[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
TELEWORK: BREAKING NEW GROUND?
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON FEDERAL WORKFORCE,
POSTAL SERVICE, AND THE DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA
of the
COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT
AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 6, 2007
__________
Serial No. 110-66
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/
index.html
http://www.house.gov/reform
----------
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COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM
HENRY A. WAXMAN, California, Chairman
TOM LANTOS, California TOM DAVIS, Virginia
EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana
PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut
CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland JOHN L. MICA, Florida
DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana
DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania
JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts CHRIS CANNON, Utah
WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee
DIANE E. WATSON, California MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio
STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts DARRELL E. ISSA, California
BRIAN HIGGINS, New York KENNY MARCHANT, Texas
JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky LYNN A. WESTMORELAND, Georgia
BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa PATRICK T. McHENRY, North Carolina
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of VIRGINIA FOXX, North Carolina
Columbia BRIAN P. BILBRAY, California
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota BILL SALI, Idaho
JIM COOPER, Tennessee JIM JORDAN, Ohio
CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland
PAUL W. HODES, New Hampshire
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland
PETER WELCH, Vermont
Phil Schiliro, Chief of Staff
Phil Barnett, Staff Director
Earley Green, Chief Clerk
David Marin, Minority Staff Director
Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service, and the District of
Columbia
DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of KENNY MARCHANT, Texas
Columbia JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland JOHN L. MICA, Florida
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland DARRELL E. ISSA, California
DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio, Chairman JIM JORDAN, Ohio
WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
Tania Shand, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on November 6, 2007................................. 1
Statement of:
Green, Daniel A., Deputy Associate Director, Center for
Employee and Family Support Policy, Office of Personnel
Management; Stan Kaczmarczyk, Principal Deputy Associate
Administrator for Government-wide Policy, General Services
Administration; and Bernice Steinhardt, Director, Strategic
Issues, Government Accountability Office................... 16
Green, Daniel A.......................................... 16
Kaczmarczyk, Stan........................................ 26
Steinhardt, Bernice...................................... 37
Peterlin, Margaret J.A., Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce
for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director, U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office; and Lee J. Lofthus, Assistant
Attorney General for Administration, Department of Justice. 57
Lofthus, Lee J........................................... 76
Peterlin, Margaret J.A................................... 57
Wilke, John, Trademark Examining Attorney, PTO Teleworker;
Stephen W.T. O'Keeffe, executive director, Telework
Exchange; Ann Bamesberger, vice president, Open Work
Services Group, SUN Microsystems, Inc.; and Haywood J.
Talcove, vice president, public sector americas, Juniper
Networks, Inc.............................................. 93
Bamesberger, Ann......................................... 111
O'Keeffe, Stephen W.T.................................... 99
Talcove, Haywood J....................................... 152
Wilke, John.............................................. 93
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Bamesberger, Ann, vice president, Open Work Services Group,
SUN Microsystems, Inc., prepared statement of.............. 114
Davis, Hon. Danny K., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Illinois, prepared statement of................... 4
Green, Daniel A., Deputy Associate Director, Center for
Employee and Family Support Policy, Office of Personnel
Management, prepared statement of.......................... 18
Kaczmarczyk, Stan, Principal Deputy Associate Administrator
for Government-wide Policy, General Services
Administration, prepared statement of...................... 28
Lofthus, Lee J., Assistant Attorney General for
Administration, Department of Justice, prepared statement
of......................................................... 78
O'Keeffe, Stephen W.T., executive director, Telework
Exchange, prepared statement of............................ 102
Peterlin, Margaret J.A., Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce
for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director, U.S. Patent
and Trademark Office, prepared statement of................ 60
Steinhardt, Bernice, Director, Strategic Issues, Government
Accountability Office, prepared statement of............... 39
Talcove, Haywood J., vice president, public sector americas,
Juniper Networks, Inc., prepared statement of.............. 154
Wilke, John, Trademark Examining Attorney, PTO Teleworker,
prepared statement of...................................... 96
Wolf, Hon. Frank R., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Virginia, prepared statement of................... 166
TELEWORK: BREAKING NEW GROUND?
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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2007
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Service,
and the District of Columbia,
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:05 a.m. in
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Danny K. Davis
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Davis of Illinois, Sarbanes,
Cummings, Marchant, and Issa.
Staff present: Tania Shand, staff director; Lori Hayman,
counsel; Cecelia Morton, clerk; Charles Phillips, minority
counsel; and Alex Cooper, minority professional staff member.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. The subcommittee will come to order.
Ranking Member Marchant will probably be here soon, but we
are going to proceed. Depending on where we are, we may
obviously interrupt so that he can give an opening statement,
should he choose to do so.
Let me welcome Mr. Marchant and members of the
subcommittee, hearing witnesses, and all of those in
attendance. Welcome to the Federal Workforce, Postal Service,
and the District of Columbia's Subcommittee hearing on
Telework: Breaking New Ground? The hearing will examine why
telework, which has strong support of Congress and personnel
experts as a strategy for addressing emergency preparedness and
energy consumption, is not being universally embraced and
implemented by Federal agencies.
Hearing no objection, the Chair, ranking member, and
subcommittee members will each have 5 minutes to make opening
statements, and all Members will have 3 days to submit
statements for the record.
I am going to begin, and then we will follow along as
Members are present.
Ranking Member Marchant, members of the subcommittee, and
hearing witnesses, welcome to the subcommittee's hearing on
telework. Today's hearing will examine why telework continues
to be under-utilized by Federal agencies and the improvements
that are needed to allow more Federal employees to participate
in telework programs.
Telework provides numerous benefits, including increased
flexibilities for both employers and employees, continuity of
operations during emergency events, and decreased energy use
and air pollution. The Office of Personnel Management [OPM],
defines telework as work arrangements in which an employee
regularly performs officially assigned duties at home or other
work sites geographically convenient to the residence of the
employee.
Many of the current Federal programs were developed in
response to a provision included in an appropriations bill
enacted in October 2000. This law requires each executive
branch agency to establish a telework policy under which
eligible employees may participate in telecommuting to the
maximum extent possible without diminishing employee
performance.
Under the current legislative framework, the General
Services Administration [GSA], and OPM have leading roles in
implementing Government-wide telework initiatives.
Unfortunately, telework is not being used to the extent it
should be. According to OPM's most recent report, only about
119,000 of the approximately 1.8 million Federal employees
participated in telework in 2005. That figure represents only
6.6 percent of Federal agency employees.
Some of the barriers to telework include office coverage,
organizational culture, management resistance, and technology
security and funding.
Today we want to examine ways to address these barriers and
encourage teleworking.
On May 7, 2007, I, along with my colleague, Ranking Member
Kenny Marchant, and the full committee chairman and ranking
minority members, Henry Waxman and Tom Davis, sent a letter to
25 Federal departments and agencies requesting information on
the telework programs of those agencies. The letter was
intended to help us better understand how well agency telework
programs are working.
What we found is that not only is telework inconsistently
defined across agencies; many agencies do not effectively
measure and track teleworkers. Some agencies do not even know
how many of their employees are actually teleworking.
In recent years telework has increasingly been viewed as an
important tool for ensuring continuity of essential Government
services in a time of crisis, such as in the event of a natural
disaster or a terrorist attack. To help improve the
preparedness of the Federal Government's operation in emergency
situations, last session I introduced H.R. 5366, the Continuity
of Operations Demonstration Project Act. This legislation
provided for a demonstration project under which at least two
Federal agencies would perform services and operations under a
simulated emergency in which Federal employees would have to
work at locations away from their usual workplace, including
home, for at least 10 consecutive days.
A number of agencies have taken the initiative to perform
demonstration exercises in the last several years, but there
are still many agencies that have not done so. I would like to
see more agencies test their ability to continue operations in
an emergency and incorporate telework into their continuity of
operations plans.
I am pleased that Representative John Sarbanes, along with
Chairman Henry Waxman and Representative Frank Wolf, will join
me in introducing the Telework Improvement Act of 2007. This
legislation will bring together the efforts of my colleagues
and breaks new ground by ensuring that eligible Federal
employees have the opportunity to telework, and that agencies
are incorporating telework into their continuity of operations
planning.
Several other legislative proposals have been introduced in
the House and in the Senate. This issue is receiving some well-
deserved attention. The Federal Government can set the example
for teleworking. There are some very successful agency and sub-
agency telework programs that can serve as models for the
public and private sector.
I thank you and look forward to the testimony of today's
witnesses. We are fortunate to have a distinguished group of
witnesses with us today, and I certainly want to thank you for
being here.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Danny K. Davis follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Now it is my pleasure to yield such
time as he might consume to the ranking member, Mr. Marchant,
for any opening statement that he would like to make.
Mr. Marchant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Congress often focuses on where Government is failing and
how the American taxpayer is not getting what he or she is
paying for. Today we will be discussing telework, an issue
which demonstrates an opportunity for the Federal Government to
increase productivity while decreasing infrastructure and
environmental costs. I look forward to hearing about these
opportunities.
Mr. Chairman, for the sake of time I will leave the rest of
my opening statement for the record. And I would also like to
submit for the record an opening statement by Ranking Member
Tom Davis.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Marchant. I
would also yield time as he might consume to Representative
Sarbanes, who has indicated and demonstrated a tremendous
amount of interest in this area of concern. I recognize Mr.
Sarbanes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you
for holding the hearing.
I am very excited about the prospects to increase the use
of telecommuting and teleworking within the Federal Government
and serve as the kind of model which you alluded to, which the
Federal Government can be, joining with others in private
industry that have done so much in this area.
I had the privilege of being able to offer earlier this
year an amendment onto the energy bill that would try to
promote this sort of thing, and I want to thank the chairman
for taking the initiative to introduce this in a stand-alone
form, as he will be doing and I will be joining with him in
that.
I also want to acknowledge, as he has done, Congressman
Wolf's efforts over many years to bring this issue to the
forefront. We look forward to working with him, as well.
I represent a District which has a tremendous number of
Federal employees who commute in and out of the District of
Columbia every day, and I have heard from many of them about
the promise of telecommuting and what a difference it can make.
My original approach to this issue was with respect to how
the Federal Government can help reduce its carbon footprint by
promoting teleworking, but obviously the benefits go far beyond
that. There are many, many dimensions to the issue.
In Maryland we are about to absorb many new jobs as a
result of Base Realignment and Closure Commission
recommendations. I think that telecommuting can help both in
that transition as well as over the long term as the number of
jobs increases and, frankly, as the degree of congestion in
many parts of my District also increases. That all lends itself
to the need for telecommuting.
I, myself, commute every day. I was saying this morning to
somebody that until we can vote remotely I may not, myself, be
able to take advantage of the telecommuting opportunity, but I
expect that folks in my office can eventually, and bring it in
to the legislative branch, and certainly there are so many in
the Federal executive branch that can take advantage of this.
But I understand what it means to be caught in gridlock, and so
that is certainly a perspective that I bring.
The opportunity to save money, the opportunity to promote
more flexibility in the work force and in work arrangements,
all of that is part of the discussion that we are going to have
today, and so I think it is a tremendous win/win opportunity if
we pursue this in a more formal way by looking at how to enact
and then implement policies, have people that are dedicated in
their focus to the telework option within Federal agencies.
I agree with the chairman that the Federal Government is in
a position to really model this in some innovative and creative
ways. I know many agencies have begun to do that, but we can,
of course, do more across the board.
I am looking forward very much to hearing the testimony of
all of our witnesses today and again thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Sarbanes.
We are now prepared to hear from our witnesses, but let me
just indicate that we had hoped to have Representative Frank
Wolf as our first witness because he has been a pioneer in
promoting these concepts and ideas and, unfortunately, could
not be here at the moment, and so he might still get an
opportunity to come in, and if he is able to do so then we
would look forward to hearing from him.
Our panelists are, first of all, Mr. Daniel Green, who is
the Deputy Associate Director of the Center for Employee and
Family Support Policy for the Office of Personnel Management.
Mr. Green is currently responsible for developing Federal
employee benefits policy covering the multi-billion-dollar
retirement and insurance programs administered by OPM. He is
also responsible for promoting important employee and family
support programs like telework.
Mr. Green, thank you so much.
We have Mr. Stan Kaczmarczyk. He is the current Acting
Deputy Associate Administrator for the U.S. General Services
Administration's Office of Government-Wide Policy. Mr.
Kaczmarczyk has policymaking authority over several key areas,
including personal and real property, travel and
transportation, information technology, regulatory information,
and use of Federal advisory committees.
Ms. Bernice Steinhardt is the Director of Strategic Issues
and has held a variety of leadership positions within the U.S.
Government Accountability Office. Congress' analytic and
investigative arm. Ms. Steinhardt is responsible for examining
Government-wide management issues and supporting the Federal
Government's transformation to meet 21st century challenges.
It is the custom and tradition of this committee, as well
as it is others, to swear in witnesses, and so if you would
stand and raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. The record will show that each one
of the witnesses answered in the affirmative.
We thank you very much, and we will begin with you, Mr.
Green.
STATEMENTS OF DANIEL A. GREEN, DEPUTY ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,
CENTER FOR EMPLOYEE AND FAMILY SUPPORT POLICY, OFFICE OF
PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT; STAN KACZMARCZYK, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY
ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR FOR GOVERNMENT-WIDE POLICY, GENERAL
SERVICES ADMINISTRATION; AND BERNICE STEINHARDT, DIRECTOR,
STRATEGIC ISSUES, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
STATEMENT OF DANIEL A. GREEN
Mr. Green. Thank you, sir. Mr. Chairman and members of the
subcommittee, I am pleased to be here today to discuss OPM's
role in promoting telework in the Federal Government.
Telework and other work life flexibilities are important
tools used by agencies to recruit and retain employees.
Telework is also an important component of emergency
preparedness, helping ensure the Federal Government can
continue core operations from remote locations in terms of a
short or long-term crisis.
According to the latest numbers gathered by OPM, 49 of 8
executive branch agencies had more employees teleworking in
2006 compared to 2005. Those who do telework are teleworking
relatively frequently. In fact, over half of them are working
from an alternative work site at least once per week.
Despite these successes, there was a slight decrease in the
total number of teleworkers reported Government-wide from
119,248 in 2005 to approximately 111,000 in 2006. This slight
overall reduction was largely due to decreased numbers of
teleworkers reported at a few large agencies.
According to information OPM was given by these agencies,
there are two major reasons for the decrease: data gathering
reporting problems and data security concerns. We found that
the internal tracking systems used to gather data vary widely
in their efficiency and effectiveness, leading to
inconsistencies in the information reported to OPM year to
year. Agencies are developing internal systems to improve their
data collection.
The second major issue is data security, which had an
impact on actual telework participation. Agencies have
justifiably become increasingly concerned with the security of
information systems overall and may perceive remote access as a
particularly problematic.
We are working on various initiatives to address this issue
and to further explore what security measures are currently in
place and what recommendations need to be made to achieve a
telework environment that maintains data security.
Balancing these challenges are positive drivers for
telework that resulted in program growth for the majority of
agencies in 2006. One major driver is the recognition by many
organizations that telework is a valuable tool to ensure that
vital operations continue during a continuity of operations or
pandemic influenza event. OPM strongly recommends in our
telework guide that agencies have an effective routine telework
program and that as many employees as possible should have
telework capability.
In my written testimony I provide information on how three
agencies--Department of Labor, U.S. International Trade
Consumer magazine, and OPM itself--have used telework as a
means to meet their individual operational objectives.
Telework is an important tool in emergency planning, and we
continue to support agencies in their efforts to integrate
telework into COOP and pandemic influenza preparation.
In responding to President Bush's implementation plan for
the national strategy for pandemic influenza, OPM issued a
completely new guide to telework in the Federal Government on
August 3, 2006. The guide was distributed to all Federal
agencies and is posted on the inter-agency telework Web site,
telework.gov.
OPM integrates telework in its pandemic planning and
guidance briefings for agencies and town hall meetings for
Federal employees. OPM staff visits Federal managers, H.R., and
technical personnel and others to provide a comprehensive
review of policy regarding pandemic preparedness.
We are pursuing many activities to foster telework
utilization. I would especially like to point out our
collaboration with the Chief Human Capital Officer's Counsel on
several telework-related activities.
In February 2007, OPM staff helped organize the Chico
Training Academy session focused on agency telework best
practices. There were over 50 attendees representing more than
20 agencies at this session, which highlighted the telework
efforts of three Federal agencies.
In addition, OPM is working with the CHCO Counsel Emergency
Preparedness Subcommittee exploring how best to refine current
telework definitions and enhance agency metrics in order to
strengthen the program.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, this
concludes my remarks. I would be pleased to respond to any
questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Green follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you.
We will proceed to Mr. Kaczmarczyk.
STATEMENT OF STAN KACZMARCZYK
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Minority
Member Marchant, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate
the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the
General Services Administration's views on how telework
programs succeed.
Successful implementation of telework in the Federal
Government requires effective tools, useful guidance, proactive
senior leadership, and flexible implementation.
Telework programs succeed when they have the basic tools
necessary to complete the program. Legislation that would
remove barriers to Federal telework is welcomed, and we look
forward to working with Congress on appropriate telework
legislation.
Another factor leading to successful telework is useful
guidance. Last year GSA published Federal Management Regulation
Bulletin 2006-B-3, which established guidelines for alternative
workplace arrangements in the Federal Government. This year we
followed up with FMR Bulletin 2007-B-1 covering technology,
security, and privacy issues for telework. This document helped
establish that telework, when appropriately implemented, can
maintain information security.
Successful programs ensure that the entire work force is
aware of telework laws, policies, benefits, and practices. To
that end, our efforts include a very active listserve and Web
site, along with videos, promotional materials, and press
releases.
Another critical ingredient in successful programs is
aggressive top-level involvement and support. A good example of
this is the recently issued challenge by our Administrator,
Lurita Doan. She is pushing GSA to lead by example and to
increase the number of eligible employees participating in
telework. The goal is to have 50 percent of eligible GSA
employees teleworking at least 1 or 2 days per week by the end
of calendar year 2010.
In furtherance of leading by example and prior to any
legislative requirement, GSA will appoint a telework managing
officer, as called for in both the Senate and House versions of
the Telework Enhancement Act of 2007.
Proactively demonstrating that she is walking the talk,
Administrator Doan recently spent the day working at one of the
GSA-sponsored telework centers and announced plans to continue
teleworking every month.
We encourage other agencies to challenge themselves to use
telework to its greatest advantage. We will support their
efforts through workplace solutions offered by our Federal
Acquisition Service and our Public Building Service.
An examination of telework programs shows that flexibility
implementation is another key to making programs a success.
Along these lines, Congress and GSA established the telework
center's pilot project in the Washington, DC, metropolitan
area. These centers offer Federal workers a convenient and
effective telework alternative to working at home and are
located between 16 and 80 miles from downtown D.C. Telework
centers add the program flexibility needed to make telework a
successful option for those who want to avoid the commute but
can't work at home.
To illustrate, I would like to show you our new flash
video, the first flash video ever to be posted on GSA's Web
site, immediately after my conclusion.
In conclusion, GSA believes that successful Federal
telework programs can be cost effective, significantly reduce
traffic, and improve air quality. They can help improve
continuity of operations, recruitment and retention of staff,
and quality of work for our Federal work force.
Characteristics of successful programs include: effective
tools, useful guidance, proactive senior leadership, and
flexible implementation.
I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Now we would like to show the video.
[Video presentation.]
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kaczmarczyk follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr.
Kaczmarczyk. As a matter of fact, your demonstration reminds me
of the comment that is often made at my church that I attend,
where people say, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any
day. So we thank you very much.
We will to go Ms. Steinhardt.
STATEMENT OF BERNICE STEINHARDT
Ms. Steinhardt. It is going to be hard to follow that.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Mr. Marchant and Mr.
Sarbanes. We appreciate the opportunity to be here today to
talk about the Federal Government's efforts to promote telework
for its employees.
Over the years we have reported on Federal telework
programs, and over those years it has been clear to us that the
Congress has been rather frustrated in its efforts to try to
make telework a more widely used tool.
In our view, though, that frustration is likely to continue
until agencies bring a more results-oriented approach to
managing their telework programs.
What do I mean by that?
Right now Congress has quite a few aspirations for
telework, and OPM and the agencies have incorporated those
aspirations into their policies, and everyone is looking to
telework to yield a whole variety of benefits, some of which
were mentioned in the video, others have been talked about this
morning. Agencies are looking to telework to recruit and retain
a skilled work force, to ease traffic congestion and improve
quality of life, to provide for continuity of operations in
emergency events, and so on. But all of these aspirations have
never been translated into program goals. No one is managing to
them, no one is setting targets for them, and there is not a
lot of information that is being collected to help in
evaluating telework programs.
When we did a study several years ago of four agencies'
telework programs, we identified 24 key practices that agencies
should follow, based on industry best practice. And four of
those practices had to do with managing for results. But these
practices were among the least employed, and none of the
agencies were fully implementing them. None of them had goals
or targets or information for evaluation, and without this
information they had no way of making improvements, either.
Even in the most basic program performance measures we
found problems. In a study we did in 2005 in which we looked at
five other agencies, we found that most of them were measuring
employee participation based on their potential to telework.
They were counting agreements for telework, rather than
counting who was actually teleworking or how frequently.
And for even more basic measures, like eligibility,
agencies used such differing methods of calculation that there
is no really meaningful picture when you look across the
Federal Government. As a result, we recommended in that report
that Congress determine ways to promote more consistent
definitions and measurements related to telework.
I would note that the committee's survey found very similar
findings: that there was a need for much greater consistency
and more meaningful measures.
We also went on to suggest that Congress might want to have
OPM work with the Chief Human Capital Officers Council to come
up with a set of definitions and measures that would allow for
a more meaningful assessment of progress in telework programs.
Some of the information could be improved by more
consistent definitions, like eligibility. Every agency sets its
own programs and policies to meet its own local conditions and
circumstances, but there shouldn't be widely disparate terms
for basic things like eligibility.
Some of this effort would take additional effort to
collect. For example, on actual usage of telework, some
agencies have now put into place time and attendance systems
that can measure when people are actually teleworking, the
extent to which they are actually working. Others are working
on it. Others are not. Some information might be already
available through existing sources. The Federal benefits survey
and Federal human capital survey, for example, already ask
Federal employees about their satisfaction with telework.
In any case, it is our view that OPM and the CHCO Council
are very well positioned to sort through these issues and to
consider what information would be most useful to them as they
try to manage for results.
I want to close by just saying that, as we have in the
past, we would be pleased to continue to work with you and your
staffs as you make this very important effort to introduce new
legislation.
Thanks very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Steinhardt follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Ms. Steinhardt.
I want to thank each one of you for your testimony. We will
begin with a round of questions, and I will begin with you, Mr.
Green.
Could you describe how successful OPM has been in
increasing the awareness and comfort level of managers over the
past, say, 2 or 3 years?
Mr. Green. Yes, sir. I don't have metrics to show a
quantitative increase in satisfaction. I can talk about the
things that we have done. I think the most important document
that we have produced is the Telework Guide which is on our Web
site and was widely distributed to all Federal agencies. That
guide does a couple of things. The primary point is that it is
directed straight at managers of teleworkers and employees
wanting to telework, and gives them off-the-shoulder,
straightforward information on how to maximize that experience.
The other thing that the Telework Guide does is it talks
about issues of importance to agencies and furthering their
missions and helping them to integrate telework in some
important, critical areas, most specifically in their
continuity of operations planning and pandemic planning and in
dealing with issues of security and protection of data while
working remotely.
That is the most important thing we have done. We meet with
agencies regularly. We are working with the CHCO Council, as
Ms. Steinhardt alluded, to develop matrix and to expand and
discuss issues of definitions, of matrix for measuring
telework, and for ways to promote a better understanding of
what telework can accomplish, what the issues are involving
telework, and how to deal with them.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. It has come to the committee's
attention that OPM gave notice to its employees that effective
October 29, 2007 that your telework program has been suspended.
Could you explain to us why OPM has suspended its program?
Mr. Green. Well, that is not actually correct. The program
is not suspended; however, telework has been temporarily
suspended or will be temporarily suspended for some employees
who are currently teleworking. The overall program is still
active, but the employees who are involved in retirement claims
operations will be brought in on a temporary basis for a couple
of reasons. One is, as you know, we are going through a
retirement systems modernization effort, and involved in that
will have to be retraining of employees, and those employees
will be needed, as well, to transition from the current legacy
systems to the new RSM.
But of more immediate concern to Director Springer and to
managers at OPM is the security of personal identifiable
information, and the issue there is the retirement case files,
which have a lot of personal information, of course, about
people, are taken home and worked on when people telework. So
management wants to find ways of protecting that information,
and once that is done then there will be a re-emergence of
telework, I am sure.
I think, frankly, that RSM will be an alternate, huge help
in protecting data, because we will be in the electronic mode
and there won't be this same reliance on paper in the future.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. So, at best, one could then say that
there is a temporary suspension of some aspects of the program
while it undergoes review to make adjustments that OPM feels is
necessary?
Mr. Green. Yes, sir. Exactly.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. All right. Let me just ask Mr.
Kaczmarczyk, what policies has the GSA put in place to help
ensure that personally identifiable information is adequately
protected and how can you assure that agency networks are
adequately protected when people are doing telework?
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. Sure. Well, as an agency we annually
inventory all of our IT systems that deal with personally
identifiable information to make sure that the program managers
are aware of their responsibilities.
As far as teleworkers go, teleworkers, of course, receive
IT security training as teleworkers, but also as agency
employees, because we are dealing with the same systems in the
office that we are dealing with when we work from home, so
everybody gets annual IT training, everybody is aware of the
issues, and there are technological solutions for teleworkers
with virtual private networks so you can work at home or from a
telework center securely and maintain the same security over
personally identifiable information from a remote location as
you can in the office.
The general answer is that the policies are in place, the
technology is there to support it, and the issue is the same,
whether you are working from the office or working from another
location.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. And you are comfortable that this is
working well and will continue to work well?
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. In GSA, yes.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
I am going to stop and yield to Mr. Marchant.
Mr. Marchant. This question will be for any of the three
panelists. Tracking worker productivity while under the
telework program seems to vary between agencies and seems to be
the major issue when going into teleworking by supervisors and
the administration. Which agency do you believe has established
the fairest system to the employee and to the agency in
tracking worker productivity? Or is there a working system out
there to track productivity?
Mr. Green. I would like to take a stab at that, if I may.
OPM has advocated for a number of years, and it is not unusual
in doing so, that managers manage by results. Those results can
be measured by using performance standards that track results
and not processor or personnel aspects. So those results can be
measured whether a person is working at the office, remotely at
a telework center, or wherever. Therefore, that is really the
answer for a manager that is concerned about whether the
employee is working when the manager is watching them or not
watching them. What did they accomplish? Did they meet their
objectives?
Ms. Steinhardt. If I can add on to that, I completely agree
with Mr. Green. The real issue is creating management cultures
that are focused on results, on what our goals are and what we
need to accomplish, and not where a person is and whether you
can see them.
But that is exactly why we feel so strongly about the
telework, the way the telework program is being managed now,
because you really can't manage for results until you have
clear goals for what you are trying to accomplish with
telework.
If you want to increase recruitment and retention, if you
want to improve employee morale, you need to have goals for
those and you need to use telework as a tool that can help you
accomplish them. You need to set performance expectations for
managers so that they know what they are being held accountable
for. You need to cascade those expectations down to individual
staff so that they know what they are expected to do.
Telework is just one way to operate. It really needs to be
viewed in the context of what the agency is trying to
accomplish.
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. I agree with that.
Mr. Marchant. Thank you. Go ahead.
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. I agree with the two witnesses. There are
good managers and bad managers, there are productive employees
and less-than-productive employees, and issues are the same no
matter where the work is being carried out. Sometimes, as a way
of maybe discouraging telework, you will hear that maybe a
manager requires a teleworker to report in advance exactly
everything he or she is going to work on for that 1 day at
home. You wouldn't dream of asking that the other 4 days that
the person is in the office. We need to have the mind set that
the work is independent from the place where it is done.
Mr. Marchant. OK. Thank you.
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. Thanks.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Sarbanes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you.
Can you describe what it means, I guess Mr. Green, when you
talk about training somebody in teleworking? Just give me a
sense of what you envision. What does it mean to train a person
in telework or offer them best practices, or what have you?
Mr. Green. Certainly. Most of it is rather mundane,
frankly. It is things like, again, managing to results, and
that an employee understands that they are responsible for
their work, and that doesn't change, whether they are working
remotely or working in the office. They have a responsibility
to do their job. I mean, that is basically it.
The other things, though, are practically things like there
should be a safety evaluation done of the work site, whether it
is at home or the telework center, to make sure that they are
working in a safe and secure environment; that information they
do bring home or use on their computer, whether it is the VPN
side or not, is protected; that there is an understanding--and
we recommend written telework agreements to support this--that
there is an understanding between the manager and the employee
as to when they will be teleworking, how they will be able to
communicate with each other while teleworking, and what the
expectations are, not necessarily a blow-by-blow minute of what
I am going to be doing while I am teleworking, but generally
what I will be working on and, as I say, most especially being
able to communicate with the employee during the day.
Mr. Sarbanes. So, Ms. Steinhardt, I guess the concept of
the manager being trained in telework is as important as the
employee being trained. And would you regard it as useful to
think in terms of there being kind of a transition period or
having workers transition to telecommuting status during which
transition they would be understanding better the managing for
results imperative, and so forth?
Ms. Steinhardt. That is a good question. I don't know that
I would envision necessarily a transition period. Clearly,
managers need to know what the expectations are, as well, but I
think the key here is really creating a culture within the
organization. That obviously is going to take a while to occur.
But it needs to be that everyone in an organization needs to
understand that they are working toward something. Telework
shouldn't be regarded as an employee reward. That is not what
it is about at all. It is a way to get work done, and it needs
to be viewed as a tool to accomplish some organizational goal.
Managers do need to understand that, but it is part of a
larger kind of change in the way that they view their work. And
managers need to be held accountable for what the organization
is trying to accomplish through telework. It is not just the
employee; it is managers, as well.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you. And Mr. Kaczmarczyk, is there a
difference between a telework center and a satellite work
location? I am trying to understand. In other words, could you
have a satellite office that, itself, was the hub of
telecommuters who were working from home, as distinguished from
a telework center that people go to during the day and then
they are teleworking from that center to the main agency
location? Or am I dancing on the head of a pin here?
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. No. Satellite centers are more common in
the private sector than in the Government, but a satellite
center might be set up by a corporation if they had a
concentration of employees in a geographic area a certain
distance from the main office, and then those employees would
report to that satellite center to work every day.
Now, if those responsibilities included some kind of client
service or sales function, maybe the satellite center is their
main office and they do ``telecommute'' while they are on the
road. I guess they could also work from home, decide to work
from home as well as the satellite centers for continuity of
operations.
The concept of the telework center is that every agency can
use them, so you have 1 day a week, 2 days a week, different
Federal employees from different agencies using a center that
is geographically convenient to their home.
Mr. Sarbanes. OK. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you.
Ms. Steinhardt, you have placed a great deal of emphasis on
having clear goals as a way to facilitate the utilization of
teleworking. Do you think that it would be very helpful to have
Government-wide goals that every agency would be expected to
adhere to or pursue, as well as individual agency goals that
would be left to the latitude of the agencies, themselves?
Ms. Steinhardt. That is a really good question. I would say
yes, there are some goals that are not necessarily unique to an
agency. Some are. For example, recruitment and retention,
employee morale--those I think are related. Certainly every
agency has some effort to attract a skilled work force, to
maintain high employee morale. But the conditions vary agency
to agency.
But commute time, for example, I would think that all
agencies, that is a Government-wide issue, and so reducing
congestion, reducing energy use might be Government-wide goals.
They are not specific to any one agency. That is just by way of
example.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. In your testimony you also mention
awareness training as a way of helping facilitate movement. Are
you aware of any results or how much help that might have been
or appear to be?
Ms. Steinhardt. I am not aware that there have been any
kinds of evaluations there. I would say, just anecdotally,
based on GAO's own experience, there clearly needs to be clear
guidance on what telework is and under what conditions it is
available to employees and the kinds of procedures, rules,
policies they need to follow.
But I think one of the best measures to promote telework is
actual experience with teleworking, and particularly among
staff who believe that it would be helpful to them on an
intermittent basis, you know, where they might occasionally
want to telework. Once people become familiar with it, both
employees and managers, it seems to be much more widely
accepted. People know how to use it, and then people may
actually start using telework on a more regular basis.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Kaczmarczyk, you mention in your
testimony that you will propose legislation to address travel
pay associated with long-distance telework. Could you share
some more thinking about that?
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. Yes. This is mostly based on the
experience of an agency such as Patent and Trademark Office,
that employs a lot of full-time teleworkers from other
locations, and they find that--well, PTO is always one of the
best examples because they have cases and processing, and you
have widgets that you can measure for productivity, so they can
demonstrate that people who work from home actually produce
more widgets, get through more cases over the course of a week
than people who are in the office, so they have the opportunity
to hire people who have the right skill set but who live
elsewhere out of the Washington, DC, area or who would like to
move out of the Washington, DC, area.
So, for example, if somebody lived in San Francisco and
wanted to telecommute full time out of their home to PTO in
Crystal City, that can be done. The issue becomes if the person
needs to come into the office periodically for training or
orientation. That then becomes a travel expense that the agency
has to pay because their home office is San Francisco and not
in Crystal City.
Now, for one person it is not a big deal, but if you had
several hundred people in the situation and you had to bring
them all in periodically for orientation or training or just
for a face to face meeting, it could be a considerable extra
travel expense to the agency, so it is felt that acts as a
deterrent to encouraging these types of virtual work
arrangements.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. It seems to me that Administrator
Doan is a bit more aggressive than some other agency directors
and agency heads and has actually laid out some pretty
aggressive ideas and goals. Does this include the establishment
of telework centers, as well?
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. She is very much interested in promoting
telework centers. The first step is to increase the utilization
of our existing 14 centers, and she plans to telecommute
herself at each one of them and to invite other senior agency
leaders to join here on these days and see for themselves how
it is.
She also plans for GSA to centralize the funding for
telework centers so that there will be a pot of money that will
buy a certain number of seats, and then GSA managers won't have
a financial constraint, themselves. It won't come out of their
program budget. They can take advantage of the telework
centers.
Once we get the current 14 telework centers fully utilized,
then we would be happy to look at other locations, as
warranted.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Mr. Marchant, do you have any additional questions?
Mr. Marchant. I don't have any additional questions for
this panel. Thank you.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Mr. Sarbanes, do you have any?
Mr. Sarbanes. Just a couple, real quick.
Are you aware of any agencies that have advanced enough
through this that they are actually in their recruitment of new
employees holding this out as one of the options that is
available as a way of motivating the hirings?
Mr. Chairman, I ask that because I know that the
Partnership for Public Service just launched this major effort
to recruit, I think in the next couple of years, 200,000 or so
mission critical Federal employees. I would imagine that the
ability to hold that out as an opportunity to folks might help
with recruitment, so I was curious about that.
Ms. Steinhardt. If I can offer GAO as an example----
Mr. Sarbanes. Sure.
Ms. Steinhardt [continuing]. We include telework, flexible
work arrangements including telework, as part of our
recruitment materials, and we actually administer a survey to
new staff to find out the kinds of things that attract them to
the agency, and those flexible work arrangements are among the
top 10 reasons, so they remain a key part of our recruitment
and retention strategy.
Mr. Sarbanes. Great.
Mr. Green. OPM, itself, includes teleworking capability in
its recruitment efforts. I would also point out, in my
testimony I speak a little bit about the efforts of the U.S.
International Trade Commission and how they are using telework
as a recruitment tool, as well. And there are other examples.
Mr. Kaczmarczyk. Administrator Doan has required that all
the managers go through all the position descriptions in the
entire agency and designate them as to whether they are
basically eligible or not for telework, and then as vacancies
come up against those position descriptions the actual job
announcement will note that it is a telework-eligible position.
Mr. Sarbanes. Great. Thank you.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Let me thank this panel. We appreciate your being here,
your testimony, and you are excused. Thank you.
While we are preparing for panel three I will go ahead with
the introduction of our panelists.
Ms. Margaret J.A. Peterlin was sworn in as Deputy Under
Secretary of Commerce, Intellectual Property, and Deputy
Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO, in
April 2007. As Deputy Director of the USPTO, she administers
the laws of granting patents and trademarks and the day-to-day
management of the $1.9 billion agency and its more than 8,500
employees.
Mr. Lee J. Lofthus is the Assistant Attorney General for
the Department of Justice. He is responsible for Department-
wide financial reporting, budget formulation and execution,
accounting operations, assets future fund, operational support,
procurement, and debt management support. He also oversees
Department-wide facilities management, human resources,
business services, and planning.
Let me welcome both of you. It is our custom and tradition,
if you would stand to be sworn in and raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. The record will show that the
witnesses answered in the affirmative.
We thank you very much for being here with us. We will
proceed and begin with Ms. Peterlin.
STATEMENTS OF MARGARET J.A. PETERLIN, DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY OF
COMMERCE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DEPUTY DIRECTOR, U.S.
PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE; AND LEE J. LOFTHUS, ASSISTANT
ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
STATEMENT OF MARGARET J.A. PETERLIN
Ms. Peterlin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member
Marchant, Mr. Sarbanes, and the subcommittee and distinguished
guests.
I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to discuss
the USPTO's telework programs. I appreciate the opportunity to
discuss them because it is very important that leaders of
agencies work to balance home life and work requirements.
If I may take a moment, I would just like to recognize my
sister, Megan Quarter, and my fiance, Dan Kinnery, who often
remind me to make sure that I have a work life balance.
On behalf of the agency, I thank the subcommittee for
taking a careful look at telework issues in the 110th Congress
and look forward to working with you in the future.
The success of the USPTO telework programs is driven by
top-level agency support and clearly defined then communicated
performance measures. We trust our employees to perform their
responsibilities without micromanaging observations. These are
fundamental principles that work well in the telework
environment.
For very practical reasons, the USPTO is changing the
boundaries of old workplace patterns. Our vision is for our
employees to perform their responsibilities regardless of their
physical location. As a result, the telework program has led to
improved employee retention, higher productivity, and increased
morale.
Over the past 10 years we have identified a number of
important guiding principles. These are our lessons for
creating and sustaining a successful two program. They are:
First, a successful telework program is contingent upon careful
planning. We started small, with a pilot of only 18 examining
attorneys, and continually assessed our progress along the way.
Over the course of the last 10 years, we have expanded our
telework initiative and currently have 3,609 employees
participating, which is 40.7 percent of total positions at the
USPTO.
Second, the USPTO management views telework as a corporate
business strategy and human capital flexibility.
Third, our managers build and maintain a relationship of
trust with employees, whether they are working on the
Alexandria campus or at home. Since the nature of patent and
trademark work lends itself to telework, our managers are very
comfortable with results-based management techniques. They also
understand the relevance of devising and clearly communicating
performance measures. Managers and employees set and agree upon
a list of goals ensuring a mutual understanding of
expectations.
Fourth, involving labor unions in the development of
telework programs engages represented employees and increases
the likelihood of union support. At the beginning of our first
pilot program, we initiated a labor and management working
group to develop guidelines, procedures, and selection criteria
for telework participation. Today the group meets on a regular
basis addressing arising telework program issues.
Fifth, at the USPTO we believe that training and education
are a necessary precondition for and sustaining requirement of
a successful program. Before being granted the privilege of
teleworking, employees receive non-IT and IT management
training.
Sixth, having a talented telework coordinator at the USPTO
has proven extremely beneficial to our organization. Telework
is a winning proposal with numerous benefits. For many
employees, telework means less time on the road, which also
translates to lower auto emissions, gas consumption, and
reduced traffic congestion. USPTO employees, alone, who
telework collectively save more than 613,000 gallons of gas per
year and save more than $1.8 million annually in fuel costs.
Additionally, there is combined reduction in emissions of more
than 9,600 tons per year.
For the agency, the benefits have included: retention of
seasons, high-quality employees; maximizing use of space;
avoiding the cost of acquiring additional real estate as the
agency has grown; and maintaining high performance. Performance
has been measured over the years, and we have been able to
compare our performance and quality standards both inside and
outside the telework program.
Over the past decade, the USPTO has realized the benefits
of implementing a robust telework program and has demonstrated
that telework is a business strategy that works for our
employees, our agency, and the economy.
I thank you very much for the opportunity to testify before
the subcommittee on this issue.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Peterlin follows:]
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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Before I go to Mr. Lofthus, I would like to just take a
moment and acknowledge the presence of two dear friends of mine
who stopped by. Dr. Herbert B. Slutski, who is the retired
deputy commissioner of the health department for the city of
Chicago, retired university professor, and management
consultant, and his wonderful wife, Maureen, who is a retired
educator. We are delighted that you both stopped by. Thank you
very much.
Mr. Lofthus, would you proceed?
STATEMENT OF LEE J. LOFTHUS
Mr. Lofthus. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Davis,
Ranking Member Marchant, and distinguished members of the
subcommittee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you
this morning to discuss telework.
The Justice Department was one of the earliest agencies to
initiate a telework pilot program through our participation in
the 1990 Federal flexible workplace pilot known as flexiplace.
That early program, developed by the Office of Personnel
Management and the General Services Administration, was
established in response to a recommendation by the President's
Council on Management Improvement and was implemented with
support from the White House, Congress, and the major unions
representing the Federal employees. It was designed to test
alternatives to the traditional work environment.
Since that time, DOJ organizations have continued to look
for opportunities to expand the use of telework where it
supports the Department's mission; however, an inherent
challenge to DOJ's ability to expand telework is the law
enforcement, national security, and intelligence gathering
nature of what we do.
We have always recognized the practical reality that
certain positions--correctional officers in prison, deputy
marshals in duty in a courtroom, and evidence technicians, for
example--must perform their duties at specific locations.
The Department's overall telework participation rate is
currently at 4 percent of eligible staff. Eight of our non-law-
enforcement components have participation over 6 percent, and
our law enforcement entities continue to look for ways to
utilize telework flexibilities.
The Justice organizations with the top four highest
participation rates are the Office of Community Oriented
Policing Services [COPS], at 30 percent; the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives at 21 percent; the Office of
Justice Programs at 13 percent; and our Civil Division at 12
percent. Additionally, my own organization has a participation
rate of over 10 percent.
Let me briefly describe some of these programs.
ATF has 504 employees, or 21 percent of its eligible work
force, teleworking. ATF's success is, in part, attributed to a
comprehensive communication plan that educates employees and
managers on how and when telework can best be used to meet the
ATF mission and support ATF employee efforts to balance work
and family responsibilities. ATF regularly surveys its managers
to determine the effectiveness of telework arrangements and to
obtain ideas on how to further enhance the program.
The Department's civil division is comprised of over 1,100
attorneys, paralegals, and support staff, and civil has been
working successfully to make telework a viable option across
the division.
In my organization, as the head of Justice Management
Division, I can report that we have more than 98 employees on
telework, over 10 percent of our total JMD work force. My
organization has everything from attorneys to accounting staff
paying bills to librarians to painters and the plumbers, so we
are a good example of a highly diversified organization where
telework works well in some jobs and less so in others.
Last week I discussed telework with my senior managers and
directors as a prelude to supervisory training on telework
flexibilities we are doing throughout November in my
organization. We also helped facilitate department-wide
awareness about telework through our DOJ work life Web site. On
this site, DOJ managers and employees can learn about telework
flexibilities and how to participate.
Telework is an important part of three major Department
initiatives: human capital as it relates to recruiting and
retaining a diverse and talented work force for the 21st
century; continuity of operations [COOP]; and our pandemic
planning efforts.
In closing, at Justice we are trying to use telework where
it makes sense in a law enforcement and national security
organization. At the same time, we are trying to use telework
without opening ourselves to increasing cyber-threats to our
systems, networks, and the critical national security, law
enforcement, and personally identifiable information contained
in those systems and networks.
Mr. Chairman, once again thank you for the opportunity to
speak this morning. I would be pleased to answer any questions
you or the panel may have.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lofthus follows:]
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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr.
Lofthus. We will proceed with questions.
Let me just begin with you, Ms. Peterlin.
What position classifications are eligible to telework at
the Patent and Trademark Office?
Ms. Peterlin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have 17 programs
at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, because we have found
that, based on the work that our employees are doing, we may
need some flexibility. But if you look at our two largest
programs, the eligibility requirements are quite consistent,
and that is the employee needs to be on a full-time status,
they need to have a fully successful rating, they need to
demonstrate the ability to work independently, they need to
have no performance or disciplinary actions against them, and
they need to have high-speed broadband internet at home.
So those generally who would be ineligible then, sir, would
be those whose primary responsibilities include interaction
with internal employees or customers.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. And so you have a level of comfort
that the individuals who are eligible are going to be able to
function at a pretty high level without supervision in a sense,
or certain level of supervision?
Ms. Peterlin. Yes, sir. Certainly at the USPTO it is our
hope that our managers are still engaged, very engaged with our
employees who are teleworking, so that type of supervision
would still be ongoing.
In our trademarks business unit, that would mean you have
full signatory authority, that you can make the final
determination about whether a trademark, like Coca-Cola, should
or should not be registered, because we want to make sure that
our employees have the sufficient training and experience that
we are setting them up for success, and then everyone in our
managers and our employees participate in the title work
training program, and that gives us additional confidence.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. I wish all of my employees were like
that. I think that you have one of the more successful programs
and activities. But could you also explain why the USPTO has
been so successful at teleworking?
Ms. Peterlin. Yes, sir. I appreciate the question because I
think if you had called us to testify 10 years ago we would
have a different story, sir. We would say that we are embarking
on it and we would only have had 18 examining attorneys. I
think the reason why 10 years later we are very grateful to be
described as a success story is because we have very carefully
progressed, assessed the results. We started small, we assessed
our results, we implemented training, we implemented the
necessary IT security, and we kept pushing ourselves. We kept
saying these results are great. We are getting 99 percent of
return on our surveys with employees saying, I feel better
about my job. We have productivity increases of 10 percent in
our patents and trademark area. So we kept seeing excellent
results as we became more and more confident over time.
So I think our success today is because we were willing to
start, and then the successes kept building one on the other.
That being said, sir, certainly there have been challenges
along the way, and some managers needed to be brought to the
issue and some employees needed to gain comfort in teleworking.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. What advice would you give to other
agencies, if you had the opportunity to do so, to increase
their telework numbers?
Ms. Peterlin. Sir, I think the best advice is always the
advice that taps into a specific experience that we have
confidence in. For us, that has been to have the necessary IT
security structure in place, have training for managers and
employees, identify what the management criteria will be.
If your organization is already managing by results, then
you are setting the necessary preconditions to have a
successful telework program. If it is managing by observation,
then you probably don't have the necessary preconditions in
place for teleworking.
So I would say start off by having a good management
structure, by managing by objectives, and that is successful
for you whether you are teleworking or not. Then engage your
managers at every level, both at the senior level of the
organization and the first level managers. Participate in the
necessary training. Endorse that training. Then start a
program, start a pilot program, have assessment metrics for the
program, survey the individuals, be willing to make adjustments
to your program, but then move out. Identify the successes.
One success for the PTO, sir, if I may continue my answer,
is that we are hiring at the PTO, because of our strategic
planning in a situation where we found we were under-staffed,
1,200 examiners per year over 5 years. We have a beautiful new
campus in Alexandria, VA, which would still not hold the rate
of increase that we have found necessary for us to meet our
requirements.
So without the telework program in place, we would not be
able to even hire sufficiently to meet our mission
requirements, so teleworking for us is sort of a bottom line
flexibility in order for us to achieve our mission.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
I am going to stop and yield to Mr. Marchant.
Mr. Marchant. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Do you have a defined, stated goal as to where you want to
be 10 years from now as far as your telework program?
Ms. Peterlin. Sir, what we are doing right now at the USPTO
is we are looking at whether or not we should move to a
nationwide work force, which would have a distributed work
force across the United States.
On our patent side, most of our patent examiners have
multiple degrees. We have many Ph.D.s. The examination process
is a very rigorous process. Because we can't make that job any
easier, the way to retain and attract talented people for us is
to try to make the job as flexible as possible.
So our stated goal right now is to look at what a
nationwide work force would look like. I think if you asked us
maybe even a year ago we would have said, teleworking is great.
Since then we have looked at it and said, teleworking may be an
interim step to a distributed work force as a nationwide work
force, so that if a major company has a layoff there will be
many talented people that we would love to have working and
recruiting at the USPTO, but their church is in another State,
their family is in another State, and their kids are in high
school in another State, and so if we can give them an
opportunity there, that benefits the USPTO and it also develops
the loyalty to an organization that we would like to benefit
from.
So I don't know that our 10-year goal is teleworking as an
end goal. It may be teleworking as a means to a nationwide work
force.
Mr. Marchant. If someone comes to you and they know that
they are obviously qualified for the job they are applying, and
they know that you would like to hire them, are they free to
propose to you the terms of their telework? Can they say, I
will be happy to take this job, but I want to telework 3 days a
week? Are they free to do that, or do you hire them based on
them doing the job in the office and then negotiate the
telework with them?
Ms. Peterlin. Thank you for the question. That is something
that we are looking at in terms of the types of flexibilities
we can have, because one of our pressures as an organization,
as I mentioned to the chairman, is a real estate issue and
whether or not someone in the teleworking program, specifically
in patents, would still need a dedicated office space, or they
would be involved in shared office space.
Unless we are hiring someone who had retired from the PTO
and decided to come back--and we very fortunately have that.
You will be hearing from someone in the next panel, sir, who
was in our trademark side and then left, enjoyed a successful
time in the private sector, and then decided to come back to
the PTO and is teleworking. But there is an initial period of
time, if you are not a return employee, an initial period of
time so that you can have your full signatory authority, or you
have your certified exam passed on the patent side before we
have a telework relationship established. That is, again, to
make sure that we are setting our employees up for success.
Mr. Marchant. OK.
Mr. Lofthus, the percentages you gave on your various
departments, are most of those people on a 1-day? I mean, of
the percentages you gave us that participate, what percentage
of those are 1 day, 2 days, 3 days? Those percentages obviously
were for any part of the job that they telework, right?
Mr. Lofthus. Correct. At least half of those folks are on
1-day-a-week telework schedules. There may be folks who work
more than 1 day a week. That may also be situational, meaning
their basic telework schedule may be 1 day a week, but if the
situation allows it, maybe their supervisor allows them to work
an additional day, that is more situational than the way we do
the schedule.
Mr. Marchant. I think you probably recall last year or the
year before where someone that I think was involved in some
kind of a telework project at the VA had taken some hard files
or had some files at home that were stolen from their home. It
was not good. There is nothing good about it. Those are
obviously some of the drawbacks and some of the pitfalls of
telework. You guys, since that incident have you sat down and
talked about it and said, OK, this is something about telework
that we can't afford to have happen, and taken some corrective
action?
Mr. Lofthus. That is something that concerns us. While we
want to encourage telework at the Department of Justice, we
want to do it even though we are a law enforcement organization
where some jobs simply are location specific and problem aren't
that suitable for telework. But, nonetheless, we want to
encourage telework wherever we can.
One of the barriers that I see, though, in all candor, is
the fact of information security and working with classified
information. The example that you point out is very much in our
minds as we deal with these issues.
When we look at the cyber threats that are out there now
and that are increasing, we want to make sure that we are not
exposing the agency and the information we have to risk as we
expand telework.
I think if you set the clock back a few years, I think it
was very easy for folks to say, well, I have a home computer
and I will be able to work from home and things will be just
fine. Just having a home computer I think is no longer just the
way you need to look at telework. Those home computers do
insert an element of risk in the agency operations. Certainly
they do in an intelligence or national security operation.
We don't control that security domain over your home
computer and since we don't control that, that does introduce
an element of risk, and that is something that we want to be
very vigilant when we manage for those type of risks.
Mr. Marchant. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Marchant.
Mr. Sarbanes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you.
You, Ms. Peterlin, talked about how you would bring people
together, labor unions and management and so forth, and others
to tackle the challenges that have been presented with respect
to telecommuting. Can you just give an example of something
that came up, a theme, a problem that was being identified kind
of across the board, if it was, that you were able to take on
and push through and now look back and say, We were able to
move past that?
Ms. Peterlin. Certainly. I will give you a current example,
if I may, and it is one that I think I confess we are still
pushing through and working past, but I think it is important
to use this example because it reveals how the team comes
together.
We have technology centers at the USPTO that look at
particular types of innovation, and within those technology
centers we have then art units. We had an art unit that became
a virtual art unit where the art unit, its managers, and the
examiners went home and worked together virtually. There were
still other people in the technology center. So you had in some
ways some people in the same office teleworking and some still
in the office, because we were trying to test could we send an
entire unit at this level home.
What we found is that we need to make sure that the people
who were still at the USPTO don't carry all the burden of
training the new examiners that are on board, because we saw
that--and this is something that our union has raised to our
attention and some of the employees in the surveys raised to
our attention--that people had an inclination to want to seek
training from the person that they could go next door to their
office, and there was a little bit of a barrier of thinking,
oh, I don't want to call them because they are at home.
That, to me, raises just a management issue of going back
and saying, they are not at home, they are teleworking today,
and they want you to pick up the phone and talk to them.
This is an example of an issue. I think it is the type of
issue you are asking me to talk about.
Mr. Sarbanes. Right.
Ms. Peterlin. And I would say that we just finished the
virtual art unit pilot, so we just had this assessment about
the fact that some people are reluctant, just personally
reluctant to reach out to the teleworking trainer more so than
the trainer that may be a few doors down. And so we are going
to approach that by talking to our managers and saying, Look,
it is important that you don't have that instinct, because that
instinct is a bit artificial. The trainer at home is confident
and interested and wants to be involved in training, as well.
Mr. Sarbanes. OK. That is a great example.
Either one can answer this question, or both. It picks up
on what Mr. Marchant was saying. As a practical matter, we talk
about telecommuting or teleworking, the definition qualifying
based on 1 day a week or 2 days a week or 20 percent over 2
weeks, or whatever. But somebody gets into a good telecommuting
arrangement, is it not the case, practically speaking, that
they are going to move toward a kind of full-time telecommuting
arrangement? Or am I missing? Because, particularly in terms of
saving space and other things, I would imagine that, until you
get to that kind of tipping point, maybe you are not getting
the benefit of it so much.
I am just curious across in both offices, across the work
force that is telecommuting, how many are in that full-time
telecommuting category?
Mr. Lofthus. We don't have many in the full-time
telecommuting category yet. One of the things that is coming
down the pike, though, that I think will help in this area is
the ability to track telework and the job series of the folks
that do telework and how frequently they telework.
We at the Department of Justice or in the National Finance
Center at the Department of Agriculture supporting our payroll
systems, and they have a new system--or new to us--called Star
Web, and Star Web allows us to start tracking at a time and
attendance recordkeeping level, meaning a very detailed level,
how often people are telecommuting, and we can really get now
for the first time really good statistics on who is doing it,
how frequently they are doing it, if the success of what they
have already done allows them to expand their use of
telecommuting.
I think that gives us an advantage over the more anecdotal
data we had a couple of years ago, so I am looking forward to
the fact that we can use that kind of information that will
help us target other areas in the Department where
telecommuting may be a viable option and people just haven't
looked at it yet in those areas.
Mr. Sarbanes. OK.
Ms. Peterlin. Yes, sir. I have a lot of statistics in front
of me, and so I want to give you what I think might be the most
useful statistics.
We have found that it isn't always the case that if you are
teleworking 1 day now that you will migrate to 4 days, because
what we are trying to do is the reason why we have 17 programs
at the USPTO is because we find that, depending on the business
needs of the particular mission, your job may allow you to
telework 1 day a week.
We have customer call center personnel who work 4 days a
week, but the requirements of their job would allow that, if
they consolidate administrative type of work into 1 day, they
can telework during that day.
Then we have other positions where they can telework 4 days
a week.
So right now in our trademarks examining attorneys working
from home 4 days a week, we have 246 examining attorneys
working at home 4 days a week. We have 26 who work at home 3
days a week, 7 2 days a week, and 55 1 day a week.
So, depending on the position and the requirements of the
position, that does influence the number of days where
teleworking makes sense, which does impact the return on
investment that the agency might----
Mr. Sarbanes. Are the ones that are working 4 days a week,
does that mean 1 day a week they are coming in to the main
location, or they are just working 4 days a week according to a
flex schedule?
Ms. Peterlin. They are working 4 days a week from home, and
so 1 day a week they would be in the office. There is a
requirement that folks come in for 1 hour per week to establish
their duty station for pay purposes.
Mr. Sarbanes. I see. OK.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Sarbanes.
Mr. Lofthus, recognizing that the Department of Justice is
a law enforcement agency, isn't there a large number of law
enforcement positions that could be eligible for telecommute?
Mr. Lofthus. Mr. Chairman, yes, I think that is true. I
think there are law enforcement positions that are suitable for
telework. But what we have learned is it depends on an
individual's duties, and I can give you an example of that.
At Justice we have a job series called investigator,
criminal investigators, and we have investigators across our
law enforcement components. At the ATF we happen to have a
large number, I think nearly 400, investigators who are
telecommuting, and they are doing that very successfully. These
are investigators that go out into industry and they do reviews
and they write reports. ATF has found it very viable for those
investigators to do that report writing and assimilate their
information from telecommuting centers or from their homes, so
that is working very well.
At the same time, in that same broad job series,
investigator or criminal investigator, we have investigators at
DEA and FBI who have really quite different duties. They may be
working on case investigations that involve informant
information, may involve undercover operations, may involved
classified information. So those investigators really have
duties that are more site specific and they come into the
office for the protection of the data.
So you have similar-sounding jobs with actually quite
different duties. So when we look at our opportunities for
teleworking, what we found is we have to go below the job
series and really look at the specific duties of the
individuals.
But your point is an excellent one. What we have learned,
again, I think, from some of the new data we are getting, is
the opportunities for attorneys--the civil division example--
the opportunity for attorneys to telework is one that I think
there is some potential there. We have had pockets. My
organization has a small number of attorneys, but some of those
telework. Civil Division has been successful. The U.S.
Attorneys Organization has attorneys that telework. So there
are people in the Justice/law enforcement environment that can
telework, and we are looking for those opportunities.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. The Department of Justice has some
innovative programs for telework, but we think that some of it
bureaus are lagging. Recently the ATF gave a group of 50
employees in the position of legal instrument examiner the
choice of relocating to West Virginia or leaving employment at
ATF. West Virginia would be a 3-hour commute for many of these
employees. Telework was not an option made available to them.
The reason given is it would require automation of form
processing, which ATF has claimed would cost $2.7 million.
Could you explain how the ATF arrived at $2.7 million to
automate the work of the legal instrument examiners and, aside
from money, what would prevent the legal instrument examiners
from teleworking?
Mr. Lofthus. Mr. Chairman, that case is one where I would
prefer to be able to get back to you on the specifics. I do
know that ATF was concerned that the cost of any system
improvements which would be needed to make telework a viable
option there. But if I may, I would prefer to get back to you
with specifics.
That falls again in the category where I think we are
serious about looking for opportunities to make these telework
options available to our staff, but sometimes there are
barriers.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you.
In a letter sent on May 7, 2007, the subcommittee asked the
Department of Justice whether the agency excludes any
categories of employees from teleworking. DOJ provided a long
list of job categories covering over 47,000 employees that are
excluded from telework. DOJ said these jobs are excluded
because they require handling secure materials or performing
onsite activities.
Just some of the categories of jobs that are not eligible
for telework at the Department of Justice include: building
maintenance, intelligence analysts, security specialists,
supply program manager, language specialist, legal clerk, and
paralegal specialist. That is just a sample that DOJ
identified, and actually identified many more jobs that are
excluded from telework.
I can understand why it would be difficult for some of
these employees to work from home. For example, an employee
performing building maintenance obviously needs to be present
at the building in order to perform maintenance on it. But
DOJ's list includes a number of jobs where, at least based on
the job titles, it seems like the employees may be able to
perform at least some of their duties from an alternate work
site.
Do legal clerks and paralegals need to be present all of
the time? Can't they perform research and other work from
alternate work sites? And what happens if an employee in one of
these job categories asks to telework? Is that employee
automatically excluded based on his or her job title, or does
DOJ look at specific responsibilities and activities of each
employee who would like to telework?
Mr. Lofthus. We need to look at the specific duties. I
don't want to have a Justice environment where we have such
sweeping decisions made to exclude people based on job series,
alone, because of the things I have already pointed out, in the
sense that criminal investigators or investigators may have the
same job title but very different duties, so I think we need to
look at the underlying duties.
While we did have a long list of jobs that were excluded,
59,000 jobs were deemed eligible for telecommuting. If one were
to take an extremely restrictive view of the eligible
positions, you might say only 40,000 jobs at Justice would be
eligible for telecommuting.
I think we have tried to be optimistic and include as many
jobs as we can to make them eligible, which is how we got up to
the 59,000 number of eligible positions. So I think we are
trying to give telecommuting the benefit of a doubt and not
exclude people based on job title, alone.
I think if you look at the fact that we have 22,000 agents,
we have 30,000 plus correctional officers, there is 50,000
positions, alone, that one could say those you just can't
telecommute. Correctional officers may be one thing where you
have to be present at the institution and there at the prison,
but the agents, we do have a small number of agents where we
are experimenting with telecommuting. I think that is an
example where we are trying not to exclude people automatically
just on a series title, but give people an opportunity to try
it, see if it works, see if the supervisors like it.
As some of the other panelists have talked about, results
are what really matter here. If we can do this and get good
results, then I think our position would be we want to be open
to that type of consideration for our employees.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Ms. Peterlin, as I noted earlier, Representatives Marchant,
Waxman, Davis, and I sent a letter on May 7, 2007, to 25
departments and agencies requesting current information on the
agencies' telework information. In response to that letter, we
received general information from the Department of Commerce,
but no specific information on the agencies within the
Department, including the Patent and Trademark Office.
Given the apparent success of PTO's program, it would be
helpful to have more specific data in order to compare it with
other agency programs. Would you be willing to submit for the
record answers to the questions we asked in our May 7th letter?
Ms. Peterlin. Yes, sir, we would be delighted to.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you both very much.
Mr. Sarbanes, do you have any additional questions?
Mr. Sarbanes. Just real quick.
At the USPTO, is there any expense that you, as a policy,
are willing to incur with respect to outfitting a
telecommuter's home office, or do you put that burden
exclusively on the employee?
Ms. Peterlin. No, sir. As we are looking at our cost/
benefit analysis, and somehow this is always an X factor of the
retention value to the employee, the morale, the productivity
increases that we see, we outfit their home offices. And we
actually also pay for the cost of the telework training for the
manager and the employee.
Mr. Sarbanes. OK.
Ms. Peterlin. But we still find that cost/benefit analysis
leads to benefit for the agency.
Mr. Sarbanes. The two objections that I can think of, or
the things that I focus on the most as obstacles or the
resistance to teleworking, are, one, this whole productivity
question. I am completely assured by the testimony that if the
managing to results is done properly, that is easily overcome
as an objection. The other I guess would just be this less
tangible esprit d'corps dimension, the notion that people are
far-flung and you don't see them. This is the good part of face
time. There is a bad part of face time, right? The good part of
face time is that you see the people and it helps to congeal
spirit within the office, and so forth.
Can you speak to that? I mean, I guess the extent everybody
is teleworking in your office is still coming in to a central
location for some period of time during the week. It offers
opportunities for meetings and other group activities, if you
will, that can address that issue of esprit d'corps, but maybe
you could just talk about that briefly. And Mr. Lofthus, as
well, if you would like.
Ms. Peterlin. Yes, sir. I appreciate your focus on that
question because it is a focus that a lot of our senior
management has spent time on. What are the necessary
collaboration tools? Our examining attorneys and our patent
examiners need collaboration tools and search tools in order to
do the work that they perform, and in order to complete this
examination, but they also need collaboration tools in order to
be able to connect.
I think this is something where you don't ever reach a
plateau. It is always going to be a management issue. How do
you connect with someone who is living in Michigan if the main
office is in Alexandria, VA? I think some of that has to do
with the comfort of the employee and feeling that they can
connect through the collaboration tools.
Some of the tools that we have are as simple or as basic as
telephone, voice mail, e-mail, but we are doing more and more
and hold a town hall. In our trademarks area we had a video
town hall so that the teleworkers actually logged on at home on
their computers and they had an all-hands meeting or a town
hall meeting.
So I think making more frequent use of town hall meetings
or using instant messaging, you have to use the IT tools that
currently exist, and then you also have to have managers who
will, just as a good manager does swing by a cubicle every now
and then just to see what is going on, swings by electronically
the employee's cubicle.
But I think that is a challenge. I think it is OK for it to
be a challenge, to recognize it as a challenge, and then you
just have to figure out how to reduce the impact of that
challenge.
Mr. Sarbanes. OK. Thank you.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Sarbanes.
I note that we have been joined by Mr. Cummings. I know
when you have a work schedule and load as heavy as his, it is
difficult to be in three or four places at one time, so thank
you, Mr. Cummings.
Did you have any questions or comments?
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, first of
all, for acknowledging my schedule. I appreciate that. And I
will be very brief. I just have one question.
We are finding that, despite the legislative leeway to
doing so, agencies are not promoting telework programs as
broadly as I would think they would have. Are there certain
barriers to this? And is there a legislative solution?
Mr. Lofthus. If you don't mind, I will go first.
Mr. Cummings. Sure.
Mr. Lofthus. In terms of barriers, I think at the
Department of Justice what we have found so far, other than
inherent law enforcement issues where there is a deputy marshal
who has to be on duty in a courtroom, so if you look past what
I will call those inherent site location jobs to the jobs that
are more suitable for telework, you need tone at the top where
senior leadership at your agency or department says that
telework is an important program for the agency, it is
important for the operation of the agency, and it is important
for the quality of work life for our staff, so you need
positive tone at the top.
You need open-minded supervisors. What we are finding at
the DOJ, as telework expands and as we see pockets of success--
for instance, with our investigators at ATF, with the attorneys
in the civil division, with other jobs--as you see pockets of
success, I think that breaks down barriers in the rest of the
Department where people may have said, Well, I don't think such
and such a job is very suitable. We can demonstrate otherwise.
So it comes back to being able to have open-minded managers
and people who are behind the program and that are supportive
of it. That is what we are finding at Justice.
Ms. Peterlin. What I would like to add to that list, sir,
and what has been a primary issue to us, one of the barriers to
telework is having the development of a reliable and secure
computer system so that our folks could actually get immediate
access to the same documents that they would have been able to
have access to were they in their office, and that they are
able to download them reliably.
So because we were able to start small years ago, we have
been actually able to anticipate and include in our program
designs and upgrades that the system would accept teleworking
and would be able to provide that sort of instant response,
high band-width capability, and security needs.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Issa, did you have any questions or comments?
Mr. Issa. No, sir. Not at this time.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Well, we want to thank both of you
very much. We certainly appreciate your presence here this
morning and we appreciate your participation.
Thank you, and you are excused.
Mr. Lofthus. Thank you.
Ms. Peterlin. Thank you.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. As we prepare to hear from our last
panel, let me just begin with the introduction of our
witnesses.
Mr. John Wilke is a Trademark Examining Attorney with the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In 1981 he left the USPTO to
take a staff position at General Mills in Minneapolis as an
attorney. Mr. Wilke works for the USPTO out of his tome in Long
Grove, IL, under the office's extended geographic telework
program.
Mr. Steve O'Keeffe is the founder and executive director of
Telework Exchange, a public/private partnership focused on
promoting the adoption of telework.
Ms. Ann Bamesberger is vice president of SUN Microsystems
Open Work Service Group, an organization focused on creating an
infrastructure that supports the increasingly global dispersed
and mobile work force.
And Mr. Haywood J. Talcove is vice president of public
sector americas for Juniper networks. With his teams, Mr.
Talcove supports the networking and security needs of
Government through his company's broad range of high-
performance technology solutions.
I want to thank you all for being here.
It is the custom and tradition of this committee, as well
as others, that all witnesses are sworn in, so would you stand
and raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Davis of Illinois. The record will show that the
witnesses answered in the affirmative. We thank you all very
much.
We will proceed and will begin with Mr. Wilke.
STATEMENTS OF JOHN WILKE, TRADEMARK EXAMINING ATTORNEY, PTO
TELEWORKER; STEPHEN W.T. O'KEEFFE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TELEWORK
EXCHANGE; ANN BAMESBERGER, VICE PRESIDENT, OPEN WORK SERVICES
GROUP, SUN MICROSYSTEMS, INC.; AND HAYWOOD J. TALCOVE, VICE
PRESIDENT, PUBLIC SECTOR AMERICAS, JUNIPER NETWORKS, INC.
STATEMENT OF JOHN WILKE
Mr. Wilke. Thank you, Chairman Davis, Ranking Member
Marchant, honorable committee members, and distinguished
guests. My name is John Wilke. I am a Trademark Attorney
Examiner at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It is my
honor and privilege to testify before this committee this
morning.
I have been asked to testify because I am a trademark
office teleworker and I am also participating in a USPTO pilot
program which allows employees to work from geographically
remote locations.
In my case, I work for the PTO from my home in Long Grove,
IL, just north of Chicago. I am testifying from my home office
today. This is my lovely basement here.
I first worked as a trademark examiner at the USPTO from
1979 to 1981. This was my first attorney position and I learned
a great deal from those first few years at the office.
I left the PTO to work as a trademark attorney in private
industry for the next 23 years. I eventually became trademark
counsel for Monsanto Co. and then patent and trademark counsel
for American Tool Companies, another Chicago company. During
that time I was elected to the Board of Directors of the
International Trademark Association, and I served as chairman
of several ITA committees, including the ITA Patent and
Trademark Office Committee.
Following the takeover of American Tool, I considered
several trademark positions in law firms and other companies,
but when the PTO offered me this position I was very glad to
return to the office.
I worked at PTO headquarters in Alexandria for over a year,
really becoming re-qualified, and when I became eligible for
the office's telework program I requested that I be allowed to
work from my home here in Chicago.
Fortunately, the office was able to accommodate that
request as part of a new geographic expansion pilot program,
and I have been working remotely from here since last January.
The office's telework program has truly been a wonderful
blessing for me. It has allowed me to remain close to my family
and friends and has allowed me to participate more fully in the
life of my community here.
My family and I have lived in the Chicago area for nearly
20 years. My wife, Ophie, and I raised our three children in
Buffalo Grove. They all graduated from Stephenson High School
in Lincolnshire. Our son, Sean, went to Columbia College in
Chicago, and Matthew went to DePauw. They both now live and
work in Chicago itself.
Ophie works at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge. We
are active members of the St. Mary Parish in Buffalo Grove. I
sing in the choir. She is a eucharistic minister. We have a lot
of friends here that we have made over the 20 years we have
been here.
The telework program with PTO has made it possible for me
to work for the office and at the same time stay near our
children and among our long-time friends. It has truly enhanced
the quality of my life and the life of my family.
I believe the telework program has also been of great
benefit to the Patent and Trademark Office, itself. Thanks to
this program, I was able to return and actually make a valuable
contribution to the trademark examining operation. Soon after
my return I was given the responsibility in assisting in the
training of new examining attorneys, and I have served as a
mentor for six young attorneys so far. I have also maintained
the highest production and quality levels, and have achieved a
rating of outstanding for every rating period since my return.
Last month, in fact, I was recognized by the American
Intellectual Property Law Association with an award that was
given to me here in Washington for outstanding performance as
an examining attorney in the Patent Office.
The office has greatly benefited from the contributions of
many employees who have joined the PTO or who have come back to
the PTO or who have remained at the PTO in large part because
of its excellent telework program. While there is still a need
to address the problem of the weekly office visit requirement,
which is one of the barriers that was mentioned here earlier, I
feel the PTO is still the best telework program in Government
or in private industry. It has truly enhanced the quality of my
life and has benefited the agency, as well, by allowing it to
attract and retain capable and experienced employees.
I believe other agencies and other Federal employees would
also greatly benefit from the adoption and implementation of
similar programs.
Thank you very much for allowing me to join you there
today. I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Wilke follows:]
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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. Wilke. We
will proceed now to Mr. O'Keeffe.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN W.T. O'KEEFFE
Mr. O'Keeffe. Chairman Davis and subcommittee members,
thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Steve
O'Keeffe, executive director with the Telework Exchange. We are
a public/private partnership.
Every Federal agency is actively involved in the membership
of our organization, and we have more than 6,000 Federal
employees who have registered on our site to understand the
telework opportunity. This is my third testimony on telework.
Your focus for the hearing is on breaking through, and so I am
going to dispense with formality and cut to the chase.
While telework is moving, the programs are locked in
traffic jams and new action is required to move things forward.
So why should America care about telework? Let's start with
cost and gas consumption. The Federal work force spends $20
billion a year on commuting. Extrapolating to the U.S. white
collar work force, America spends $572 billion a year on
commuting. This is significantly more than the gross domestic
product of the Republic of Ireland.
As Americans, we burn $26 billion of gas by commuting each
year. That is 62 percent of the U.S. strategic petroleum
reserve.
Now to pollution. The average Fed pumps 8 tons of pollution
per year into the environment commuting. This translates to
14.4 million tons across the Government. If all eligible Feds
teleworked 2 days a week, we would eliminate one-quarter of the
emissions from the Federal work force each year.
Now to time and productivity. The average Fed spends 245
hours commuting each year; in fact, more time commuting than on
vacation each year. If all eligible Feds teleworked just 2 days
a week, the Federal work force would reclaim 73.3 million hours
of their lives back each year. That is an additional week off
work for each Federal employee per year.
Now to pandemic planning. As we approach the season,
clearly this is top of mind. Only 27 percent of Feds would show
up for work in the event of a pandemic, according to a recent
study. Just 21 percent say they are aware of their agency's
pandemic plans, and out of these Feds only 27 percent know if
their agencies incorporate telework into continuity of
operations plans.
The question is: who will tend to America if Uncle Sam
calls in sick?
So where are the road blocks? First, eligibility. OPM
reports only 10 percent of eligible Feds telework today. A CDW
study shows that 79 percent of Feds would telework if given the
option. Clearly, the math does not add up. This is why the
Telework Exchange rolled out the telework eligibility gizmo to
allow Federal employees to quickly understand approximately
their eligibility status. As you know, the eligibility criteria
vary widely among agencies.
In fact, it was good to see OPM testifying again. We would
like to see more from OPM in the way of telework leadership. We
offered to partner with OPM to establish a telework friendly
seal of approval for telework positions on USAJOBS.GOV. This
would allow agencies to identify new jobs as telework friendly,
to make Government jobs more attractive. We posed this program
to OPM almost 2 years ago, and we are still waiting for an
answer.
At consecutive hearings, Members have asked OPM for its
success in getting managers to buy into telework. Again, the
same answer: no quantifiable data. I would ask why.
We asked if OPM will step up to provide much-needed
leadership or continue to take a back set on telework.
Other roadblocks--management resistance. Management
resistance is still the elephant in the room. Regrettably we
see in the Federal Government the continued culture of
management by walking around. That said, as managers experience
telework they become more favorable to it. Managers that manage
teleworkers are more favorable than managers that don't, and
managers that telework, themselves, are still more favorable.
The problem is that too few Federal managers are teleworking.
Poor mission alignment. Just 35 percent of Federal managers
believe their agencies support telework. If telework is a
critical plank in continuity of operations, then clearly the
message is getting lost in translation from the leadership to
middle management and we need to redouble our efforts here.
Lack of resources. Agencies do not dedicate the time to
telework. The majority of telework coordinators today spend
less than 25 percent of their time on telework.
So it can't be all bad news, right? That is true. GSA
announced an aggressive telework challenge, which we heard
about this morning. PTO, DSSA, and other agencies area already
blazing the trail. Representative Wolf proposed a National
Telework Week, and we strongly support that. And there are many
activities afoot on the Hill, including these hearings, the S.
1000 proposed legislation, and the Telework Amendment to the
Energy bill. So telework is not completely gridlocked, but
traffic is clearly moving too slowly.
So what can we do? Benjamin Franklin said that the
definition of insanity is to assume the same behavior and
expect a different outcome. What we need to do is innovate.
First we need to address eligibility. We need to offer telework
as an opt-out rather than an opt-in for Federal employees. And
we also need to require them to justify why they are making
positions ineligible.
We need to address management resistance, educate managers,
and encourage management specific pilot programs so managers
actually have hands-on experience teleworking. We need to test
drive continuity of operations. Telework is not a break glass
in case of emergency proposition, and we need up-front
commitment from agencies, and we need to allocate resources,
one full-time senior level telework coordinator per agency, and
that person should participate on a team with the IT planning
support organization.
I would like to put forth a challenge. As I mentioned
earlier, we have been waiting for OPM to respond to us for
almost 2 years to set up this notion of the telework friendly
seal of approval. The Telework Exchange will independently
launch a Government telework friendly job bank on our Web site
in 2008. Agencies will be able to post telework friendly job
postings at www.teleworkerchange.com. People will then be able
to go to the Web site and check out Federal jobs that they may
be interested in applying for. The door is always open for OPM
to come back to the table in terms of partnership.
We also encourage other agencies to take the same kinds of
commitments as GSA, DSSA, and PTO in the telework drive.
Thank you for your time this morning. We appreciate your
consideration.
[The prepared statement of Mr. O'Keeffe follows:]
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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much, Mr. O'Keeffe.
We will go to Ms. Bamesberger.
STATEMENT OF ANN BAMESBERGER
Ms. Bamesberger. Thank you, Chairman Davis. And thank you,
members of the committee, for having me here. I very much
appreciate the opportunity to share with you some ideas from
the private sector, having spent the last 10 years working in
the area of life balance, work balance. I am very pleased to
see my Government taking action along the same lines.
I would like to just briefly explain the context of SUN
Microsystems. It is a computer system. We have been in business
since 1982. It started at Stanford, University. That is,
indeed, what SUN stands for. It is Stanford University Network.
We were one of the first networking companies to embrace Unix
as an open system.
We are not that large. We are about 35,000 employees, and
we are at about $15 billion revenue. I mention those numbers so
that you have some context for some of the numbers that I will
be telling you and scale that up according to the population
that you are probably considering in terms of opportunities for
the Government.
I don't think I need to dwell on the drivers that have
caused us at SUN to embrace what we call open work. We don't
call it telework. We don't call it telecommuting, because for
us it has become the way of work. Clearly, since we are a
computer company, we are clearly very, very comfortable with
technology, and yet over the last 10 years I have seen a sea
change literally in the last 2 years. Even here I notice a lot
of your staff running around with Blackberries. I'm sure they
didn't do that 2 years ago.
We are looking to hire next generation employees, and the
Gen-Y people that we are studying now in research combinations
with the universities are very tech savvy. We will see our kids
texting each other. That is a form of collaboration. It is not
necessarily face to face, but it is becoming a new way of
engaging, and universities are embracing this, and so we are
watching universities so that we, ourselves, can remain at the
leading edge.
Global markets, technological innovation, you have seen
them all. You know that business continuity is a big issue.
What I haven't heard a lot of today, which actually surprises
me, is the cost containment opportunities that this kind of
work actually affords.
I remember Ms. Peterlin, who struck me as being a subject
matter expert in many ways, did indicate that they are
investing money in technology and yet still coming out ahead of
the curve. The truth is you save so much on real estate by not
continuing to proliferate traditional office environments that,
I would submit, if you look around today are not 100 percent
occupied. People are in meetings, people are out, people are
traveling. So even today you probably have an opportunity to do
some cost containment.
Our response in that way is that over 10 years we have now
contained over half a billion dollars from our real estate run
rate, which is the second-highest run rate after salary. I
would imagine that is true for you, as well. The truth is, we
can also save in technology. We have adopted what is called a
thin client approach to computing, which will become more and
more the norm as we look to the future. It is really what
web2.0 is starting to be all about, the kids doing IM, the kids
going on Facebook, the communication that is happening very,
very fluidly on top of the computer networks. So networks are
not going to be quite the same as they once were, and the
fluidity of communication, you will be able to see more and
more of an increase.
But what I really want to do is focus not just on how we
have benefited, but you spend a little bit of time on what I
have heard from you to be your primary barriers, and I would
welcome questions.
Management resistance is, indeed, a barrier. I would be
foolish not to say that I don't have some scar tissue. The
truth is the line of sight is a very strong perception of
control, and psychologically a belief system is a very powerful
thing to try to break.
We at SUN have not tried to break that belief system. We
have, rather, tried to work with it and validate managers'
concerns and, in fact, enlist them in providing the solution
that would work both for them and for their employees.
It is doable. It is not as insurmountable as it seems when
you first start, nor does it have to take 10 years. Again, I am
seeing a leapfrog. I am seeing a sea change, so that in the
next year or two I submit that managers will become more and
more aware of how their employees are working this way, and the
expectation of managers will be that they will manage in that
way a lot more than we have seen in the past. I am seeing that
at SUN.
I also share that, from a management perspective, the
default of having this be the way of work would be a terrific
shift in the mind set of managers, so that they, rather than
trying to choose who is eligible, would have to work with their
staff on who isn't and why.
It is quite true that across all types of work--and we have
marketing people, we have legal people, we have engineering
people--the differences among job classes is really minuscule,
and you will find that the type of embracing of this work is
just a matter of experimentation, trust, and time.
I see my time is up. I also want to really touch on two
other things. What I didn't see here today was a systemic
approach. I saw the real estate folks potentially talking about
the telework centers, which is terrific. I saw the human
resources people talking about management. But what would
really help is if you thought of this as a system, because the
total cost of operations, the real estate savings could be
reinvested in the management side, and that is non-trivial.
Inside a corporation like mine, our functions are siloed, so
trying to get the savings from one entity and reinvest in
another is a challenge, but it is doable and it is very
valuable to the employee. The employees really, really
appreciate this.
I strongly encourage you to embark. Don't try to boil the
ocean. Don't try to do it all. Don't try to get it right.
Leverage Ms. Peterlin. She was terrific. And I would start
small. Again, I would set very clear outcomes for your pilots,
keep them small, set the metrics with regard to your business
objectives, not necessarily your telecommuting objectives, but
what is the business trying to accomplish. What you will find
is you will probably be able to accomplish those better,
faster, and cheaper by using a different way of getting people
to work and having the work come to them.
I thank you for your time, and I look forward to answering
questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Bamesberger follows:]
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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
We will go to Mr. Talcove.
STATEMENT OF HAYWOOD J. TALCOVE
Mr. Talcove. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members
of the committee, it is a great privilege to testify before you
today on a pressing need for policies that help promote and
enable telework and remote access across the Federal
Government.
Telework will radically alter in a very real way all facets
of Federal Government, from how it conducts business and
protects and serves citizens, to how it promotes good
stewardship of the environment.
In four short years, the front edge of the Boomer
generation will turn 65. This shift will have a significant
impact on both the public and private sector. Through telework,
we can help reduce and improve workers' accountability.
The benefits of telework are clear. First, telework
promotes efficiency. It benefits the Federal Government by
boosting worker productivity through instant, highly secure
remote access to Government networks and resources that workers
need to do their jobs.
Second, telework is an attrition remedy. Telework acts as
an incentive that makes working past retirement age both
feasible and attractive for Government employees who are needed
to train and mentor the next generation of agency staff who
will replace them.
Third, telework is both a motivational and recruitment
tool, as we have heard today. It can empower employees to
balance work and family life, which can result in lower rates
of absenteeism and better retention.
Beyond the human capital benefits of telework, it is
vitally important to highlight the important role telework
plays in homeland security and Government continuity of
operations. The past several years have been marked by manmade
and natural calamities, such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11,
Hurricane Katrina, the Minnesota Bridge collapse, and the
southern California wildfires, have demonstrated like few other
periods in recent history the importance of continuity of
operations and emergency preparedness. It is at times like
these that citizens rely on Government the most and expect
Government to deliver needed services and support in a timely
fashion.
For Government to respond in a timely manner, it must equip
essential employees with the tools necessary to communicate and
execute their responsibilities 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
365 days a year.
The good news is that off-the-shelf technology already
exists to support secure teleworking by employees. Secure
socket layer, virtual private networks [SSLVPNs], can provide
connectivity to IT assets so that employees can securely access
resources from virtually any location using a variety of
devices.
More to the point, because disruptions or disasters may
strike at any moment, the best way to ensure that Federal
workers are prepared for continuity of Government is to promote
and practice telework as a part of everyday agency operations.
But perhaps of all the advantages of telework, it is the
environmental benefits that most impact citizens in their
everyday lives. Most if not all of us here in this chamber have
suffered through the maddening experience of inching along, or
idling, as the case may be, in the Washington, DC, area
traffic. Just consider for a moment how much cleaner the air
would be if Federal agencies in this region, alone, promoted
regular telework.
Among their employees, now consider the man hours saved and
the aggravation spared if telework were more widely practiced.
Of course, telework is not a magic bullet for all that ails the
environment; it does, though, represent a way for us to cut
commute times, lessen congestion, and decrease the county's
dependence on non-renewable and foreign sources of energy.
Yet, despite all of these benefits of telework I have
outlined today, some Federal agencies have been slow to adopt
and enable the practice.
To get a better sense of the Government's plans for and
current telework capabilities, Juniper Networks commissioned a
third party to poll more than 1,400 Government employees. The
survey revealed most notably that 8 in 10 respondents, 79
percent, said their agency allows telework in some form. Less
than 3 in ten, 28 percent, actually do telework on a routine
basis. Routine basis is defined as more than 20 percent of
their time, or at least 1 day a week.
Additionally, although few Government respondents, 12
percent, reported that their agencies have telework training
programs, the good news is that a majority, 51 percent, said
their agencies had dedicated staff to support telework, the
critical COOP component.
In conclusion, we at Juniper Networks recognize that
implementing and promoting telework policies throughout the
Federal Government is a daunting though not futile task. The
good news is that some agencies, such as the U.S. Department of
Labor, Mine Safety, and Health Administration and the General
Services Administration are already leading the way with
infrastructure in place to enable teleworkers or have ambitious
plans to have half of eligible employees teleworking at least 1
day a week by 2010.
Private industry looks forward to helping these and other
Federal agencies in every way possible as it moves toward the
goal of enabling telework for all critical employees.
On behalf of Juniper Networks, I would like to thank you
for the opportunity to speak to the committee today.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Talcove follows:]
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Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Mr. Talcove, let me just begin with you. In your testimony
you mention that your company commissioned a survey of more
than 1,400 employees on teleworking in the Federal Government.
How many agencies did this survey cover?
Mr. Talcove. I believe it covered all Federal agencies and
the majority of State and local governments, as well.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Did the survey ask why so few
employees actually telework when given the opportunity?
Mr. Talcove. It came down to a lot of the comments that
were made by my colleagues that were testifying today. There
are concerns from a management perspective. How do you run an
operation if your employees aren't centrally located? There is
concerns about technology and infrastructure. There is concerns
about security. All those issues came up.
I can speak from my personal experience at my company,
which has about 6,000 employees, and though it is challenging,
we have overcome those obstacles and work remotely on a regular
basis.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. And so in order to promote or
further promote, what do you think we can do?
Mr. Talcove. I am going to talk from just my personal
perspective in running my organization. I think it starts at
the top. In my group it is not about being in the office 8
hours a day; it is about getting your job accomplished in a
timely fashion and meeting the metrics that we have
established.
It is also about trusting your employees to do the right
thing; that when they are not in your direct visibility--I have
an organization that is worldwide, from Washington, DC, to
California to Germany. I can't see everyone every day, and I
trust that they are going to do the right thing.
Then the third thing is the economies of real estate. Being
in the private sector, it is incredibly expensive to open
facilities. The cost of technology in telecommuting is
significantly less.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Ms. Bamesberger, let me ask you what
role has telework played in helping your company, SUN
Microsystems, recruit and retain the work force it needs?
Ms. Bamesberger. Mr. Chairman, I think Ms. Peterlin
answered that question for me. We have, over time, learned that
our initial capital is very difficult to recruit and retain. We
are in Silicone Valley. We have the famous Google stealing from
all of the companies that used to be the Silicone Valley
babies. In order to be competitive, we have had to increase our
reach to beyond just down the street, so we find our knowledge
workers from wherever we can. In order to do that, our
managers, themselves, have seen the value proposition, because
they are managed to their results and their output, they have
found that they need to be more flexible with regard to where
they hire people.
So it isn't unreasonable at all to have hiring managers
looking for people outside of the geographic area that would
make sense to commute to a location.
So we have found that it has really helped recruiting and
retention because we let the work go to the individual and not
have the individual drive to work. And we are finding that the
next generation employee is making lifestyle decisions before
they make their employer decisions. So if that is the case,
then they will be choosing where to live before they choose
where to work, in which case we would like to be prepared so
that we can capitalize on that.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you.
Mr. O'Keeffe, what level of satisfaction has your company
found as you have interacted with individuals in both the
public and private sectors relative to satisfaction among
employees who actually do telework?
Mr. O'Keeffe. We recently completed a study with the
Defense Information Systems Agency looking at its generation-
wide recruits, the average age about 26 of people coming into
Defense Information Systems Agency. So what we see there is not
necessarily their level of satisfaction historically, but the
priority they place on telework, and it is one of the three
most important factors, the ability to work where they want to.
The flexibility not with sitting in traffic, in their decision
to come work for the Federal Government.
So consistently, though, we do see that telework comes up
time and time again. Flexibility is a consistent factor in
promoting job satisfaction and promoting retention and
recruitment.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Mr. Issa.
Mr. Issa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am going to concentrate on a couple of areas of questions
that I think the first couple are going to be sort of
Government related.
Mr. Wilke, you are living in Chicago area. You work for an
entity that is Washington based. We pay a premium at the PTO
for people to work here in Washington. How does that work for
you in that you have chosen to live in an area that has a
certain cost versus the District of Columbia area?
Mr. Wilke. Well, my duty station is still Washington, DC.
Mr. Issa. Do you think that is fair to the Federal
Government that you get paid a premium for Washington, DC,
while you can live anywhere in the world at any cost? Or do you
think the Federal Government, if they allow telecommuting,
should, in fact, not pay a premium for where either you choose
to live as a high area or choose to live as a low area, that
there should be one national rate if we allow telecommuting?
Mr. Wilke. Well, I don't know about whether there should be
one national rate, but I think it would be fair to let
everybody be compensated in accordance with the cost of their
location.
Mr. Issa. Why? Why should the Federal Government subsidize
somebody's choice of where they are going to live if we are
going to have telecommuting, if we are going to pay for the
cost of wherever you choose to be? This is a private sector
question to the public, but shouldn't we essentially say we are
not going to pay a premium for where you choose to live? I
mean, you could be doing this in Maui. Would we pay a little
higher because you chose to be in Maui than if you chose to be
in Arkansas? Would you think that is fair? I happen to think
you have a lovely basement, but should I pay a difference based
on where your basement is?
Mr. Wilke. Well, in this case, if my duty station was
Chicago you would be paying a premium because Chicago is
slightly a higher cost area than Washington, DC. I am fine with
leaving it a standard rate, like you are suggesting, saying
everything is Washington; that it doesn't matter if you want to
live in a low-rent district or a high-rate district, you should
all be paid the same. And that is the way it is right now.
Mr. Issa. I guess I will go to my comparatively private
sector panel. He was very fair, considering it is his paycheck.
That is very hard to do in Government. But how would you see
that as national policy for the Federal Government? How should
we work with the differentials we pay when, in fact, that
differential may not exist if someone is allowed to not come in
at all? We are talking about people who are full-time
commuters? Mr. O'Keeffe? And I will accept how people do things
in their own company if that is the best reference.
Mr. O'Keeffe. I think PTO talked about this notion of
moving to a nationwide work force, and that is coming, and this
is one of the issues that has to be addressed as we move to
that. But I think looking at the pay differential, clearly it
has to be addressed today, but there are other factors that
need to be considered, as well.
Say, for example, we are looking at in many circumstances
the agencies don't allow this type of distributed work, and so
as those agencies need to--we talk about continuity of
operations, we talk about the challenges of recruiting, and
what you will, and so I think this needs to be factored. This
is one factor that needs to be considered as we look at a
broader remaking of the definition of duty station and the work
environment.
Mr. Issa. Ms. Bamesberger.
Ms. Bamesberger. Mr. Issa, what we do at SUN is we have
differentials based on geography. I also happen to do site
searching for the company when we plan expansions or
retrenchments, and part of the exciting move to the countries
that are lower cost had a huge wave of interest on the part of
the company in order to save money. What we found is that
hiring people in India has not necessarily proven to be so
beneficial in the long run, although the whole total cost of
being somewhere physically and then paying the salaries is
taken as a composite.
So when someone chooses to go from a high-salary location
and then they move to a lower salary, then they do actually get
the lower salary, whatever the salary is in the geographic area
they move to. If it goes in the other direction, that is up to
the manager and the employee.
Mr. Issa. OK. Mr. Talcove, how do you do it at Juniper?
Mr. Talcove. From our perspective I think there are two
issues. First of all, regardless of where the employee is
located you need to make sure that they can actually perform
their job, so if we have an employee that is located in
Washington, DC, that may be settling into the Federal
Government and they decide that they wanted to move to a place
that wouldn't be possible, obviously that wouldn't be something
that we could accommodate.
The second, and just like SUN, we do have geographical pay
differences, so the higher-cost areas, folks do get paid more
than in the lower-cost areas. In my team, I have had people
move in and out, and we change their salaries accordingly.
Mr. Issa. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
My question was actually because this feeds into another
hearing we had, which was where we found that people would
accept a duty station, for example, with the Border Patrol or
some other group, that was more expensive, and then TDY to a
lower expense. Or in my case, in southern California if you get
a duty station in San Diego you get paid more than in, let's
say, Los Angeles, well, in fact, you and your neighbor with the
Border Patrol might both live in Temecula, and we deal with the
fact that we get that complaints all the time in my office that
these differentials get gamed.
Hopefully as we go through this and write legislation, we
write it so that we in the Government can keep from having it
gamed.
I appreciate the indulgence on my question. Thank you.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Mr. Sarbanes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am intrigued by the theme I hear from I think all of you
that teleworking is not an end, it is a means to some other
new, non-traditional workplace. I wonder, you know, when we
consider the legislation one of the things we are going to be
doing is asking agencies to articulate a policy and implement
it and try to facilitate telework.
But I guess we could include the notion that as we do that
they should take pains to identify what goals of their agency
are going to be fulfilled or advanced by teleworking to make
them more conscious of its benefits--in other words, not to
simply assume the goodness of teleworking, although intuitively
we are all attracted to that, but to really think through how
this is going to benefit the agency and get it to a new place,
and telecommuting is simply a means for doing that, so maybe
you could just comment on that approach?
Ms. Bamesberger. If I may start on that one, since that is
really my theme du jour, I have worked in this domain now for a
long time, and I really have seen a huge change in terms of
resistance, in that the resistance is rapidly going away as the
benefits that are direct outcome results of what you are being
managed to do actually improve.
I mean, I have a lot of data on that. I don't know if I
have time to get into it. What we do is we don't measure the
participation; we actually measure the business outcomes, and
we will do surveys. We had data for the last 8 years on all of
our pilots, and the pre and the post-data is quite astonishing
with regard to managing to your objectives and the business
outcomes. So managing by walking around is not necessarily an
attributor to that; managing to result and having employees
feel good about the fact that the managers trust that they are
getting their work done adds a tremendous amount of loyalty and
self respect to the equation, which has incredibly positive
impact on the outcomes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Mr. Talcove, the whole continuity of
operation aspiration and goal is one that, by itself, could
drive a lot of the telecommuting progress.
Mr. Talcove. Absolutely. I totally agree with that. Having
been a former public servant--I was a city manager after I
graduated college--one of the things that struck me when I was
in that position was for the most part citizens didn't need my
services until there was a situation, a snow storm, they
couldn't get to work, they couldn't get to the hospital.
Citizens need Government most when there are surprises. It
is incredibly important, particularly in this era, that we have
the ability to communicate. Right now when you look at some of
the statistics from the different surveys that were mentioned
today, that is not available. Quite frankly, that is scary.
It is more important now than it ever was before,
particularly in the world that we live in, that we have the
opportunity to communicate and serve citizens during times of
natural disasters, or man-made disasters.
Mr. Sarbanes. Mr. O'Keeffe, you expressed impatience and
frustration with how quickly or slowly the Federal Government
is moving to where it ought to be with telecommuting. What
industry is where it should be at this point? What workplace is
the absolute model? Or does the whole society need to get
moving faster in that direction?
Mr. O'Keeffe. I'm not sure there are any perfect models,
candidly. I think that the information technology marketplace
where companies trade on their intellectual property provide an
interesting example. Clearly, there is not a one-to-one
comparison map between what the Federal Government does and
what technology companies do. I think that some of the roles
that have been designated or functions that historically have
been considered off the table in terms of telework are being
challenged.
JetBlue, for example, an airline carrier, has inbound call
centers which are distributed. So the notion of if you work in
a call center and you are accepting calls you have to come to
work, well, that is not necessarily true. You can do both
inbound and outbound work in a distributed fashion.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you very much.
Mr. Cummings.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much.
Mr. Wilke, you thought we forgot you?
Mr. Wilke. Yes.
Mr. Cummings. Let me ask you this. To set up this process,
I mean, what do you go through? I mean, what is entailed in
this and who sets it up? In other words, to create this ability
for you to communicate with your fellow employees?
Mr. Wilke. Well, the office provides me with a laptop
computer, two screens that I work from, two plasma screens. We
have a VPN. We work through a land-based cable, Comcast, that
has a line in to the office. Every day I go through a secure
changing number to log in to the servers at Alexandria, VA. All
the information is there. Really, this is like being at my desk
at home working from here.
Mr. Cummings. So then you see all these airplane
commercials that says that you can be right there because the
price is so cheap. I mean, do you see any disadvantage in not
having the face to face interaction? Well, I guess you do have
face to face, but, you know, being in the presence of another
person, of other people?
Mr. Wilke. Well, there are some disadvantages to it,
because a lot of times you want to discuss various cases and
what decisions should be made with your co-workers and with
your manager and senior attorneys. In most cases it is easy
enough to just pick up the phone to talk to them or send them
an e-mail. It is not as good, but it is just about as good.
As I was mentioning, I was a mentor for young attorneys,
and that is all done by e-mail and by phone, and it seems to
work very well.
The times you really need to come to the office are for
training, maybe trading in your equipment, or upgrading,
whatever. Maybe you have to do an argument before the Trademark
Trial and Appeal Board. Maybe you have to meet with your law
office in a group meeting for everybody to touch base once in a
while. So it is really important to get back to the office.
What is not important is just to come in as a pro forma
sort of tag-the-base kind of requirement where you come in,
stop in for the 15 minutes or half hour, and then leave,
because that requires you to take a plane trip that uses fossil
fuels. It is expensive, and essentially it is a waste of time
because you are not being productive on those days when you are
coming into the office without a real reason to be coming into
the office.
Mr. Cummings. So I take it that you, while other people may
clock in, I guess you just kind of walk down the stairs and sit
in front of your computer and turn it on, and you are instantly
at work?
Mr. Wilke. Yes. Yes, as a matter of fact. The office can
keep track of how long I have been on my computer every day if
they want. But mostly our work is tracked by how much you do.
Mr. Cummings. Yes.
Mr. Wilke. You have requirements, and if you don't get down
here and work, every 2 weeks your manager looks at that and
says, what have you been doing? So nobody really looks over my
shoulder all day.
Mr. Cummings. How long have you been doing this, this
telecommuting?
Mr. Wilke. Just for about a year now.
Mr. Cummings. OK. If you were trying to set some policies,
you know, as one who has managed people, I think one of the
things that people fear, management type fear, is that they
will lose supervisory contact with the employee, you know, the
employee go off and have a 3-hour lunch or something like that,
or goof off. I think, because it has been our tradition to
operate with folks in the office and to know that they are
there, I think it is kind of hard for some people to accept the
fact that this can work, and work very effectively.
But having had the experience that you have had, if you
were, say, one putting together a program like this, what
things would you be most concerned about? And what kind of
things would you caution, say, the Congress to be careful
about? You may not have anything. I don't know. I am just
curious.
Mr. Wilke. Well, I think that any agency that has a mission
that can be quantified where the employees have a set amount of
work to accomplish have an easy time converting to this sort of
system. That is exactly what the Patent and Trademark Office
has. Everything we do is quantifiable and measurable, and it
has been established over a number of years how much really can
be done in a reasonable time.
So getting rid of the soft requirements might be one of the
first things an agency would have to do. You would get down to
things that really have to be objectively measured as far as
work at home or telework employees would be required.
But I think that there should be some requirement that
employees come back and meet with their team members and their
other co-workers and their management to make sure everybody is
on the same page and moving forward. That is what we are
required to do, too.
So just actually scattering people across the county and
saying, OK, we will see you next year, is probably not the best
policy.
Mr. Cummings. And so just one last question, Mr. Chairman.
I just find it so fascinating that I am sitting here, and where
are you?
Mr. Wilke. I am in Long Grove, IL, just north of Chicago.
Mr. Cummings. It is fascinating that we are sitting here
and having this hearing with you on the screen, and I guess we
saved some money today, huh?
Mr. Wilke. Well, I saved some money because I didn't have
to get on United or Southwest and come into town.
Mr. Cummings. All right. But your testimony has been very
helpful, and obviously it is working for you. I take it that it
sounds like your employers don't have any complaints with what
you are doing. I think you said you won all these awards and
everything. That says a lot.
Mr. Wilke. Well, it has actually improved my performance to
be able to be here where I can also have access to my family
when they need me. I am not worried about taking a day's leave
every time I have to meet with a contractor or have a doctor's
appointment. I can work around it from here. But the geographic
extension is the real icing on the cake, and that is the kind
of thing that our agency is really in need of, especially on
the patent side, to allow people to work really where they can
best work and stay there.
Mr. Cummings. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Wilke. Thank you.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Thank you, Mr. Cummings.
You know, it sounds like the environment probably has a
great deal to do with his productivity. I mean, he is in
Illinois.
Mr. Wilke. The city of big shoulders.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Well, let me just ask you one
question, Mr. Wilke. It is pretty obvious from your responses
and your productivity that this opportunity has in many ways
enhanced your own quality of life, increased perhaps your own
productivity, and worked extremely well for you and your
family, so it has done a great deal, I think, in that sense.
What does it do for the agency?
Mr. Wilke. Well, for the agency it gives the agency the
ability to keep people that it takes years to really train a
trademark examining attorney or a patent attorney, patent
examiner, and, frankly, the private industry pays more than the
Patent Office does, so it is such a benefit to a worker to be
able to work from home that the retention rate has increased
dramatically--I think Ms. Peterlin can speak to that--since
telework was rolled out. The more it is implemented, the more
effective that is.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Would you say it is also cost
effective in terms of, I think one of our witnesses mentioned
containment, cost containment, earlier. Do you think that when
you add it all up and get the bottom line that it has been more
cost effective for the agency to have you work the way that you
work than to have you come into an office every day and do what
it is that you do?
Mr. Wilke. Absolutely. Absolutely. The trademark examining
operation, we have over 500 people, almost 400 attorneys, yet
we only occupy three floors out of those six buildings over in
Alexandria. Everybody, if we were in the office, we would still
have the same computer equipment that we are set up with at
home, so there is no difference there. But there are about 200
to 300 offices that are not used or not needed in the
Alexandria campus because of the telework program. I am just
speaking for the trademark side. It is even larger, of course,
on the patent side.
Mr. Davis of Illinois. Well, let me thank you very much. We
appreciate your being with us. And I want to thank all of our
witnesses. I think we have had a very productive morning. I
want to thank our staff for the tremendous outreach that they
have had and the recruitment that they have gone through to
make sure that we have had witnesses that could give us great
insight into this issue. We appreciate it very much.
With that, this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:45 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
[The prepared statement of Hon. Frank R. Wolf follows:]
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