What problem does it solve? Employees spend a LOT of time in their cars, running from meeting to meeting throughout the State. Much of their day is spent driving, rather than being productive. Traffic is stressful and dangerous, and employees whose jobs require frequent travel add to the overall congestion, pollution, and failing infrastructure issues in NJ. Additional time is wasted processing travel vouchers for reimbursements for tolls and mileage to employees using their own vehicles. Technology is available. What is your solution and who does it apply to? Video conferencing software could be added to the desktop/laptop computers to allow employees to attend meetings from their home office, rather than spending hours driving to attend in person. Headphones/earbuds could be used to minimize distraction for other workers nearby. Any documents needed could be distributed ahead of, or even during, the meeting as people would be at their computers. This solution is widely applicable across all State departments and would be a great time-saver for anyone who travels for meetings. What is the anticipated impact? Video conferencing software is widely available and is being used to increase worker efficiency in other industries. By reducing the amount of time employees spend behind the wheel, we would save time and money, while reducing stress, pollution, accidents, and wear and tear on our infrastructure and personal vehicles. Workers attending a meeting at their desks would have time to be productive for the rest of the day, rather than driving. Combined with a significant reduction in the filling out and processing of travel reimbursement vouchers and checks, video conferencing is one way to streamline meeting attendance and increase overall worker efficiency.
https://www.videoconferencingdaily.com/small-business/will-video-conferencing-replace-travel/
https://www.uctoday.com/collaboration/video-conferencing/video-conferencing-trends-2019/
Videoconferencing is already being implemented. Issue is that many stakeholders prefer face to face meetings.
Great idea. If there were a state-wide intranet (via Sharepoint or Workplace by Facebook) this could easily be accomplished. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/stream/live-event-m365
I actually proposed this idea, too. I think it's a great way to be more efficient, reduce traffic and environmental impact, and also better serve citizens. I'm happy to be on your implementation team if this one moves to stage 2. :)
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