Towards the sustainability of teleworking in local administrations?

Teleworking: An essential element of the business continuity plan for local authorities?

Often taken by surprise, they discovered a facet of teleworking they had never imagined, its logistical and technical complexities - due to a lack of sufficient equipment and resources - and its managerial and methodological constraints.

If the cities surveyed (Rosny sous Bois, Alfortville, Châlons-en-Champagne, Nancy) were rather successful in their examination of the transition to large-scale teleworking, it is mainly because they had a strong IT department and had already experimented with teleworking.

But all faced the same dual challenge: setting up a near-industrial teleworking infrastructure for as many employees as possible, and then supporting these employees in adopting new tools and innovative practices to enable them to continue their work.

How can we quickly connect employees to their work environment without compromising security?

• Connect as many teleworking employees as possible, primarily those included in the local authority's continuity plan,
• Enable employees to access their usual work environment from home: business tools, financial management, human resources management, and procedure management,
• Offer a quality service, in other words, sufficient bandwidth to enable everyone to work within the usual standards,
• Ensure optimal security conditions in order to preserve the community's digital heritage, a point that has become extremely sensitive with the upsurge in cyberattacks in recent weeks.

What infrastructure and connections are needed to make teleworking possible?

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

This is undoubtedly the most common type of network for accessing the community's business applications via the intranet (Châlons-en-Champagne, Nancy, Alfortville). While theoretically possible, the use of personal computers was not considered by any of the IT departments interviewed. For security reasons, all provided employees with municipally owned laptops, configured and equipped with antivirus software.

This constraint, however, automatically limited the number of users to the available machines and, in some cases, even required large quantities of laptops to be ordered. According to users, the subscription price for professional VPN access remains modest; however, the administration and maintenance costs are quite high.

RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)

This is an application that allows employees to control their workstation from home, provided it remains switched on at all times (Alfortville Town Hall, Nancy Town Hall). This allows them to access all of their applications.

This type of solution also requires the use of a service provider. While more robust in terms of security, it remains complex to configure. Furthermore, the risk of disruptions in the local authority's validation procedures or difficulties accessing certain applications increases with the number of local government employees being shut down. This is why many local authorities are combining VPN access with RDP access to access different software packages.

VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) Systems

This IT virtualization technique, which allows users to access a virtual PC on a remote server via the cloud, is still relatively under-deployed in local authorities. However, it offers excellent flexibility, is designed to be accessible anywhere and on any device, and provides a high level of security since the data is stored in the data center and not on the client workstation. During this Covid-19 period, VDIs seem to fully justify their use, despite their relatively high cost. Local authorities that have made this transition, such as Rosny-sous-Bois, have been able to face the transition to remote working with relative peace of mind. In the case of Rosny, the switch to remote working for 200 employees took a few hours on the server and a few dozen hours on the user side for setup. Most employees work on their personal computers, and network administration is relatively resource-efficient. Many local authorities express interest in these technologies, which nevertheless require extensive digital transformation. Rosny, for example, has chosen to move its information system to a data center (two to be exact for security reasons), to the point that there is no longer a computer room at the town hall.

These three connection methods, VPN, RDP and VDI, have allowed thousands of agents to work without having to leave their homes. Moreover, it should be noted that to mitigate the brutal effects of the lockdown, Cedric O, the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, launched an appeal to tech players to grant businesses, including local authorities, easy access to their teleworking solutions. This message has been heard since around forty operators and publishers are offering free and widespread access for the duration of the state of health emergency.

While cities were ultimately able to keep their users connected, the situation for smaller municipalities was more challenging. Many found themselves at a loss, lacking a VPN to access applications, sufficient laptops for remote working, and the skills to make the necessary changes. Service providers who could have stepped in were often unavailable due to the sharp increase in demand. Some municipalities had to rely on collaborative messaging to stay in touch with their employees, while others, more fortunate, benefited from the facilities offered by their software vendors. For example, Berger Levrault offered its clients remote access to enable remote working in secure conditions.

Finally, some good ideas emerged, such as repatriating work files to a cloud space to allow employees to remain productive at home, without being directly connected to the local authority's information system.

Access to work environments: good performance and also some shortcomings

Overall, remote workers were able to access most of their tools. However, the proposed infrastructure does not systematically provide access to everything (with the exception of VDI technologies). Indeed, most information systems were not initially designed for remote working. Over time, users and some departments have discovered malfunctions, broken processing chains, and sometimes dead ends:

• Applications not accessible from the VPN, even though financial officers, for example, need to access unlisted business applications.
• Breakdowns in validation chains related to employees not at their posts (illness, childcare) or to procedures requiring "rematerialization" at some point in the process.
• Lack of RGS signature cards to sign mandates and contracts.
• Decision-making functions not yet dematerialized: these concern, for example, the provision of electronic voting solutions for holding remote deliberative assemblies. These assemblies are temporarily authorized to meet via video conference; they may deliberate, provided, in particular, that the vote is public. However, this option remains subject to the state of health emergency (see box).

These examples confirm the distance still to be covered to implement measures covering all activities. This will undoubtedly be a project to be undertaken in the coming months, in the form of further modernizations of the information system, to enable local authorities to remain fully operational, even in the event of a partial or total lockdown.

Offering remote workers collaborative tools and innovating in terms of organization and methods

These collaborative toolboxes for remote workers make it possible to virtually reconstitute teams and, thanks to guest access, to continue work with external partners.

The market is brimming with cloud-based offerings, making them accessible anywhere and on any device. But, unsurprisingly, the most frequently cited products are American, such as Microsoft Teams or Slack. Those promoted by the government that are "more secure," such as Tchap (secure instant messaging), Webconference (video conferencing), or Osmose (community management), still seem to be reserved for central government, pending possible expansion.

The exception is local authorities that have opted for open source software. To address the most pressing issues, Nancy used the "means at hand" by creating a private extranet-style channel on her citizen participation platform ^[1], with several hundred access points. The platform's collaborative features are basic (proposals, questionnaires, debates), but, according to those responsible, remain suitable for communication and exchanges with officials. It should be noted that civic tech solution vendors also offer their platforms free of charge to promote such uses.

A few complementary, sometimes even redundant, tools are emerging, such as Zoom for video conferencing. The solution's ease of use and its ability to accommodate a large number of participants (several dozen, even hundreds) appealed to most of the cities surveyed, despite criticisms of the security and confidentiality risks the solution poses (partially corrected recently). Alfortville regularly convenes its crisis unit and recently held its first office meeting in this format. Nancy also uses it for external purposes, for example, to bring together local economic stakeholders and directors of cultural and socio-cultural establishments.

The gradual consolidation of the remote work organization has revealed new needs, particularly the need to plan projects to ensure their follow-up and reporting on completed services. Solutions such as Planner (Rosny, Châlons-en-Champagne) or Trello are also emerging for the coordination and monitoring of actions and projects.

In a slightly different vein, virtual switchboards have made a breakthrough because they offer more flexible solutions than traditional switchboards for mobilizing remote workers to receive their services. These cloud-based platforms allow for some of the workload from telephone reception centers to be shifted to town halls. They are frequently used to relieve congestion in solidarity services (complaints, health centers, dispensaries, CCAS reception, meal delivery, daycare registration for healthcare workers, mask distribution, registration of vulnerable people) and are relatively easy to implement (Rosny sous Bois, Alfortville, Châlons en Champagne).

How can we consolidate telework management and steering models?

However, the process remains sensitive, given the varying maturity of departments and certain divergences, as one director summarizes: "Telework highlights the pros and cons of the organization of our various departments. Some managers are having difficulty adapting to collaborative work. And consensus on work organization, the pace and mode of meetings, and controls often remains to be established." There is still a form of mistrust toward remote working, which could justify the implementation of cumbersome and restrictive control mechanisms.

This cultural disparity encourages management to adopt a cautious and progressive approach, best summed up by these three terms: "Learn, adapt, and improve." A few trends seem to be emerging in this spirit:

• The choice of decentralized organizations, in which managers play a central role by ensuring ongoing contact, coordination, support, and work distribution, seems to be gaining ground. Directions, guidance, and directives are more likely to be provided through the director-manager relationship.

• The desire to regularly communicate on progress and the launch of new initiatives, organizational choices, and best practices aims to provide visibility to employees. Communication also aims to strengthen relationships of trust, break down departmental silos, and mobilize collective intelligence. Examples of weekly or even daily information sheets and the organization of daily virtual meetings "around the coffee machine" to encourage informal exchanges (Nancy) seem to be increasing for this purpose.

• The search for a consensus on the human resources aspect of organizing teleworking from home and the rights and responsibilities of teleworkers has begun to update the special status.

Trials and errors remain, as to how to empower employees, avoid demobilization, lay the foundations for a trust contract with employees, and also regarding the post-COVID era, which is likely to see a further increase in the number of remote workers. But, in this period of reorganization and revision of certain firmly established principles, the mobilization of management to streamline labor relations is a harbinger of deeper and lasting changes.

From self-training to mastering tools and practices

Since the end of in-person learning, online training has become the preferred medium, designed to address teleworking from all angles: mastering tools (collaborative platform, specific tools), security (also adopting barrier gestures to avoid cyberattacks), mastering practices (how to host a video conference); organizing teleworking from home; and learning collaboration as a structuring element capable of connecting all the others.

On the operational level, for example, Rosny provides its employees with an integrated training system (Mandarine) to enable users to take full advantage of their collaborative suite and their new exchange and sharing capabilities. It includes usage- and product-oriented courses for communicating, collaborating, searching, and sharing information; short web conferences (30 minutes), led by a trainer; video tutorials; and a community social network. The advantage of this approach is that it offers both a comprehensive training program, with mandatory sections, and more flexible self-training materials to empower users and provide them with the means to improve their skills.

The three lessons from this first mandatory teleworking exercise

Real changes are to be expected. According to the estimates of most of the cities surveyed, teleworking will become a standard feature of the landscape due to force majeure. Through a domino effect, it will stimulate digitalization initiatives and perhaps also prompt the development of innovative projects to bring struggling communities into the transformation, regardless of their size, capabilities, and resources.

Teleworking will become a permanent fixture in local government administrations

Phase after phase of partial or even complete lockdown is likely to continue until a vaccine is available, and even beyond, in the event of a mutation of the current vaccine or the emergence of new viruses.

This constraint risks permanently entrenching the changes already experienced over the past few weeks: the reduction or even elimination of physical meetings (internally and with partners), lower office occupancy, the gradual spread of online training, and the development of remote collaborative working methods with partners, consultants, and suppliers.

Consequently, maintaining service activity at cruising speed, more extensive than the current degraded mode, will require an increase in remote working capacities and, consequently, the implementation of more robust, better prepared, and, above all, more extensive continuity plans in the event of a resumption of lockdown.

For reasons of resources and support for all public stakeholders, this preparation will be gradual and will focus on a few main methodological areas:

At the municipal and inter-municipal levels

• • In-depth review of the functions, procedures, and services likely to be fully digitized, in order to prioritize and establish a roadmap accordingly.
  • Evaluation of the necessary hardware purchases, particularly laptop purchases, which some expect to become widespread over the next three years.
  • Identification and regular updating of the list of employees likely to switch to "telework" mode, as well as their functions and access needs.
  • Conducting crash tests to assess the robustness of "Teleworking continuity plans" to address the risk of an epidemic. We will ensure the smooth running of procedures, the decompartmentalization of business applications where possible, and the planning of on-call duty to compensate for absences due to illness, childcare, or vacation.