By 2010, the General Services Administration hopes to have 50% of its workforce teleworking at least one day per week. The agency's top brass, however, realizes it will have to break down negative manager attitudes toward teleworking.

 

"It won't be easy," GSA administrator Lurita Doan told attendees yesterday at a conference hosted by Telework Exchange, a Virginia-based public-private group promoting federal telework. "Many of those who argue the loudest against teleworking are actually those who have never tried it."

GSA oversees procurement and property management for the government and employs about 12,000 workers. "After 15 years of continuing efforts to promote federal telework programs, participation levels are still not as high as we believe they can and should be," Doan commented. The GSA plan calls for 20% of its workforce to telework by the end of 2008 and 40% by the end of 2009.

Some managers criticize teleworking programs because they believe teleworking reduces the quantity and quality of work and jeopardizes data control and information security.

Doan explained that a slew of federal and private-sector research debunks such claims, pointing out that IT advances have improved data security and that productivity is not hampered by teleworking.

She noted that managers are far more receptive to telecommuting when they telecommute themselves. As a result, GSA is encouraging each of its managers to visit one of the 14 telework centers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The agency also is setting up a buddy system that pairs a teleworker with a non-teleworker.

Doan believes telework benefits are an important recruiting and retention tool. Additionally, there are societal and nationwide economic benefits to teleworking, such as reduced energy use, fewer greenhouse gas emissions, less traffic, less U.S. dependence on foreign oil, increased worker productivity and savings for American taxpayers, she notes.

Another federal agency taking on bold initiatives with its teleworking program is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which employs about 7,000 workers with 3,000 working from home at least one day a week. Among that group, 1,300 work from home four days a week under the concept of "hoteling." That means employees give up their private offices, but can reserve an office designated for teleworkers when they must come to the federal worksite.

With hoteling, the agency is "able to have few offices for a large number of people, resulting in tremendous space savings and cost avoidance. We were able to increase hiring and not acquire additional space," said Deborah Cohn, deputy commissioner at the Patent and Trademark Office.

The agency plans to allow 500 patent examiners per year to telework and "hotel" for the next five years. Cohn explained the move is critical on the patent side because the agency is facing a backlog with patent requests. "We want to increase hiring of patent examiners, and without the teleworking program we would have to go out and acquire new space."

Some clients have expressed concerns about information privacy and security when patent and trademark examiners are teleworking, Cohn said. Consequently, the agency conducted a blind telephone survey and found that clients said that there was no difference in the quality of service between teleworkers and non-teleworkers.