We’ve all paid the time tax—the exasperating costs that come with learning about, applying for, and participating in government benefits. But no one should have to deal with any undue administrative burdens, especially people seeking support they are eligible for.
Even those who have served the country pay these costs. In the U.S., veterans and their families spend around 64 million hours each year filling out various PDF forms from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
But thanks in part to a series of executive orders, there is a strong movement to reduce this burden. VA has long been a leader in this effort.
Earlier this year, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Customer Experience Office partnered with BIT and Trilogy Federal to support this work. Together, we developed an Administrative Burden Reduction Guide and Tool to help VHA employees understand, identify, and address administrative burden. Here are a few takeaways from these resources.
Administrative burden affects both customers and employees
The Administrative Burden Reduction Guide emphasizes that administrative burden hurts everyone involved in VHA. Plus, it deepens existing inequities faced by low-income individuals and people of color. We highlighted impacts on hiring, retention, and more elements of the employee experience to underscore that administrative burden reduction is a serious priority.
Different types of administrative burdens and how they affect veterans and employees
A step-by-step process to reduce administrative burden
We also developed a simple six-step process for VHA employees to identify and reduce administrative burden in their area of work.
An overview of the six-step process to identify and reduce administrative burden.
The companion Administrative Burden Reduction Tool supports employees through these steps, from identifying the process, service, tool, or form they want to focus on to choosing which solution strategy might be best to implement. While these steps were customized for VHA, they’re flexible enough for anyone working in government to use.
Ten strategies to develop solutions
The guide concludes with advice on how to think about potential solutions for administrative burden and offers ten common strategies as starting points.
Administrative burden solution categories and strategies for how to implement them.
Many are practical and relatively easy to carry out, for example:
- Reduce time and effort: Enable digital signatures, pre-fill out forms, and offer callback options to offset long hold times on the phone.
- Provide assistance: To help veterans navigate programs, consider providing virtual or in-person assistance. This could take the form of an FAQ guide, tooltips, a help desk, or individual point person. The Unemployment Insurance Navigator program, organized by the U.S. Department of Labor is one example to consider replicating.
- Make information easy to understand and actionable: Program communications that are written in simple language and organized clearly will make them easier to comprehend and act on for veterans and VHA employees. Plain language, as well as design choices, such as chunking content and highlighting deadlines, can help direct people’s attention to where it’s needed most.
Rolling out the guide and tool
VHA is sharing the Administrative Burden Reduction Guide and Tool with its employees and is working with other government agencies to scale these tools and methods.
For example, the VHA Customer Experience Office is hosting “lunch and learn” sessions to educate VHA leadership and staff about the resources, and is using administrative data to pinpoint areas where administrative burden could be reduced. Ultimately, these tools will help improve experiences for VA’s 400,000 employees and nine million customers.
Let’s cut the time tax together
Behavioral scientists and customer experience experts have long advocated against the time tax, and for streamlining public service delivery and reducing government sludge.
BIT is particularly proud of our work with VHA. It builds on our efforts to reduce administrative burdens in other social benefits programs and services related to public health, as well as to increase program uptake. Clearly, if we focus on behavior, we can cut the time tax and improve service delivery.
Contact us if you’d like to learn more about VHA’s Administrative Burden Guide or want to explore reducing administrative burden at your organization.
