Proactive steps must be taken to increase federal telework

By Dorothy Ramienski
Internet Editor
Federal News Radio

Agencies have been attempting to improve their Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plans since shortly after 9/11, but is enough being done?

Federal News Radio has been telling you about the issue of teleworking in the federal government. During the blizzard of this past February, the value of telecommuting by some agencies was realized.

In the wake of the storms, Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry pledged to increase the amount of teleworking feds.

The Partnership for Public Service has just released a report, On Demand Government: Deploying Flexibilities to Ensure Service Continuity, which supports a robust teleworking policy.

The Partnership, along with Booz Allen Hamilton, looked at the current policies for telecommuting in the federal government and four other flexible work arrangements-compressed workweeks, flextime, part-time schedules and job sharing.

Their report states that some things must change, mainly the government’s attitude toward teleworking.

“We have concluded that if all the talk about telework is to be translated into concrete action, the government must take a different approach — an approach that will change the current mindset of managers, set aggressive goals, start with the premise of ‘yes’ and ensure that teleworking can be effective during a crisis. The federal government must begin operating on the assumption that all employees are eligible to telework unless managers can demonstrate why it is not appropriate.”

This, the report says, would be a marked shift from current policies which, “tend to put the onus on the workers and accepts inconsistent standards across the government.”

The report makes the following recommendations:

• The federal government should significantly increase the use of teleworking, setting an ambitious goal for half of the nearly 1.2 million eligible federal employees, or about 600,000 civil servants, to be engaged in telework by 2014. . . . To achieve this goal, government- wide guidance is needed. All employees should be eligible to telework unless a supervisor or manager can demonstrate why an employee is not eligible. Each agency with fewer than 50 percent of its eligible employees teleworking should develop an action plan with annual updates to achieve the goal.
• OPM should determine an appropriate goal to spur an increase in the number of part-time and job sharing opportunities and encourage agencies to inform employees these options are available.
• Congress should approve legislation to increase the strategic use of telework in federal agencies, create a framework to boost the number of employees eligible to telework, and place responsibility in the hands of senior leaders for coordinating telework activity.
• Agencies must link telework to mission continuity plans. Unexpected events and emergencies have proven that telework can be an effective way for agencies to continue to operate during a crisis, and all agencies, regardless of whether Congress approves pending telework legislation, should incorporate telework into their continuity plans.
• The General Services Administration (GSA), as part of its facility and long range master planning services for federal agencies, should advise agencies on how to reduce their real estate footprint through telework. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) should require that an agency’s use of teleworking and remote offices be reflected in all construction project or facility expansion budgets.
• Agencies must solve the information security challenges, including developing secure telework architecture and authentication solutions, and addressing other technical issues related to employees working from remote locations. The Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), located in OMB, is ideally positioned to bring together top agency officials and thought leaders on information security.
• Senior leaders must set the tone within their agencies and ensure that those participating in flexible work arrangements are held to the same performance standards-no more and no less-as their colleagues who do not participate in such programs.
• OPM should monitor and evaluate agency flexible work arrangement programs to obtain a complete picture of how these approaches are being used across the entire government.

According to the report, the most recent data from OPM shows that about 62 percent of federal employees are eligible to telework or work from another remote location, but less than 6 percent of all full time feds actually telecommute even one day a month.

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