Report: Telework could bring financial benefit to agencies
Telecommuting is low on most federal agencies' priority lists despite significant financial benefits, a study commissioned by the General Services Administration has found.
Federal employees who telework often use personally owned equipment and get by with limited access to agency information systems, the report from consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton stated.
Multiple benefits could be reaped if agencies implement the necessary technology infrastructure improvements to allow for more telework, and agency policies should be changed to incorporate alternate work arrangements, the report said.
The report predicted substantial returns on investment for agencies that implement and support telework arrangements in which more than 50 percent of staff members work outside the office.
A 100,000-employee organization investing $16 million in telework technologies would reap $36.2 million in benefits, while an organization of 10,000 workers investing $220,000 would gain $3.4 million in returns, the consultants found.
COMMENTS
- Has anyone stopped to consider, after all the data breaches, what the benefits are of putting more government information out over the phone lines? Am I just paranoid or wouldn't that make it easier to obtain illegally. Surely the people of this country should know how easily phone lines can be illegally tapped. GovExec.com reader Posted June 21, 2006 5:46 AM
- A surprising omission to me, in both the article and the report, is managers' ambivalence about teleworking because they don't know how to measure employee performance. More than one manager I know has said, "But if you're not here, how do I know you're working?" Well, even if I am in the office, how does he know? Without trust and a change to goal-oriented management (managing to deliverables or milestones) from "face time," I don't think telework will ever become commonplace, even in agencies such as mine where it's an approved alternative work schedule. GovExec.com reader Posted June 19, 2006 5:24 PM
- Low on the list? I think it is under the snake’s belly. It makes sense to do this, and there in lies the problem, it makes sense. What we have in the government now is a mentality that wants to see bodies in their spaces with bright shiny faces. You can't trust those people to do their work at another site. You must be there to intimidate them at every turn. The government is slow to see value, as business does, and civil servants and taxpayers will suffer mightily for it. rds Posted June 19, 2006 6:21 PM
