Consolidate in a modern manner and train/re-train staff
From "Suggestions to stimulate economic recovery for Bermudians once Shelter in Place ends"
Go to the project
As has been said before, there is duplicity in Government and a reluctance to consolidate functions such as payments, online forms, etc.
One example of duplicity is the gov.bm website.
It is one of the most cumbersome behemoths that is out there and makes for very hard reading. Additionally, almost every department appears to have a 'subsite' with less than informative links, there are simply to many and they all have a preview that wastes space on the page OR you have to click four links to get to what you are looking for! As some departments refuse to adopt an online presence that also allows for upload of secure documents for things such as payments, we will have issues post-COVID19 and the govt needs as much revenue as possible.
If you use the 'coronavirus' pages as an example, as a reader, I get annoyed very quickly when navigating the pages trying to find up to date information.
The public is referred to this website day in and day out and I challenge any government official to try to explain over the phone how to navigate to find anything. Additionally, notices for those 'who do not have access to the internet' are posted on the (you guessed it) the internet!!
If you can read the post online, perhaps yo have access to the internet?
This same ethos seems to run rampant through many departments whereby you are almost compelled to call someone in order to find something that is on a website somewhere.
All of this is said to illustrate that it appears that the methodology used to design/update the website is the same as how some government and civil service departments operate now.
Take a look at the 'gov.uk' website for its simplicity - there aren't tons of images to load on a page with pictures of each minister, etc. Take into consideration the amount of data that people who now have less income to be wasting on wasted uploads (relate that to those with limited data plans).
The UK 'gov.uk' site uses simple text, user friendly links, links that actually make sense and don't question your intelligence and a there is complete lack of jargon.......
Then you have the 'gov.bm' website - the complete opposite.
Take a look forward to redesign (pronounced 'simplify') the website and at the same time seriously consider not wasting the public's time with more useless surveys of 'What should we do'; useless in the sense that just like some of the reporters at the COVID press conferences who ask the same questions expecting a different answer - don't do the same thing and make the necessary changes to stimulate the economy along with the number of agri-business ideas, forward thinking ideas such as local distillery, etc.
We cannot use the same methodology and idea base that we used last year and will have to take a real look at how we do business going forward. There is a large number of unemployed persons repatriated to Bermuda recently as well and all the ideas will need to incorporate them as the burden on the system is already great and we will need to see a higher percentage of Bermudians employed in coming months.
Lastly, the last event such as this was World War Two. We will have to be prepared to sacrifice at that level of global constraint in order to survive and put all of our modern experience behind that backdrop.
Compare for yourself: