Based in Ljubljana, the Labor Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia (IRSD) is in charge of overseeing compliance with labor and social legislation. One of the entity’s goals is to provide exceptional employee care and modern digitized processes. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country, the institution needed to monitor the implementation of the Infectious Diseases Act (ZNB). Using an app based on Microsoft Power Apps and integrated with Microsoft Teams, IRSD inspectors can accomplish their daily tasks 30 percent faster, and from anywhere.
The Labor Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia has a team of 119 people, 90 of whom are field inspectors. Through inspections, the institution makes sure that labor relations, safety and health at work are respected. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the IRSD became the supervisory body for the implementation of the Infectious Diseases Act (ZNB) across the country.
“For inspectors, this meant an additional set of tasks. The question was how to increase the efficiency of our work, and exercise effective control over the implementation of the ZNB, without unnecessary overhead and paperwork,” says Branka Knafelc, Head of General, Personnel and Financial Affairs Service and Informatics at IRSD.
Microsoft partner B2 IT helped IRSD find a solution that could be implemented quickly and efficiently. “We only have one employee in charge of IT for the entire Inspectorate. Within a short time, B2 IT came up with a Power Platform-based solution that wouldn’t need additional resources from our side”, explains Alenka Fritz Kolbe, Head of the OU Ljubljana at IRSD.
Easy access to data and paperless reporting
Using Microsoft Power Platform tools, IRSD adopted a new process to monitor the implementation of the Infectious Diseases Act. “The Power Apps-based application was integrated with the Governmental database of business entities. By entering the registration number, the inspector is automatically shown the basic data of the targeted business,” shares Knafelc. This made the inspection and documentation processes much easier for field inspectors.
The application was deployed within Microsoft Teams, which eventually opened new communication and collaboration channels. “Inspectors started to share documents and collaborate on files from their own smartphones using Microsoft Teams. Before, there were countless trips to the office and hours spent completing reports. Now, a lot of things are done in the field,” adds Knafelc.
“The key benefit of digitalization with Microsoft Power Platform is immediate insight into the inspectors’ work when they are still in the field. And with Power BI, we get both control findings and statistical reports with no additional work, and paper-free,” says Jadranko Grlić, Chief Inspector at IRSD.
Moving away from manual work, inspectors were able to perform more inspections within the same reporting period. “Being paperless made us faster, commit fewer mistakes, and execute our activities in a more sustainable way,” adds Kolbe. “Inspectors increased their productivity by 20 percent, saving about 20 hours per month due to quick data entry and automated reporting”.
IRSD is now able to better understand the areas where improvement is needed as well. “It’s easy to compare performance between different regional units and inspectors and troubleshoot,” says Knafelc. “As we have just begun digitizing IRSD, our ambition is to modernize all processes so our first-line workers will be fully empowered to execute their tasks using digital tools.”
Inspectors started to share documents and collaborate on files from their own smartphones using Microsoft Teams. Before, there were countless trips to the office and hours spent completing reports. Now, a lot of things are done in the field.
Branka Knafelc: Head of General, Personnel and Financial Affairs Service and Informatics, IRSD
