Shifting Federal Telework into Drive

In early November 2007, the House Subcommittee on FederalWorkforce,

Postal Service, and the District of Columbia held a hearing on how to

break new ground in telework.Telework Exchange, among other witnesses,

testified on why the federal government is not further along in its telework

adoption.Although resistance still remains, the workforce dynamics are

rapidly shifting, and the government must adapt.

Telework is transforming the work environmentpropelling business

continuity and pandemic planning, recruitment and retention, and real-estate

savingsto the benefit of government agencies, employees, and America. As

the green movement takes hold, telework is not only improving the lot of employees

and businesses, but providing a breath of fresh air for the environment.

Why Care about Telework?

Commuting

The Price

The federal workforce spends $20 billion a year on

commuting. If we extrapolate that figure to the U.S. white

collar workforce,America spends $572 billion per year on

commuting,much more than the gross domestic product of

the Republic of Ireland.According toTelework Exchange

data,Americans burn 26 billion gallons of gas by commuting

each yearor 62 percent of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum

Reserve.

Pollution

The average commuting federal worker pumps 8 tons

of pollutants per year into the environment,or 14.4 million

tons across government. If all eligible federal workers teleworked

two days per week, we could eliminate one-quarter

of these emissions.Time and Productivity

The average federal worker spends 245 hours commuting

each yearmore time than on vacation. If all eligible

workers teleworked just two days per week,the federal

workforce would reclaim 73.3 million hours of their lives

each year.Thats the equivalent of an additional week of

personal time for every federal employee each year.

Pandemic Planning

As we approach flu season, pandemic planning is at

the forefront.The presidents pandemic plan calls out

telework as a central plank in preparedness.The U.S.Office

of Personnel Managements (OPMs) Human Capital

Planning for Pandemic Influenza states,Telework allows

the federal government to remain responsive to the nations

needs at all times and should be an integral part of

any agencys plans for continuity of operations. In a

Telework Exchange poll, only 27 percent of federal employees

said they will show up for work in the event of

a pandemic (Figure 1). Just 21 percent said they are aware

of their agencys pandemic plans, and of those, only 27

percent noted that their agency incorporates telework

into continuity-of-operations (COOP) plans.Who will

attend to America if Uncle Sam calls in sick?

The Roadblocks

Given these statistics,why are federal telework roadways

rife with obstacles?

Policy Confusion

No consistent telework framework or eligibility criteria

exist for employees.OPM reports only 10 percent

of eligible workers telework today, but a recent study

shows that 79 percent would telework if given the option.

These numbers dont make sense.

In fact, OPM needs to take a telework leadership

rolelike helping to establish a telework-friendly seal of

approval for telework positions on USAJobs.gov. This

would allow agencies to identify new jobs as teleworkfriendly

to make the jobs more attractive.We proposed

this program to OPM almost two years ago, and we are

still waiting for an answer.At consecutive congressional

hearings,members have asked OPM about its success in

getting managers to buy in to telework as a standard operating

procedure at their agencies.At each hearing,OPM

has the same answerno quantifiable data.Why not?

OPM needs to get the data and provide the leadership.

That said,Telework Exchange will independently

launch a government telework-friendly job bank on our

Web site in 2008.Agencies will be able to post teleworkfriendly

job positions on www.teleworkexchange.com.

The site will empowerAmericans to search for teleworkfriendly

federal jobs.

Intransigent Management

Management resistance is still the major impeder.

Regrettably, in too many places in government, its still

management by walking around.That said,managers become

more favorable to the telework idea as they manage

teleworkers or telework themselves.The problem is

that too few managers are teleworking.

Poor Mission Alignment

Just 35 percent of federal managers say that their

agencies support telework. If telework is critical to

COOP and agency leaders are committed to Homeland

Security Presidential Directive 20, then clearly something

is getting lost in translation.Lack of Resources

Agencies do not dedicate sufficient time and resources

to telework.The majority of telework coordinators

spend 25 percent or less of their time on telework.

Traffic Flow

Telework is not completely gridlocked, but traffic is

clearly moving too slowly.Examples of agencies that took

the right road with their telework programs include the

Defense Information SystemsAgency; Internal Revenue

ServiceWide Shared Services Virtual Office Program;

FederalAviationAdministrationsFlights Standards,Western

Pacific Region,San Francisco International Field Office;

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation;Treasury

Inspector General forTaxAdministration; and U.S.Patent

andTrademark Office.The General ServicesAdministration

recently announced an aggressive telework commitment

goal to expand telework to 50 percent of eligible

employees by 2010.

In addition, Capitol Hill has shown overwhelming

support with the Senates introduction of S.1000, the

Telework Amendment included in H.R. 3221, a proposal

for a NationalTeleworkWeek, and most recently

the introduction of the Telework ImprovementsAct of

2007 in H.R. 4106. But even with the fuel-promoting

adoption, only a few agencies are filling up.The question

is why?

Lack of a federal mandate means that many agencies

are not even considering telework options.Agencies

must begin telework programs with a specific mission,

need, or pilot. However, until telework has strong legislative

support, agencies will fail to take the new road.

Beyond policy, telework requires personnel, technology,

culture, and training commitments to reap its myriad

benefits. Like any program with a return on investment,

there are initial costs associated with development.

What Can We Do?

Benjamin Franklin said,The definition of insanity

is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different

results.We need to innovate to realize tangible

progress, such as doing the following:

Address eligibility. Offer telework as an opt-out,

rather than an opt-in. Require justification from

managers on ineligibility.

Address management resistance. Educate managers and

encourage management-specific pilot programs.

Test drive COOP.Telework is not an antidote to be

used in case of emergency.Agencies need to commit

to telework up front and embrace it as a part

of their standard operating procedure.

Allocate resources.One full-time, senior-level telework

coordinator per agency is critical.Agencies should

develop a telework team that includes employees

charged with handling their agencys COOP planning

and information technology support.

Clearly, government telework adoption has much

room for improvement. Organizations must consider

telework a standard operating procedure as well as a shift

toward a nationwide distributed workforce. Now is the

time to put telework into drive.