Government services failing to engage younger Australians: report

A new study by content design company R/GA Australia has revealed that government services are failing to engage Australia’s largest demographic, digital natives — raising concerns that current public sector services are still primarily designed for digital adopters.

R/GA’s Gen One Report delves into how younger generations perceive government platforms, highlighting disparities in their digital behaviours, privacy expectations, trust criteria, and life stage preferences. Platforms such as myGov are even identified as potential sources of anxiety among this group.

These novel behaviours from Gen One are early indicators of future common practices and form the basis for digital experiences to come. R/GA says the report is a pivotal call to action for public sector organisations, urging them to radically reconsider their digital engagement strategies to better connect with all Australians.

Understanding Gen One

R/GA conducted a study investigating how digital experiences create connections or barriers and how this influences expectations of interactions with public services. This comparative research, comprising a multimodal approach with 1579 Australians aged 15 and older, encompassed diary studies, detailed interviews and quantitative assessments. The study covered varied demographics and life stages. The findings revealed that the defining features of Gen One, originally observed in individuals under 18, also resonate with those in their 20s and 30s.

Key findings and recommendations

Gen One individuals want public sector organisations to address issues of inequity and disadvantage, as a larger percentage (82% as opposed to 70%) are grappling with the impacts of the rising cost of living. This includes higher levels of student debt, stress related to rent and housing security, and a reduced capacity to save.

1. Privacy, trust, and equity

Trust is a precious commodity between governments and Gen One Australians. How it has been historically earned and how it will be retained is critically important for public sector organisations when using emerging technology.

Gen One are less trusting of the government as custodian of their personal data than digital adopters, particularly for service history (54% vs. 63%) and location data (54% vs. 64%). The trend is reversed for private companies — they have higher comfort sharing data like their health (47% vs 34%) and demographics (71% vs 60%).

Even though digital natives are accustomed to sharing information online, recent events like Robodebt have raised concerns about how the government manages data. They are worried about security gaps and seek more robust assurances for the safety of their credentials and interactions with automated government communications. This emphasises the importance of implementing more trust-building practices.

2. A new meaning for life stages

While life stage-driven service design has made government-to-citizen interactions better, there is still a need for improvement to meet the specific needs and preferences of Gen One Australians. Their changing life stage demands require a better grasp and a significant enhancement in service design to effectively cater to them.

Looking at specific life stages echoes digital natives’ desire for public services to address their generational disadvantages while faced with cost of living pressures.

As Gen One enters the workforce, 60% are excited or happy, with 17% feeling indifferent, compared with 70% and 9% of digital adopters respectively. Gen One are more engaged by services that provide responsive and personalised information. In contrast, digital adopters lean towards seeking channel variety and flexibility at this life stage.

When it comes to purchasing their first home, Gen One tends to feel less enthusiastic, with 77% expressing excitement or happiness, in contrast to 85% of digital adopters. They express a need for more customised information on services and entitlements.

3. Novel behaviour and needs

The research uncovered emerging novel behaviours, such as a dislike for chatbots, a desire to use search over typical navigation, and a favouring of doubling the speed of audio and video playback.

These preferences underline the substantial amount of time spent on screens daily and a worry about the potential negative effects on wellbeing compared to digital adopters. These behaviours from Gen One are early signs of what will become widespread practices and set the groundwork for digital experiences. According to the Gen One report, 46% report feeling distracted weekly (compared to 28% for adopters), while 34% express feelings of being overwhelmed (versus 22% for adopters).

4. Designing with emotion, ethical gamification and hyper-personalisation

Public sector organisations must embrace innovative approaches in service and interaction design to meet the evolving needs of Gen One. The study advocates for emotional design, ethical gamification, and hyper-personalisation to drive adoption of services.

This transition represents a move towards digital government services that prioritise relationships, cultural sensitivity, and offering seamless support with minimal barriers. As citizens gain the flexibility to select how they access essential government services, it will become imperative to reassess our technology design and organisational structure.

Tish Karunarathna, Executive Director of R/GA Public Practice said: “Public sector organisations have to step up to meet the expectations of Australia’s largest demographic — these are individuals who have never known a world without the internet.”

Stephen Naimo, Group Strategy Director added, “Persisting with a digital adopter-centric design approach risks alienating Gen One and limiting technological adoption. We must embrace the unique digital fluency of Gen One to revolutionise public sector engagement, ensuring these interfaces are not sources of unease, but of trust and efficiency.”

The Gen One Report can be found here.

Image credit: iStock.com/fotolgahan