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 USA
federal government telework program
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Dec 9, 2010
President Obama signs H.R. 1722, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010,
into law. The legislation grants Federal employees
eligibility to telework and requires Federal agencies to establish
telework policies and designate a Telework Managing Officer. Within
180 days, all Federal agencies must:
- Establish policy for eligible
employees to telework in consultation with the OPM
- Determine employee eligibility
- Notify all employees of their
eligibility
- Establish interactive training
programs for teleworkers and telework managers
- Include telework in business
continuity (COOP) plans
- Designate a Telework Managing
Officer - Must be a senior official with direct access to agency
head
- Provide yearly progress reports to
the Office of Personnel Management
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April '10
Martha Johnson, General Services Administration's new administrator
says: "Why are you not teleworking? Are you in love with the 1980s for
some reason? says Ms Johnson backs telework with a resolve
that suggests the weight of GSA will come to bear on agencies trying
to increase the practice — and those that continue to resist |
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Nov '09
Feds strike a blow for teleworking.
Stats from
the US Government's telework program |
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Nov '09
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has 5,176 teleworkers, which
equates to 50% of entire workforce. We currently have over 1,800
patent positions teleworking four days a week, and 326 trademark
positions teleworking four days a week. We call those individuals "hotelers".
They reserve office space when they do travel to the office, but
they've completely relinquished their office space on our Alexandria
campus. |
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June '08
US Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) relocation forces
embrace of telework |
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April 28 GSA
GSA cakewalking to its telework goal |
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Feb 08:
USPTO
For 2009, USPTO plans to hire an additional 1,200 patent examiners
while expanding the agency's award-winning telework programs |
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Jan 08:
GSA GSA Chief Proposes
50% of Staffers Telecommute by Year 2010 Currently around 10
percent of the GSA workforce teleworks [telecommutes] 1 or more days
a week. Lurita Doan proposes that the GSA establish a strategy and
policies that will help increase opportunities for telework to
achieve the 50 percent teleworking goal |
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Nov 07
Federal workers union wants more work-from-home jobs.
The National Treasury Employees Union, the largest independent
federal union, wants Congress to OK more “telework” jobs.
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Nov 2007
Several US Officials testify before the House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in a hearing entitled "Telework:
Breaking New Ground". |
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Aug '07 US
House takes a big step toward expanding the number of federal
employees who could become telecommuters and work from home.
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) offered an amendment to expand
number of federal teleworkers. Bill would require every federal
agency to establish a telework policy. Ensure employees telecommute
w/o diminishing productivity or service. It would also require the
GAO to examine and rate the telework policies of each agency and
publish a report showing how many employees were telecommuting at
each agency. IT would also provide for training and monitoring of
telecommuters and would require each agency to name a full-time,
senior employee as the "telework managing officer." It would link
telework to "new carbon-neutral federal government" and "ensure that
we in government do our part to reduce automobile emissions."
Other details here |
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US Trademark
Office to Experiment With Long Distance Telecommuting — 10 experienced
trademark lawyers with good job-performance ratings will be
permitted to move anywhere in the continental US and work from home.
Article here |
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US Gov't agencies could be penalized
up to 5 million if the number of
telecommuters failed to increase over the previous year |
Teleworking increases by 37% across US government, to 140,000
Of 1.7 million workers across 86 agencies, here are some stats and
trends:
- 73,000 in 2001
- 90,010 in 2002
- 102,921 in 2003
- 140,694 in 2004 (37% increase)
- 85% have a telework policy in
place
- 40% of agencies either provide
employees with equipment to telework or share in the cost of the
equipment
- Also, see
this
article
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US Gov't
- Use of telework in Katrina aftermath limited |
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Nov 2005.
US government spending bill approved by the House would require
agencies to prove increase (from 2005) from, or give up $5 million
in funding |
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June 2005: Rep.
Wolf extends telecommuting penalty for another year -
NASA and the National Science Foundation could join the departments
of Commerce, Justice and State as agencies that could lose funding
if they don’t meet a federal telecommuting mandate.
See
story here |
Feb 2005
Federal Telework Survey: Majority Of Federal Workers Express Interest
In Telecommuting In-person interviews with 139 federal
workers and an online survey of 148 federal IT professionals. Among
the findings:
- 56% of IT professionals cite
information security as their top concern related to telework,
especially given that 66% of federal workers who telework use
personal PCs and not government-issued computers;
- the Government's drive for
telework conflicts between Congressional requirements for telework
and government IT-security requirements;
- 87% of federal employees surveyed
say they're interested in teleworking, but only 19% actually do so;
- 50% of federal workers believe
they're either ineligible or unsure if they're eligible to telework;
- 45% of federal employees say their
managers generally view telework favorably;
- Federal employees cite the
elimination of their commute--74%--and an improvement in work
flexibility--60%--as the primary reasons for preferring telework;
- Of the 13% of federal employees
who wouldn't telework if given the option, just over half say
isolation is the primary deterrent, followed by 42% who believe that
they would have reduced productivity;
- 40% of federal employees connect
from home offices using a dial-up connection, with cable modems
outpacing DSL connections among broadband users by a two-to-one
margin;
- Supporters of teleworking argue
that the practice reduces traffic congestion and pollution, improves
employee recruitment and retention, increases productivity, and
reduces the need for office space.
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Union praises
passage of telework language. The National Treasury
Employees Union spoke out last week in support of language in the
fiscal 2005 appropriations legislation that will impose financial
penalties on US federal agencies that refuse to adopt strong telework
programs.
See story here |
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Congress OKs $5
million penalty for telecommuting shortfalls. Agenices who
fail to offer every eligible worker the opportunity to telecommute by
mid-to-late January will be assessed a 5 million penalty. |
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Taking the stress
out of work More US feds are doing their jobs from home or
satellite locations.
See story here |
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U.S. Office of
Personnel Management aims to modernize HR systems
in the federal government and eliminate stovepiping. Expanding
telework among the changes.
See story here |
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A number of US federal
entities stand to lose as much as $5 million each if they
do not certify that their workers are eligible for teleworking
See
story here |
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US Congress
omnibus bill includes $500,000 to expand telework programs in the
federal government.
The money will pay for creating a training program to teach managers
about the benefits of telework |
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The Bush Administration,
through the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services
Administration, has implemented a number of initiatives to promote
telework in Federal agencies. In
addition, the President's FY 2005 budget includes $5 million for the
Department of Labor to encourage greater use of scheduling flexibility
and telework options in the private sector. Growth figures as follows: |
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Apr 2001 |
53,000 |
| Oct 2003 |
103,000
(93% increase) |
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July 2004 US
government officials that managerial resistance to telecommuting is
gradually diminishing. Main reasons for slow adoption
are size of the federal workforce and necessity for cultural changes
to be made within each agency. Agencies have not considered telework a
priority. OPM's strategy to promote telecommuting includes: |
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Focusing on telework as an emergency preparedness tool. -- increasing
the number of employees who telecommute at least part of the time will
help in emergency situations. You need a cadre of people who have
gotten the kinks out and are just used to working in a non-office
environment. |
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Reducing managers' concerns about supervising telecommuters. One of
managers' main worries, Block said, is that if they give employees the
option to work away from the office and it doesn't work well, they
can't take the benefit away. To dispel this fear, OPM encourages
managers to implement clear-cut agreements for trial periods that free
both the manager and employee from obligation to continue the
arrangement after the trial ends. |
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n |
To
integrating telework in courses on management, emergency preparedness
and other subjects. |
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(July
2004) Two US
Congressmen Plan to Rev Up Telecommuting (story
here) |
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n |
Frustrated that
many federal agencies do not encourage telecommuting, two House
members said yesterday that they plan to sponsor legislation to
increase the number of telecommuters in the government workforce.
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n |
House members
emphasized that robust telecommuting programs would help federal and
congressional offices in Washington cope with unforeseen disruptions,
such as snowstorms, hurricanes, anthrax mailings and a Tractor Man. |
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July 2004: Congress finally fed up with the
federal government's dismal telework performance
Withholds $5 million from the budgets of the departments of
Commerce, Justice and State until they prove they let their
eligible employees telework
Here are some of the best and worst agencies for telework. The
chart
(from Network World Fusion)
compares the number of eligible employees to the number
who actually telework. The last category shows how close each
agency has come to meeting the government’s mandate that 100% of
eligible employees be allowed to telework. |
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Agency |
Number of employees |
Number eligible |
Number teleworking |
Percent compliant |
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Worst:
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Dept. of State |
18,310 |
11,558 |
170 |
1.4% |
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Dept. of Homeland Security |
53,025 |
25,803 |
392 |
1.5% |
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Small Business Administration |
3,138 |
3,120 |
268 |
8.5% |
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Securities and Exchange Commision |
3,279 |
3,279 |
313 |
9.5% |
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Dept. of Transportation |
58,487 |
27,078 |
2,695 |
9.9% |
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Best:
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Dept. of Energy |
14,516 |
1,437 |
1,437 |
100% |
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Nuclear Waste Tech. Review Board |
16 |
15 |
15 |
100% |
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Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. |
790 |
339 |
339 |
100% |
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Dept. of Treasury |
108,533 |
43,433 |
30,498 |
70.2% |
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Office of Personnel Mgmt. |
3,606 |
2,898 |
1,542 |
53% |
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June 2004 Rep. Wolf Cracks the Whip to Get Agencies Moving on
Telework (See
Washington Post article) |
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Disappointed that federal agencies are moving slowly on telecommuting,
Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) lowers the legislative hammer: |
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Agencies that failed to comply with bill requiring 100% of eligible
telecommuters will face a budget cut of $5 million each. |
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Other politicians are also upset. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.),
the House Government Reform Committee chairman, has scheduled a
hearing for July 8 on the issue |
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Last month, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) informed Congress that
only 6% of federal employees work from home or a telework center at
least one day a week. The survey covered 74 agencies with more than
1.7 million employees. |
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n |
The OPM report listed 20 agencies where less than 2% of the employees
telecommute. Among them are two agencies that Wolf oversees as an
Appropriations cardinal -- the State Department and the SBA. |
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But the timetable, which would have had three out of four eligible
employees telecommuting today, has not been met. |
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Managerial resistance is at root of slow takeup. |
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By
most accounts, agencies have moved slowly because of concerns that
employees who work at home may be less productive and because federal
managers are reluctant to let employees work out of their sight.
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USA
federal government telework program
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2004 Report from the US Office of
Personnel Management describes state of telework in US federal
government. Findings include the following: |
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n |
The number of teleworkers grew by 93% from: |
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53,389 in 2001 to |
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90,010 in 2002, and to |
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102,921 in 2003; |
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n |
The number of eligible employees grew 20% from: |
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625,313 employees (35%) in 2002 to |
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751,844 employees (43%) in 2003; |
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n |
Telework is slowly but steadily moving into the mainstream, as an
expected part of an effective agency's personnel strategy, rather than
as a "special" program needing a great deal of external support; |
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Activities undertaken by OPM in partnership with the General Services
Administration (GSA) to promote telework include: special consultation
and training for agencies looking to increase participation rates; a
multifaceted educational campaign; Internet-based courses for
employees and managers; a video tape loop; a manager's handbook;
promotional materials, such as posters and newsletter articles; and,
an all-day seminar with research-based experiential training on how to
overcome obstacles to telework; |
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OPM Director Kay Coles James says. "..more work needs to be done to
reach our telework goals - goals that I know we will achieve." |
