Telework Disconnect

A new survey shows that a surprisingly high percentage of federal managers trust their employees to work from a remote location, although just more than half actually allow employees to do so.

The survey of more than 300 federal and private sector IT executives by FedScoop, HP and Intel Corp., found that 90 percent of federal managers trust their team to work from a remote location. But while 91 percent of respondents said they are interested in teleworking, only 61 percent said their managers allow them to telework. Sixty-nine percent of federal employees said federal telework progress is not rapid enough.

The issue could be technology, the survey suggested. For example, 43 percent of federal employees surveyed said their agency does not provide them with technology that sufficiently supports teleworking, compared with 13 percent of private sector respondents. Sixty-one percent of feds believe technology can help them fully replace face-to-face meetings.

"With nearly half of federal employees indicating their technology equipment is not sufficient to telework, it is clear that the government is behind the private sector in implementing procedures and acquiring technology," said Nigel Ballard, director of federal marketing at Intel. "But it is encouraging to see that more and more managers are realizing the benefits that can be gained from increased flexibility and mobility within their workforce."

Still, telework has a high amount of support from federal employees, with 93 percent of respondents indicating that telework is an incentive in the workplace that saves time (89 percent), increases quality of life (86 percent), saves money (79 percent) and increases productivity (75 percent).

Meanwhile, under the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act, agencies are required to designate an official to manage telework programs. Three in four federal employees surveyed said their agency has designated a telework coordinator, though only 56 percent have met with this person.

On the issue of security, 84 percent of federal employees said they are concerned about a cyberattack on their organization, and three out of four respondents believe their network could experience critical failure.

Wired Workplace is a daily look at issues facing the federal information technology workforce. It is published on Nextgov.com. Click here to read the latest entries.