Renovating Your Forms: Step 2

Set Priorities For Forms

Take a big-picture look at your programs’ forms. You may discover forms that could be combined or eliminated to streamline paperwork burden.

Discuss the following with your forms working group:

• What do you hear from clients about your forms, directly or indirectly?
• What business processes do your forms serve?
• Do they adequately serve these processes?
• If not, what needs to change?
• Are there forms you could eliminate? If you plan to stop using any forms, see: Taking A Form Out Of Service.
• Are there forms you could combine?
• Do you need to create any new forms? If you need to create new forms, see: Making New Forms.
• Which forms should you renovate first?

Factors To Consider

• Is this a high-impact or high-volume form?
• How many people or businesses use this form each year?
• Are you meeting the service delivery standard in processing this form?
• Do you receive complaints from clients about this form? How often?
• Do you receive incomplete or incorrect information on this form?
• How much staff time is required to follow up with clients to complete and correct the information on the form?
• Do delays in processing this form create problems for people or businesses?

Focus your attention on improving those forms that cause the most problems or are so high-volume that improving them will have a major impact inside and outside government.