the same ground in one of last year’s case studies
• #8 The department established its online vision and a series of supporting initiatives four years ago with an Online Services Strategy – thanks to a number of people including Darren Whitelaw during his time at the department The initiatives in this strategy will be completed in June this year There was a strong focus on building a firm base and extending digital capability both internally and externally Initiatives included Growing the digital culture Social media Engagement with citizens including a number of online consultations using the MyViews website The MyViews website was developed in 2011 for the Victorian Government Criminal Sentencing survey Since then, consultations have included Justice of the Peace initiatives as well as the Victorian Government Road Safety Survey The Road Safety Survey was made available to all Victorians through metropolitan and regional newspapers, however we found that more than 80 per cent of responses were completed online – this will inform the way we conduct future consultation The results of each consultation are made available to citizens on the site As part of our Online Services Strategy, we’re currently redeveloping the site to include additional functionality Creation of a single Intranet (J-info) with user-generated content Strong focus on stronger engagement and interaction, user generated content and collaboration The new Intranet has now been in place for 18 months In line with best practice and our approach to continuous improvement it is now time to review it to ensure A new user focused Justice internet presence Building our transactional capability
• #9 In selling our strategy, it was discovered that the version on a page didn’t resonate with all stakeholders Vision reframed to demonstrate how digital could be applied in some common service scenarios User-focused graphic scenarios developed to show possible future state for Paying a traffic fine Registering a birth And arranging a prison visit These were presented as paper based, static online and interactive animations, allowing users to click through the scenarios and access additional commentary and information They were used these in numerous presentations and workshops, as well as on our intranet They really helped bring stakeholders on board, as well as understanding from staff and much needed buy-in from the executive
• #10 Another way we involve staff in seeding innovation is with the Justice Innovation and Environment Fund This provides funding and an evaluation process to support good ideas from staff that Improves service delivery Reduces environmental impact Or adds value to the business of the department With an annual budget of $500,000 the funds are allocated in a two stage process, twice each year In stage one, an Ideas Jam involving all staff is conducted over a two week period - creating a sense of urgency to encourage participation  
• #11 The Ideas Jam is conducted using an online crowd-sourcing system called Ideation, which is embedded in the Intranet (J-info) This provides a channel for staff to suggest, comment on and then vote on ideas A second stage review is then conducted by a departmental committee of staff before results are publicized on the Intranet Recent participation rates have involved the generation of approximately 70 ideas, 700 votes and more than 4,900 visitors to the system. A large part of the success of the fund and high participation rate has been attributed to seamless and easy to use technology Recent winners have included t he development of an intervention order smartphone app for Neighborhood Justice Centres The fund will play an ongoing role in our Digital Strategy to ensure staff involvement in the department’s investment in digital innovation      
• #12 With these next few slides, I’d like to talk about how we empower and ready our staff for digital engagement Our social media policy and educational video provides guidance for employees on their professional and personal use of social media While many are scenarios covered by existing departmental policies, these can be hard to interpret in the context of social media What was needed was a single place to bring this information together in one easy-to-understand policy It is not intended to limit employees’ personal expression or online activities, rather it gives employees the information to use social media responsibly The policy is supportive of the appropriate use of social media once staff have demonstrated competence with online channels including Yammer Having the video available publicly on YouTube allows for transparency in the Department’s policy regarding acceptable use of social media. For the departmental employee who is unsure of their use of social media, they can check the video remotely where they are not able to access the staff intranet. The video has had more than 90,000 views on YouTube, been reused by more than 100 organisations worldwide (we’ve licensed it under Creative Commons) and received accolades from sources as diverse as the NASA blog, Mashable and Business Review Weekly Here it is so you can see for yourself why it’s so successful
• #13 I’d now like to talk about some of the tools and processes we use to ensure effective decision making about using social media and other digital channels, as well as ensuring social media is properly managed and resourced. I’ve already talked about our Social Media Policy Also important is having clear and streamlined processes for both Becoming authorised to comment on social media on behalf of the department (this must be approved by Strategic Communication, just like for traditional media) And creating new instances of social media, with easy to use planning and business case documents and support to complete these
• #14 Another important mechanism is having an internal enterprise social network to ready staff for using external social media such as Facebook For those that don’t know it, Yammer is an enterprise social network service that is used for private communication within organisations or between organisational members and pre-designated groups Access to a Yammer network is determined by a user's Internet domain, so only those with appropriate email addresses may join their respective networks The service now has applications on several different operating systems and devices including smartphones and tablets A great tool for employee engagement, collaboration and crowd-sourcing, social enterprise tools such as this are terrific for training and giving staff experience All staff wanting authorization to engage in external social media on behalf of the department must prove themselves in the department’s Yammer network first    
• #15 Training options include: digital mentoring for executive staff workshops such the one we are all attending today as well as facilitated social media orientation and SWOT analysis workshops That help business units consider how and why social media adds value and encourages peer-to-peer teaching and learning through a facilitated discussion. The session also includes a Social Media Readiness Self-Assessment task and an overview of Twitter basics. These are conducted by a Social Media Advisor who also has a background in teaching Risk Management Workshops we consider and document potential issues that may arise in social media during a campaign. For each campaign, we conduct a workshop with key stakeholders and complete the WoVG Gov 2.0 Risk Register and Management Plan Matrix, available on the eGovernment Resource Centre Social Media Moderation Guide To assist in delivering consistent and well-considered responses when engaging in social media discussions in relation to Justice portfolio activities Inspired by the US Air Force Guide and available to all through the eGovernment Resource Centre Campaign-specific moderation response guides To assist campaign partners to manage and moderate individual social media channels in line with each campaign’s key messages. These guides include sample responses (relevant to each campaign) to assist with timely and accurate engagements which are developed through workshops We also provide ongoing support, strategic advice and issues management for social media across the organisation We’re happy for others to benefit from this approach and regularly share these tools with other agencies
• #16 We’ve worked hard at Justice to build a tradition of engagement with citizens via our social media channels such as Facebook (which I’ve touched on briefly) our public consultation website, MyViews @ Justice and we’re now moving into co-design with staff and citizens   The new Victorian Government ICT Strategy promotes co-design of services with citizens The Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages (BDM) is redesigning their organisation and is seeking citizen and stakeholder input to create options for the broad architecture of the organisation – How and where BDM operates Who BDM partners with And what services and products BDM offers (i including the delivery of digital services) Staff, citizens and stakeholders will work together to co-design this new structure using both face to face and digital channels  
• #17 The first part of the process included a survey of citizens on the BDM website as well as a YouTube video invitation featuring BDM ’ s Registrar SHOW VIDEO NOW (1.25 minutes) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGz5dD9464s&feature=share&list=UU8ONTW_CZrx1cWZKg4cus7Q This survey netted 1839 responses in 4 weeks 527 citizens registered their interest in joining the collaboration to explore how BDM could be designed We’re using an external Yammer network for staff, stakeholders and citizens to engage in the one space Guidance for staff is being provided via the relevant elements from our existing Social Media Policy We’re empowering staff to engage in new ways but not make it up as they go along Leaders and managers will model the required behavior and they’ll be a strong community manager And we’ll formally authorise staff to participate and experiment and include some additional written guidance – only after they’ve all completed training and have demonstrated Yammer experience We’ll use this experience to inform new policy development around social media for future co-design  
• #18 Finally, just as our Online Strategy set a clear direction for staff four years ago, so will our new Digital Services Strategy Digital First -currently being finalised. Our aim with Digital First will be to Make our digital services are so easy and convenient that people prefer to use them, whilst those who choose not to are not disadvantaged And also to embrace and embed digital in everything we do because it enables us to deliver better outcomes through more efficient, consistent and collaborative ways of working Key actions will be to Strengthen digital leadership and governance Drive business engagement and digital adoption Transform our services through digital Deliver new capability and ways of working Enable and support digital operations
• #19 Thanks, I hope you enjoy today’s workshop, and with the overwhelming response we had to the invitation, we’re already starting to plan a second one for later in the year