Debureaucratisation and Digital Transformation of the Server Hiring Process

The municipality of Joinville has seen a markable increase in its population, which have increased citizens’ demands for public services, particularly in the areas of education and health. Between 2019 and 2022, the municipality witnessed a 150 percent increase in new hires of public servants. To meet the increasing demand for hires and ensure that vacancies are quickly filled (particularly related to teachers or doctors), the Department of People Management, an organ of Joinville City Hall, developed a more agile, digital and online hiring process. By digitalising the process, over three thousand civil servants were efficiently hired in 2023, with a 1/3rd reduction in the human resources involved, and overall increase in the seamless service provision to citizens.

Innovation Summary

Innovation Overview

The municipality of Joinville has more than 500,000 inhabitants, and has grown in recent years. As a result, there has been an increase in demand for public services from citizens, especially in the areas of education and health. These areas involve direct service to citizens by the Town Hall, creating a high demand for civil servants, especially teachers, doctors, nurses and assistants. By way of example, approximately the following number of people were hired each year: 1,200 in 2019; 1,600 in 2020; and 1,900 in 2021. An annual increase of between 20 and 30 per cent was identified. However, in 2022 there was an approximate demand for 3,000 new hires, i.e. an annual increase of 50 per cent, or 150 per cent between 2019 and 2022. This gave rise to the main problem and objective of the innovation: to meet a demand far greater than that installed (structure and labour force) and also to ensure that vacancies were filled quickly to avoid teachers being absent from the classroom or doctors being absent from the office, in order to guarantee care for students and patients. After the initial diagnosis, a work plan was organised, taking into account the complexity of the problem and the continuous and growing demand. Thus, two fronts were established in the initiative: the emergency one, to meet the repressed and ongoing demand, and the planning and resolution one, to develop a global solution to the problem. In this way, the project was carried out using the scrum tool, with weekly sprints between 2022 and 2023, and culminated in the success of the intended innovation. The innovation corresponds to the entire revision of the hiring process, from the selection of personnel to the candidate's actual entry into office, with the respective bureaucratic and digital transformation. With the success of the initiative, 3,001 civil servants were hired in 2022, still using the partial transformation model. The following year, the digital transformation was completed, with the hiring of more than 3100 civil servants by November 2023, with a reduction in the human resources involved (⅓ of the previous one), bureaucracy and an increase in sustainability and agility. This has benefited both the candidates hired (agility and accessibility) and the population, which has been served by teachers, doctors and other civil servants hired. Ultimately, the reduction in the use of materials and the digitalisation of the process made it possible to reduce the use of resources from the environment. Currently, the initiative has been standardised and replicated in all Joinville City Hall's contracts. In this way, it can still be updated and developed in order to maintain constant evolution. Furthermore, through studies, replication for other public bodies is possible in terms of structural solutions, with adjustments being necessary depending on the legal and technological framework applicable to the body.

Innovation Description

What Makes Your Project Innovative?

The initiative is innovative in that it has revolutionised the way in which candidates are hired, which used to be handmade and bureaucratic, and has enabled the public body to have a digital and remote process, in line with the latest technological and quality transformations. Initially, the hiring area was cluttered with boxes of documents, bureaucracy, rework, complaints and demotivation among those involved. In addition, the lack of speed made it difficult to meet the demands of the public and even the candidates, who found it difficult to get a job. Nowadays, the process has gone digital, with digital invitations to apply, documents being sent remotely and difficulties and doubts being solved by direct contact via WhatsApp. Once the data has been filled in, it is validated by the server, reducing the lengthy registration periods. In addition, the pre-validation of documents by AI (OCR reader), which compares documents and data, is being tested to speed up the validator's work.

Innovation Development

Collaborations & Partnerships

The innovation was developed by the Department of People Management, an organ of Joinville City Hall, but it had important collaboration, especially in the technological field. This collaboration was carried out through the Department of Administration and Planning, an integral body of the City Hall, through the Technology and Management Department, which monitored the entire digital transformation envisaged in the project, and even brokered contact with the private sector to find solutions.

Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries

The main beneficiary of the initiative is the population, the citizens who use public services, especially in health and education, e.g. patients and students, who are not left without the service or waiting excessively. Also the candidates, mainly teachers and doctors, who can be hired without bureaucracy and from anywhere, with assertive service. And lastly, the recruiting civil servants, who have gained quality of life in the public service, by having convenience in their activities.

Innovation Reflections

Results, Outcomes & Impacts

The main impact was meeting the population's demand for professionals in education and health, with more than 3,000 being hired each year in the years the initiative was implemented. Additionally, impacts were seen in: Record hiring of a civil servant in 1 working day (Max: over 60 days); Reduction in the time taken to enter a candidate into the people management system to approximately 5 to 10 minutes (Max: 1h30/2h); Reduction in the time taken to select candidates to up to 12 days (Max: 40 days); Savings of approximately 218,000 A4 sheets/year (or 22 trees per year) after the digital transformation; Reduction in the number of ombudsmen and complaints to less than 50 (Max: 700).

Challenges and Failures

The biggest challenge of the whole initiative was changing the culture, rethinking a practically ‘artisanal’ work dynamic into a totally digital and online process, with service via an app and now using AI to read documents. And all this within a public environment, which is more rigid, bureaucratic and resistant to disruptive changes. In addition, there was the difficulty of implementing technological innovations, which is challenging in the public sector, as well as time, which was scarce for an extensive and emergency transformation.

Conditions for Success

There are several factors that have contributed to the success of this initiative, such as planning, leadership, management support, but the main one can be said to be purpose. Although it may seem distant at first glance, purpose is what drives civil servants in their work. And it was with a single objective, to serve education and health, that all the civil servants collaborated tirelessly to transform a reality. In this way, the greatest condition for success is the participation of civil servants, motivated by a greater cause.

Replication

The initiative is about a wide-ranging, digital and unbureaucratic transformation that permeates various public management processes. The solutions were designed and inspired by other public and private processes, with different solutions being adapted. In this way, the initiative was replicated internally for all contracts awarded by Joinville City Hall. In another sense, in general terms it can be adopted by other public bodies, as long as the legal, accounting, procedural and technological compatibility is verified, by adapting the points needed to complete the workflow.

Lessons Learned

The biggest lessons relate to planning, leadership and teamwork focused on results. Planning was essential to combine various work fronts and demands, which even with delays, allowed the objective to be achieved. Leadership was essential to keep the work focused, with the whole team motivated and believing in a result. Finally, teamwork was essential to make a highly complex technical demand feasible, with a significant multidisciplinary participation.