PUBLIC LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
Improving public service delivery by helping the people who deliver it
Post-COVID worker burnout is real—especially in the public sector—but you can’t always pay government workers more or decrease their workloads by hiring more staff, says new Kennedy School Associate Professor of Public Policy Elizabeth Linos. Yet that doesn’t mean you can’t help them cope in other ways and, consequently, improve the services they are delivering on the frontlines, she says. Linos, who works at the intersection of behavioral science and public management to find evidence-based approaches to recruiting and supporting public sector workers, is the faculty director of The People Lab, which focuses on the often-neglected human element in governing. In a recent HKS Faculty Focus piece, Linos says her research has found that investing in programs that support workers' mental health can “translate to a shifting mindset for the people who deliver services.” |