I’ve already blogged about some of the barriers to digital engagement that we identified during Digital Fortnight. But, we also asked attendees what they wanted from us as a digital team to help them get started and keep going with digital activity. We can break down the many comments that we received into a wish list that looks a bit like this.
- More training and practical help with getting started with digital engagement
- Help with getting started with listening and mapping influencers
- More digital visibility on both the intranet and in real life
- Get out the message that engagement is “allowed”
- Case studies with more of a personal digital story
Understandably, as lack of knowledge was seen as a barrier to engagement, a lot of these asks are related to helping build up that knowledge, and confidence. It’s easy to think that with the many intranet articles and blogs we’ve written over the year(s), we’ve reached all parts of the Department, but that’s not quite the case – there’s still work to do to spread the word. That applies equally beyond BIS to the wider open policy community, who can do much to address the fear that somehow engagement isn’t open to everyone.
In many respects, some of these activities represent “more of the same”, and so we’ll be working in the New Year with a range of colleagues across the Department (from policy to HR to internal comms) to develop a really strong plan of activity to make real progress with embedding digital skills more widely. Watch this space for details of what we get up to!