Digitalisierung in der Bundesagentur für Arbeit. Entwicklung und aktueller Stand

The services provided by social administrations are becoming increasingly digitised and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this development. However, there is a lack of any comprehensive overview of the current developments. In addition, little is known about the effects of digitisation for employees and the labour administration or for those seeking advice. The article seeks to redress this lack of information by providing an overview of the central activities of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) on the digitisation of its services in recent years. The high dynamics of change pose, on the one hand, a challenge for the employees of the BA, but also provide new opportunities for them. Based on two studies on the implementation of video counselling in SGB II and SGB III, findings are reported on employees’ attitudes towards digitisation, their self-assessments of digital competences and observed coping strategies for dealing with these challenges. Electronic file management and video communication in particular open up new areas of flexibility for staff, so that counselling and placement can also be better suited to needs and requirements of individual consulters. The organisation is faced with offering new working time regulations, individually tailored further training and appropriate technical equipment for the staff.