I am pleased to present the Office of Personnel Management's
(OPM) 2004 report on the status of Telework in the Federal Government.
This report summarizes findings from our 2003 agency telework
survey and describes the major telework promotion activities undertaken
by OPM in partnership with the General Services Administration
(GSA).
For the third consecutive year, the number of telework-eligible
and teleworking employees continues to grow. Governmentwide, 751,844
Federal employees representing 43 percent of the Federal workforce
were telework-eligible in 2003, compared with 625,313 Federal
employees representing 35 percent of the Federal workforce in
2002. This represents an increase of 20 percent, or an additional
126,531 identified telework-eligible positions. The actual number
of employees teleworking in 2003 was 102,921, representing a 14
percent increase over the number of teleworkers in 2002. Notably,
since April 2001, the number of teleworkers has increased from
53,389 to 102,921, an increase of 93 percent in the size of the
telecommuting workforce.
Initially, the thrust of developing telework as an employee/employer
option centered on environmental goals, enhanced quality of life
issues, and recruitment and retention issues. In 2001, President
George W. Bush added telework to his New Freedom Initiative, which
focused on expanding job opportunities for people with disabilities.
In the aftermath of September 11, telework has attracted greater
attention by Federal managers as an essential consideration in
agencies' emergency planning efforts, whether for snow storms,
other natural disasters, or terrorist attacks. Telework has been
integrated into the Federal Government's Continuity of Operations
Plans (COOP), and OPM is laying the groundwork for including telework
in its evaluation of agency human resources programs.
For the 2003 report, OPM revised the telework survey instrument
to sharpen and clarify definitions and to bring the survey in
line with OPM's strategic focus for telework. Our focus includes
recognizing the necessity of telework in emergency planning, the
importance of a regularly scheduled and experienced cadre of teleworkers,
and the use of occasional telework as a trial assessment period.
We also emphasize the necessity for Federal agencies to take responsibility
for meeting statutory telework obligations.
We conclude 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 progressively 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.
Kay Coles James
Director