The Status of Telework in the Federal Government 2003

Data Requested

OPM surveyed Federal agencies in November 2002 to determine the status of telework within the Federal Government. The survey was revised from the 2001 versions to capture additional data. We asked agencies to report the numbers of:

• Federal teleworkers and eligible employees (see Appendix, Tables 1& 2).
• Employees who teleworked to accommodate medical conditions and as reasonable accommodation for disabilities (see Appendix, Table 3).
• Employees teleworking within and outside the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, along with the number of employees using Alternative Work Schedules (AWS)--Flexible Work Schedules (FWS) and Compressed Work Schedules (CWS) (see Appendix, Table 4).
• Regularly scheduled teleworkers under the categories of 2 days or fewer per week and 3 days or more per week, as well as those who teleworked on an episodic basis (see Appendix, Table 4).

We also asked agencies to report on the:

• Status of agency policies (see Appendix, Table 5),
• Barriers they were confronting in developing and implementing telework policies (see Appendix, Table 6), and
• Steps taken to overcome those barriers and increase telework.

OPM asked agencies to identify:

• The formal agency telework representative responsible for policy implementation,
• The responsible office for tracking teleworkers,
• The process used for tracking teleworkers, and
• The grade levels of teleworkers.

We also asked:

• Whether policies applied agency-wide and/or to agency subcomponents;
• Whether they covered various categories of employees including executives, supervisors, and managers; and
• The types of arrangements-regularly scheduled, episodic, medical, to accommodate a disability-permitted under the policies.

We asked how equipment was obtained and whether agencies had a plan for information technology support of teleworkers. We also asked about any monetary savings an agency might realize as a result of implementing a telework program.

Since the survey was accessible to all Federal agencies via the internet, we asked agencies to follow their agency headquarters guidance when filling out the survey in order to avoid duplication. In 2002, 20 small agencies outside of the 63 agencies that reported in 2001 submitted reports (see Appendix, Table 7). We received data from 57 of the 63 agencies who reported in 2001 and used that data in the report for comparison analysis (see Appendix, Table 8). ** Six small agencies that reported in 2001 were eliminated as they did not report in 2002. Fifty-seven agencies that also reported in 2001 added to the 20 new agencies resulted in a total of 77 agencies reporting in 2002.

** The six small agencies are: National Institute of Standards and Technology; Federal Reserve System, National Gallery of Art, Broadcasting Board of Governors, Tax Court of the U.S., and Soldiers' and Airmen's Home. Together, they reported 188 teleworkers in 2001 and did not report in 2002.