OPM releases telework guidance for pandemic flu

The Office of Personnel Management released more telework guidelines last week in response to President Bush's request for a plan to keep federal agencies up and running during crisis situations such as an influenza pandemic.

The 16-page guidance document provides little new instruction for agency managers and employees on how to implement telework policies to respond to a potential long-term quarantine. It asks agencies to remember to consider telework in emergency planning.

Previous OPM pandemic guidance stated that federal agencies could find ways to encourage employees barred from leaving their homes to work from there in the event of an outbreak.

Equipment and technical support must be tested, managers should be comfortable managing a distributed workforce and agencies should consider investing in high-tech technologies to allow videoconferencing and paperless systems, the latest guide states.

The guide also states that agency managers must work routine telework practices into their organization "to the fullest extent possible," but managers cannot require employees to work from home "under normal circumstances." Managers can require an employee to work at an alternative worksite, such as a telework center, within the employee's commuting area, the guide states.

Chuck Wilsker, president and chief executive officer of the Telework Coalition, praised the OPM policies. "There's finally a hint of uniformity in the federal approach to telework," Wilsker said. "I think this is really getting down to a lot of details in addressing all agencies. It's things that have been alluded to but have not been done."

But Wilsker criticized the OPM fact sheet released in conjunction with the new guidelines for having little to do with continuity of operations for a pandemic health crisis.

William Mularie, chief executive officer of the Telework Consortium of Herndon, Va., said the guidelines fail to prompt agencies to implement realistic telework plans should a pandemic occur.

The guide is a step backward from the General Services Administration guidelines released earlier this year in depth and scope, Mularie said.

"There was no new thinking for fitting policy to the characteristics of a pandemic, as opposed to a snowstorm," Mularie said. "They continue to be constrained in their thinking by 1985 telecommunications technology solutions."

For instance, the guide states that essential employees should be allowed to telework regularly to ensure that in cases of emergency the employees asked to work from home are familiar with the arrangement.

But Mularie questioned why managers are not required to telework on a regular basis. In the event of quarantine, they would be just as unable to commute to the office as other employees, he said.