Every regulatory agency faces the same pressure: More applications. More complaints. More compliance requirements. More public scrutiny. Yet when regulatory agency backlogs grow, the first response often remains the same: “We need more staff.”
But what if the backlog isn’t a staffing problem at all? What if it’s a licensing workflow problem? The highest-performing state regulatory agencies are not the ones with the largest teams. They’re the ones that process work faster, remove bottlenecks, automate repetitive tasks, and give staff the tools to focus on decisions instead of administration.
Backlogs are rarely caused by a shortage of people. They’re caused by systems that make people work harder than they should have to.
A backlog is more than a queue. It’s delayed licenses. It’s frustrated applicants. It’s decreased public trust. It’s auditors asking questions. It’s leadership spending time defending timelines instead of improving outcomes. And every day work sits waiting, the backlog grows. The question agency leaders should ask isn’t: “How many people do we need?” It’s: “Why does this work require so many people in the first place?”
“Staff capacity should never be the thing we’re talking about,” GL Solutions’ CRO Sam Hardin explains. “The real question is: Why don’t you have a system in place that doesn’t require staff to manually do so much work?”
The best-performing agencies focus on one thing: Moving work faster from submission to decision with regulatory agency software.
They accomplish operational efficiency by:
Stop managing backlogs and start eliminating them. With the right operational design, workflow automation, and regulatory technology, agencies process more work, improve service delivery, and scale without continually adding staff.
Source:
Key finding:
State CIOs rank regulatory agency modernization, digital government and artificial intelligence among their top priorities, showing agencies must improve operations, manage costs and use technology to meet rising expectations.
Why it matters:
Modernization tied to regulatory process improvement and digital services helps agencies redesign work, remove bottlenecks and increase public service delivery with existing resources.
Source:
The Elimination, Optimization and Automation playbook
Key finding:
The U.S. General Services Administration playbook asks regulatory agencies to improve performance by eliminating waste and automating low-value tasks; the transition helps employees shift time from manual administrative work to mission-related tasks.
Why it matters:
The GSA framework supports the argument that backlog reflects operational design, not staff numbers. Regulatory agencies reduce delays by removing unnecessary work and automating repetitive tasks before workloads overwhelm capacity.
Source:
Cutting the Red Tape: Why Governments are Investing in Digital Workflows
Key finding:
The government digital workflows report found 90% of government CIOs planned to increase digital workflow budgets, while 62% reevaluated internal processes to improve operations after legacy systems exposed performance gaps
Why it matters:
The Adobe report reinforces that backlog grows when agencies rely on legacy, paper-based workflows. Automated regulatory workflow improvements helps leaders increase throughput without relying on staffing as the only solution.
Agency Challenge:
The Minnesota Gambling Control Board managed many license applications, renewals and business processes manually, with submissions reviewed on paper or by email. The agency also lacked clearly defined, documented workflows, which challenged staff in using the system consistently.
Solution:
The Minnesota board partnered with GL Solutions to modernize with a web-first approach that brought applications, renewals and business processes online. GL Suite also added business process guides to define the steps for major workflows to increase process consistency.
Read the Full Story:
Game-Changer: Minnesota Gambling Control Board’s Digital Transformation Story
No. Many licensing application backlogs result from inefficient workflows, manual reviews and process bottlenecks.
Yes. Automation helps regulatory agencies eliminate repetitive tasks and increase throughput.
Throughput measures how much work a licensing and permitting agency completes within a given period.
Regulatory agencies see the best results when they improve workflows and automate routine work with regulatory software.
Regulatory agencies sometimes treat backlogs as a staffing problem. More often, these stem from an operational performance issue.
The agencies reducing backlog most successfully focus on how work moves through the organization. By improving throughput and automating routine work, they create the capacity to process more work without continually increasing staff.
GL Suite helps regulatory agencies eliminate bottlenecks, automate workflows and improve throughput through system-driven operations. See how the Operational Speed Engine helps agencies reduce backlog without adding staff.
Sam Hardin, Chief Revenue Officer, joined GL Solutions in 2020 with a background in operations management. He is passionate about leadership, enhancing company culture and personal/professional growth. Sam studied business management throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies.
