Like it or not, more federal workers telecommuting

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Government Insights, a subsidiary of research firm IDC, predicts the first big wave of government retirees will force agencies to measurably broaden their use of telework.

“Government is facing the same retirement bubble that every industry is, as the oldest group of Baby Boomers start retiring” beginning around 2009, says Shawn McCarthy, director of research for vendor programs at Government Insights. Being able to offer a telework option can help agencies keep experienced employees who may be willing to remain if they can do so from an alternative workplace.

“Let’s say somebody retires, and they decide to move to South Carolina or Florida or something. Being able to work as a contractor, and continue to participate via telework, would be really attractive,” McCarthy says.

Telework options also can help attract and retain new employees for whom flexible work arrangements are a priority, McCarthy says.

Other benefits of telework include the ability to reduce energy use, cut down on greenhouse gases, ease traffic congestion, increase worker productivity, and shore up continuity of operations plans, says Chuck Wilsker, president and CEO of the Telework Coalition, an organization in Washington, D.C., that promotes telework through education and legislative efforts.

The security debate

Despite well-publicized benefits, telework faces obstacles to greater public-sector adoption, including management resistance, IT requirements and employee concerns about accountability.

Lack of awareness is another problem: Among 214 federal managers surveyed by Telework Exchange and the Federal Managers Association, 47% thought their agencies didn’t support telework and 18% were unsure — despite the reality that all executive agencies are required to have a telework program.

In the case of ATF, the agency has been resisting telework for some time, claims NTEU, which represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments. NTEU in May 2006 negotiated a telework program with ATF that allowed some employees to telework. Industry operations investigators were allowed to telework, for example, but legal instrument examiners were not.

In presenting its case to FISP, ATF cited security concerns at its reason for restricting telework options. The material legal instrument examiners access, including firearms applications, should not be removed from the workplace because doing so “would put the general public at risk if criminals or terrorists were to gain access to them by theft or other means and then obtain weapons for criminal purposes,” ATF asserted in its position. In addition, the agency said it lacks the technological infrastructure to enable legal instrument examiners to remotely access secure electronic forms.

The NTEU, meanwhile, said existing federal agency policies address the proper use and handling of non-classified sensitive data and provide for off-site access to such data. ATF “should not be rewarded for refusing to automate its work processes by denying [legal instrument examiners] the opportunity to telework,” NTEU stated in its position. “Numerous public agencies and private companies have figured out how to automate their processes so their employees can telework, including other divisions within ATF.”