“By 2020, it is estimated that the average person will have seven connected devices, that’s up from three in 2014”. That statistic was recently highlighted by Accenture on LinkedIn and it prompted this thought: what could that actually mean, would those seven devices be personal or work issue or indeed a blend of both?

I recently completed my car disk renewal from the comfort of my chair on the 7.15am train to London from my Smartphone; the only paper involved being my tax expiry reminder which came through the post. I was mightily impressed by this, but I guess the Digital by default brigade at DVLA will be removing all paper at some point as part of their continuous improvement and road map of change. No doubt this step change in car tax is issuing internal staff to work on continuous improvement projects as opposed to chasing paper around the corridors in Swansea, something which is to be genuinely welcomed and applauded. To my mind this demonstrates that this season of public sector austerity we find ourselves in does indeed have its benefits in making for a much improved customer experience at a cost effective price to government / the tax payer.

That digitisation and paper-reducing exercise is not necessarily making for an upwardly agile workforce but is releasing DVLA resources for other work or allowing the DVLA to reduce headcount naturally whilst simultaneously improving customer access.

Nowhere have I seen a better example of how an agile workforce could benefit from digital capability, than at the sparkling new Children’s Hospital in Cardiff where I have spent time in recent weeks whilst my son underwent two rounds of major surgery. Within this excellent facility, designed around the needs of patients, visiting parents, medical staff and facilities management, I couldn’t help but think that given the modern and highly functional environment of the hospital, it was a tad disappointing to see nurses still working with pen and paper to record and track a patient’s progress both pre and post-operation and in managing the administration of medication.

In this hospital the nurses walked on average circa six miles per twelve hour shift and I couldn’t help thinking how a mini-tablet or iPad would have served them much better. I must stress that the nurses and all the staff were excellent in delivering care but in this lovely new hospital, they deserved – and should have been given – access to digital records at their fingertips to help them fulfil their duties. Adding such a device to the list mentioned at the top of this blog would once again have done so much to make these tireless workers’ jobs that much easier.

I find the policing sector to be in a similar place. Only now in 2015 does it feel that the vast majority of police forces are looking at truly mobilising their workforce and digitising processes. The resistance to change is often built on the threat that technology poses. However, it’s baffling that a service that is about 170 years old and has had a field force since its inception (i.e. bobbies on the beat or in a car in more modern times) still have minimal or no access to essential intelligence and digitised processes via some form of hand-held device.

The evolution of the web and importantly, smartphones, will change the face of our workplace and workforces in the next five years enormously. Hopefully we will now begin to see a more open embrace of this technology as we need the same experiences we have at home when using Amazon, paying for our children’s school meals or Facebook in the workplace to allow us all time to do our jobs and remove the burden of heavy and sub-optimal bureaucracy from our lives.

When my son has his next operation in four years’ time I really hope the nurses (some of which will be from that Gen Y group) are armed with a device that really helps them; they deserve it and the environment they work in deserves and needs it.