SAVE Award 2011 Ideas

Terminate the contract with GovTrip. It is an impossible website to navigate and probably costs millions of dollars in frustrated staff time. Switch to a simple, easy-to-use system.

Allow Federal employees who have undergone detailed background checks show a government ID and avoid pat downs at airport security check points. Lines would move faster, stress would be reduced, security clearance time could be better estimated, and employees would spend less time at the airport.

I propose that our govt move into a new era where paper decisionmaking is a thing of the past. Technology exists where secure signatures and sharing networks can bring our offices up to the year 2011. We can reduce the burden on our forests and recycling centers! We can reduce the time it takes to get a document from one decisionmaker to another by using software that allows all decisionmakers to view and sign document... more »

My supervisor told me that if an employee is productive for 6 hours out of the day, that's pretty good. This is no surprise.
Why then do we need to spend 8 hours here when it's common knowledge that most people are only productive for 6 hours per day? I can be productive for 8-10 hours a day SHORT term, but long term I only have 6 hours of QUALITY work in me per day.
NASA makes it difficult for people to switch to hourly,... more »

As EPA Region 9 summer interns who’ve grown up in a Web 2.0 World, we feel we have a fresh perspective on how procedures are carried out with new technologies. We were surprised by the sheer amount of paper involved in the hiring process –SF-52, I-9, a physical welcome folder all of which were available online. For a total of 2 million federal employees, this translates into an incredible amount of paperwork and redundancy.... more »

If you don't manage at least 8 people then you should not be a manager. I report to my boss who directly supervises 4 people. Her boss directly supervises 3 people. This goes up the chain about 7 levels (each supervising 3-6 people on average). This makes getting higher level approvals very time consuming and flow of information poor. It also provides too much justification for abundant meetings for "managers" at... more »

If the Paperless program used by processing centers was expanded, and made accessible by field offices, teleservice centers, and all employees, it would reduce duplicate materials, save on material and non-material resources (specifically time), expand accountability, and reduce miscommunication.

As it is now, if a form is sent to a field office, and someone calls the teleservice center to see that it was received, the... more »

In Vista Imaging Display of scanned documents, allow us to enter page numbers to Go To.

 

Currently, the only way to access a particular page in a long scan, is to page through the scan, one page at a time. This wastes time.

As everyone is aware, computers are everywhere. What most people do not realize is how little your computer is being used. Like the human brain most computers are only using a fraction of their available power. Other computers have too little memory or are kind of slow.

What can be done is to do away with the individual desktops and install a large, powerful central computer for multiple users. The theory works like... more »

Recommend that every government printer is defaulted or set (by respective IT offices) to print double sided. This will provide the government an instantaneous savings – a 50% cost savings of all the paper we use.

The agency that I work for generates a lot of letters/correspondence. For every original letter sent out, at least three or more agency copies need to be made. Instead of a Program Assistant making three copies of the original letter and mailing or routing the copies, the Agency should use the Scanning function built into the copiers, which allows the letter to be scanned and e-mailed to agency staff right from the... more »