Comments on: What The Feds Can Teach Businesses About Telework

By: Dave Sawdey

Dave Sawdey — Wed, 25 May 2011 14:37:49 +0000

What the federal government and other organizations have also realized is that telework is already happening. Real estate studies show that on average 50% of an organizations desks go unused every day.
Providing staff a work life balance is part of the reason, but reducing real estate and occupancy expenses as well as reducing carbon emissions are other huge benefits the government is expecting.

By: Ian Gover

Ian Gover — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:46:10 +0000

A major part of the problem here revolves around the fact that private and public sector organizations have had a strong tendency to view this as an all or none proposition > employees either “work from a conventional office” or they “work from home”. The real challenge comes in when you realize that these two work arrangements only cover the requirements of 50% of today’s knowledge based workforce.

We have to broaden our focus and move beyond the overly simplistic “on / off”, “in / out” models and design our work environment to match the range of work styles exhibited by the 21st century workforce. Think about how you would best support a “road warrior” that moves across customer, partner and supplier sites. How does that compare to the technologies and workplaces that you would put in place to support an “individual contributor” who does mostly heads-down work requiring extended periods of concentration? What about the internal service provider that moves across company locations? Each of these work styles is best supported by a distinct set of technology, workspace and organizational enablers.

The trick shot involves objectively figuring out who falls into what camp and giving them the tools and support they require to best perform their job. If you manage this appropriately there are massive benefits for the organization, for the employees, and even for the communities where they live / work.

By: Ian Gover

Ian Gover — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:29:26 +0000

By: Michael Shear

Michael Shear — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:16:01 +0000

The Problem – For more than a decade, the agencies and departments of the federal government have been unable to meet the requirements of congressional legislation regarding the number of federal employees that telework. Compliance has been below 15 percent of congressional objectives. There is no enforcement or consequence to these failures. However, we do continue to pay the price by way of increasing transportation congestion, air pollution and gasoline consumption while reducing our competitiveness in creating new employment opportunities. Without a dramatic change in the way we approach remote working, the price will grow dramatically and soon include data breaches, cyber security failures, reduced emergency preparedness and ineffective continuity of operations planning efforts.
There are a number of reasons cited for unfortunate telework performance and current legislation and initiatives reflect beliefs that only perseverance is required in order to achieve better results. Unfortunately, the disappointing telework achievement may not be just a matter of ‘trying harder’; rather, it might be a matter of examining alternative approaches and trying something different. Given the magnitude of the problems we face, teleworking as currently practiced does not work for enough of the people, enough of the time; it is inequitable; it lacks predictability; and insistence on rapid expansion in the federal workforce will require additional support and will introduce dramatically heightened security risks.
Another serious apprehension with the federal government’s telework current methods is the open testimony by heads of agencies and departments of its use as a key element in continuity of operations planning. Given the actual daily deployment of less than 2 percent of the federal workforce, unanticipated emergencies (unlike snow day predictions) in all likelihood will require ‘evacuation’ as a first level of response. The ‘hope’ in these cases is that federal employees will successfully arrive home, have commercial power, integrous internet services and will plug in their laptops to continue working.
It is time to have a thoughtful discussion on alternative approaches.