This thought leadership article was featured in the American Public Human Services Association’s blog, The Catalyst.
State government leaders face a familiar challenge: how to balance shrinking budgets, growing demand, and ongoing staffing constraints.
Challenging times call for innovative solutions that help you reimagine how work gets done. A blended workforce supported by intelligent automation brings together the best of people, processes, and technology. It allows you to build capacity, improve responsiveness, and deliver services and benefits efficiently while maintaining quality.
Blended workforce: The right workforce mix at the right time
A policy change, an increase in applications, a shift in economic conditions, or a natural disaster — and a sudden surge stretches your program beyond its limits.
A blended workforce — a mix of agency and contracted staff — offers you the flexibility to adapt when those surges happen.
Contracted teams scale quickly to handle administrative or high-volume tasks, such as document processing and customer inquiries. Meanwhile, your agency staff can stay focused on compliance and oversight or be redeployed to more mission-critical tasks.
You’ve brought balance back to your program by expanding capacity when and where you need it. Your agency staff is serving people where they are, faster. And when the surge subsides, you can scale back as quickly as you ramped up.
Recent federal guidance offers states more discretion in determining the optimal staffing mix to serve people effectively. It opens the door to more strategic, efficient uses of blended workforces. That’s a meaningful shift.
Intelligent automation streamlines repetitive tasks
When applied thoughtfully, intelligent automation amplifies what people can do. By automating repetitive manual work, a blended workforce of agency staff and contractors focus on complex, human-centered tasks that require judgment and experience.
Take document processing as an example. Programs that receive stacks of paper forms and mailed documentation can utilize intelligent document processing (IDP) to scan, extract critical information, sort, and route these materials automatically, thereby cutting hours or even days from the processing time.
On the front lines of customer service, artificial intelligence (AI) supports human agents behind the scenes. It analyzes caller intent, suggests next steps, and generates call notes in real-time. Instead of splitting their attention between data entry and conversation, agents can focus entirely on helping people.
Faster, more informed program decisions supported by advanced technology
Intelligent automation and predictive analytics give agency leaders faster access to data to enhance their decision-making.
As AI-enabled tools evolve and mature, the ability to support complex tasks related to data accuracy and program integrity has also grown. Intelligent document processing and AI-powered verification tools check benefit applications against data in case documents and third-party systems, flagging potential errors for human review and correction.
In customer service environments, AI utilizes natural language processing and machine learning to analyze patterns in calls and interactions, providing clear and objective insights that enable agency and program leaders to enhance service delivery. Subsequently, supervisors use that information to identify training needs and continuously improve service quality.