In support of our responsibilities under section 359
of Public Law 106-346 (FY 2001 Department of Transportation
and Related Agencies Appropriations Act), the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM) has conducted an annual
survey of Federal agencies on telework implementation
since 2001. This report summarizes findings from the 2003
telework survey and describes the major telework promotional
activities undertaken by OPM in partnership with the General
Services Administration (GSA) in 2003.
We can report the number of telework-eligible and teleworking
employees continues to grow. In 2003, agencies reported
that a total of 751,844 employees (43 percent) are eligible
to telework, compared with the 625,313 employees (35 percent)
reported in 2002. This represents an increase of 126,531
telework-eligible employees—or an increase of more
than 20 percent.
The number of employees teleworking grew from 90,010
in 2002 to 102,921 in 2003. Most noteworthy is that from
the first telework survey in April 2001 (when 53,389 employees
were teleworking) until October 2003 (with 102,921 reported
Federal teleworkers) there has been an overall increase
of 93 percent in the number of employees teleworking.
Having received a special appropriation of $500,000 to
promote telework in agencies with a participation rate
of 2 percent or less, OPM and GSA undertook a number of
strategic initiatives to address the situation. Initiatives
included special consultation and training for those 2-percent
agencies, and a multifaceted educational campaign designed
for 2-percent agencies that could be equally useful to
other agencies with growing programs. Aspects of the campaign
included providing two 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. To
emphasize agency responsibility and bring telework into
the scope of expected human resources flexibilities rather
than have it remain a new or "special" program, OPM began
laying the groundwork for including telework in evaluations
of agency human capital management. OPM and GSA solidified
their historic partnership in promoting telework with
a formal memorandum of understanding.
For this report, OPM revised the 2003 survey instrument
to sharpen and clarify definitions and to bring the survey
in line with OPM's view of telework's strategic value
in:
- emergency planning;
- the establishment of a cadre of experienced
employees who telework on a regularly-scheduled basis;
and
- testing the viability of telework
for some employees.
OPM also emphasizes the need for Federal agencies to
take responsibility for meeting their statutory telework
obligations.
The revised survey draws the distinction between core
telework (regularly scheduled, at least one day a week)
and situational telework (telework on a non-routine basis.)
It distinguishes between job-related eligibility criteria
and employee-related qualifying criteria. Questions were
added or modified to clarify such issues as whether a
policy is in place and whether employees are being formally
notified of the opportunity to telework.
Data were collected from seventy-four agencies with more
than 1.7 million employees, providing a data set comparable
to the 2002 sample as a whole, even though reporting configurations
were different in some cases. The survey revealed that
virtually all agencies have telework policies in place,
and that nearly half have formal notification procedures.
Agencies reported having crafted a number of policy implementation
practices, including formal eligibility and qualifying
criteria, tracking systems, procedures for information
technology (IT) support, and methods of helping employees
meet telework costs (e.g., by offering them excess office
equipment).
The overall conclusion of the report is that telework
is growing steadily in the Federal Government, whether
measured by the number of employees teleworking or by
the growing maturity of agency telework programs. 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.