Change Management and the case of E-office in Haryana
“I cannot do this” was the first phrase that was uttered by an employee of the Miscellaneous Assistant (MA) Branch at the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Panchkula.
When asked to shift from paper files to an electronic filing system, the government machinery, which has been used to a standard paper filing system for decades, would go into a frenzy (and rightfully so). They say that old habits die hard. In the case of the government ecosystem, which has been piling paper receipts and stocking hard files for decades, their habits were indeed old.
The file management system of the Government of Haryana relies heavily on hard copies being managed by a manual system. In the era of Gmail and Twitter, a meeting invite is still sent via a printed letter which is manually delivered to each participant. Officials leave comments on a physical piece of paper and these drafts are maintained for documentation purposes by branches of the said office. Dozens of people in the MA, Record Keeping English (RKE) and Local Fund Assistant (LFA) branches are tasked with this responsibility, thanks to the legacy left behind by the British administrative systems. Given the high manual intervention in this entire process, it is therefore no surprise that “high priority” files are often lost, burnt, or drowned. Not only is the process inefficient, but it is also not environment friendly. There is enough paper trail in 1 district office to cover the walls of the entire office building in a layer of paper. The number of trees lost and money spent on this paper is an altogether different sob story.
The introduction of a better filing system was not only an administrative need but also an environmental responsibility.
On the 25th day of December 2020, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Haryana announced that all DC offices in the state of Haryana were live on e-office. This was a historic day as almost a century old file management system was being replaced with a modern day technological solution. “E-office”, a product of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) Delhi, is a cloud enabled software that can be deployed/hosted in any data centre or in any cloud identified by the organization. It is a digital workplace solution, comprising a suite of products, that pave the way for an efficient and open government by streamlining workflow for government processes and making them paperless. At the time of writing this blog, all 22 district headquarters of the state of Haryana are using this solution in their head offices and >90% of the Department offices at the district level have gone live on this software.
However, all great changes are preceded by chaos.
Implementation of e-office in the districts was no different. Furthermore, change is often said to follow four stages.
The first stage is denial.
Every CM Associate working in any district of Haryana can vouch for the withdrawal symptoms that were showcased by seasoned professionals in the government machinery. From officials to clerks, everyone in the food chain would be impacted by the implementation of e-office.
The second stage is resistance.
This stage was characterised by a range of emotions, from subtle anxiety to explicit blame. The anxiety and blame were soon replaced by curiosity and confusion.
This brings us to the third stage- exploration.
The Associates organised multiple rounds of training for more than 10,000 employees across the state in collaboration with technical experts at both district and headquarter levels. These training sessions were buzzing with questions, which was a sight to behold.
Having gotten familiar with and realised the value addition from the e-office product, the government employees have now reached the fourth stage of change- commitment. As of today, 14,000+ e-files and 40,000+ e-receipts have been created and 1,50,000+ e-movements have happened across 22 districts of Haryana. 10,000+ users have been trained in using the e-office product. Most of them are logging in to the software on a daily basis.
While an entirely paperless office is still a distant reality, it is no longer an unimaginable dream. It is a humbling feeling to see officials and clerks, who have sometimes never touched a computer in their lives, excitedly checking their mail boxes every morning. The Deputy Commissioner offices in multiple districts of Haryana, coupled with a highly enthusiastic team of City Magistrates, have shown us that e-office usage creates a lean and efficient workflow for the government, bringing transparency and accountability in the administration.
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future. As an associate with the Government of Haryana, I can confidently say that this is not a state to be left behind.
