Policy & Practice | Fall 2025

staffing support efficiency—and where they don’t. 4.Make decisions. Re-engineer processes, revise policies, develop leaders, implement best practices, align staff roles with skills, and invest in smart technology to drive efficient operations. Select a Partner for Staffing Analysis Support Institutional knowledge is essential when you operate complex programs, and staff attrition can disrupt continuity and performance. A staffing analysis that includes work assignments and skills, workflows, maturity in adopting best practices, and task-supporting systems can reveal the proper training, reassignments, or contracted support needed to regain that balance. When completing a staffing analysis, select a partner that prioritizes building trust with your team before segmenting workflows and analyzing staff roles. Those who have previously served as government employees in similar programs understand and appreciate the hard work they observe from your staff. Their empathetic

viewpoint helps them better under stand the time and expertise necessary to perform each specific business process within your program. Apply Smart Automation to RoutineTasks Once you understand your opera tions and address root issues, you can start identifying how and where to apply smart automation for targeted improvements. By matching operational challenges with new tech nologies, you can boost work output, increase staff effectiveness, and deliver services faster to program participants. This approach has already shown positive results for states in practice, including the ability to bring intel ligent document processing to the program mailroom. For example, Maximus supports a state program where handling returned mail with forwarding addresses was a persistent pain point. The routine task of handling thousands of pieces of mail used precious staff time and delayed the process. Our pilot program applied AI-powered intelli gent document processing with

97 percent accuracy and minimal manual work. This reduced data entry by nearly 20 percent, allowing the state to redeploy staff to higher-value tasks. The Future of Modernization Calls for government efficiency are not new. With careful planning and execution that considers both technology and staffing, your invest ments can be optimized. Partnering with vendors experienced in business process reengineering can help states Pat Aguilar is the Managing Director of Program Modernization Services at Maximus, where he leads a nationwide team focused on optimizing service delivery through business process improvements and system automation. With more than 35 years of health and human services experience, Pat has successfully led major system modernization projects across state SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, child support, and child welfare programs. deliver a modern approach that improves program operations.

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Fall 2025 Policy & Practice