Human Services software to probe what its 30,000 staff really think

With one of the largest service delivery orientated workforces of any government agency, it can’t always be easy for the Department of Human Services to uncover ideas from those at the coalface.

But this week the department looked to change that by approaching the market for an out-of-the-box virtual innovation platform to bring together ideas from its more than 30,000 employees.

“To support continued alignment with the Secretary’s innovation expectations, the department is seeking to establish a consistent idea management capability across the department,” DHS said.

“This will enable staff to experience consistency when collaborating and ideating on strategic challenges.”

The new platform will first and foremost replace the existing platform used to support the department’s innovation program and collaborate with other agencies, which will no longer be supported from May 2019.

However DHS is also keen to extend the platform out to other agencies for external innovation challenges.

“The proposed virtual platform should be able to accommodate additional government department users, potential at a whole-of-Australian-government level,” tender documents state.

The new platform is expected to support both “challenge based (time boxed and specific) and open innovation (always open and diverse)” for approximately 40,000 staff.

It will also keep contributors informed about the status of their idea, while ideally allowing employees to cherry-pick the best concepts through an up vote and down vote system that the department can use to “close the loop”.

The department wants a solution that is either hosted within its information systems environment or the cloud. Both will be expected to meet the technical requirements set by the department and the Australian Signals Directorate.

However how employees will access the proposed platform is still up for discussion.

The successful tenderer would provide the solution for up the next three years.