Free telecommuting trial period attracts feds

An offer to let agencies use telework centers at no cost drew 130 federal employees new to telecommuting to the facilities, according to the General Services Administration. Four months ago, GSA Administrator Stephen Perry offered to let federal employees use telework centers for 60 days at no cost to their agencies to generate more interest in the benefit. Employees from nine federal agencies took Perry up on his offer, with the largest number of employees-77-coming from the Defense Department, according to GSA.

"I would characterize the responses as very good, I think," said Stanley Kaczmarczyk, director of GSA's innovative workplaces division. "Most people would prefer to work at home, but a certain number of them will spill over into telework centers." Telecommuting advocates sell it as a useful recruitment and retention tool because telecommuting boosts employee morale and productivity and reduces absenteeism. But the federal workplace has been fairly unreceptive to telecommuting, despite the efforts of several lawmakers who feel the measure can help make the federal government more efficient and improve federal employees' quality of life. As of November, just 4.2 percent of federal workers participated in telecommuting programs, according to the Office of Personnel Management. According to GSA statistics, as of June 27, federal employees from the Commerce, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Treasury and Agriculture departments, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and GSA all took advantage of the free trial offer. Of 130 new users, 102 have agreed to continue using the telework until the end of the fiscal year with their agencies footing the bill, according to GSA.

"To me, that's a very high retention rate," Kaczmarczyk said. "If you can just get people to try it, they'll stay." GSA operates nearly 20 telework centers in the Washington area and has plans to build two new telework centers in Montgomery County, Md. Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., added language to the fiscal 2002 Treasury-Postal Appropriations Act requiring GSA to study the feasibility of adding telework centers in Montgomery County. The report, released in May, concluded the area needed the facilities. "Some people find it hard to work at home-there could be children, the television, or the refrigerator," Kaczmarczyk said, as he worked from a telework center in Fairfax, Va. "Some people just have to get up and go somewhere to work in the morning, and it doesn't have to be downtown D.C." Kaczmarczyk said he hopes the success of the free trial leaves the door open for other offers to help encourage people to telecommute or use telework centers. "It reduces vehicle miles, vehicle emissions [and] there's less time spent in traffic," he said. "I think it's something that should be looked into."