Human Capital: Key Practices to Increasing Federal Telework	 
(08-JUL-04, GAO-04-950T).					 
                                                                 
Telework has received significant attention in Congress and the  
executive branch and is an increasingly popular flexibility among
federal employees. In July 2003 GAO reported on the use of	 
telework in the federal government (GAO-03-679). Not only is	 
telework an important flexibility from the perspective of	 
employees, it has also become a critical management tool for	 
coping with potential disruptions in the workplace, including	 
terrorism. This statement highlights key practices GAO research  
identified as important to implementing successful telework	 
initiatives. The statement then discusses efforts to coordinate  
and promote telework, and concludes with a review of OPM's May	 
2004 telework report.						 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-04-950T					        
    ACCNO:   A10849						        
  TITLE:     Human Capital: Key Practices to Increasing Federal       
Telework							 
     DATE:   07/08/2004 
  SUBJECT:   Counterterrorism					 
	     Education or training				 
	     Emergency preparedness				 
	     Information technology				 
	     Terrorism						 
	     Training utilization				 

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GAO-04-950T

United States General Accounting Office

                                 GAO Testimony

Before the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives

For Release on Delivery
Expected at 10:00 a.m. EDT HUMAN CAPITAL
Thursday, July 8, 2004

                  Key Practices to Increasing Federal Telework

Statement of Christopher Mihm Managing Director, Strategic Issues

                                       a

GAO-04-950T

Highlights of GAO-04-950T, a report to Chairman, Committee on Government
Reform, U.S. House of Representatives

Telework has received significant attention in Congress and the executive
branch and is an increasingly popular flexibility among federal employees.
In July 2003 GAO reported on the use of telework in the federal government
(GAO-03-679). Not only is telework an important flexibility from the
perspective of employees, it has also become a critical management tool
for coping with potential disruptions in the workplace, including
terrorism.

This statement highlights key practices GAO research identified as
important to implementing successful telework initiatives. The statement
then discusses efforts to coordinate and promote telework, and concludes
with a review of OPM's May 2004 telework report.

This testimony includes no new recommendations, but it does underscore
prior GAO recommendations to which additional attention is needed. GAO has
encouraged individual agency leaders to make use of all appropriate
administrative authorities available to them, such as the telework
initiative, to manage their people for results.

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-950T.

To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact J. Christopher Mihm at (202)
512-6806 or [email protected].

July 8, 2004

HUMAN CAPITAL

Key Practices to Increasing Federal Telework

Much work remains to ensure that federal employees have the opportunity to
telework. While individual agencies, the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM), and the General Services Administration (GSA) are making progress,
each has a role to play in expanding the use of this flexibility. Federal
agencies can do more to ensure that as many employees as appropriate are
provided an opportunity to participate in telework. The testimony
highlights:

o  	To help agencies develop and implement a successful telework program,
GAO identified a set of key practices for the implementation of successful
telework programs at the agency level in our July 2003 report. However,
some of the practices in particular merited additional attention from the
agencies we examined. For example, agencies we studied had not provided
full funding to meet the needs of their telework programs, nor had all
established eligibility criteria to ensure that teleworkers were selected
on an equitable basis. Obtaining support from top management for telework,
addressing managerial resistance to the flexibility, and providing
training and information on the telework program were also identified as
challenges at the agencies we examined.

o  	As lead agencies for the governmentwide telework initiative, both GSA
and OPM offer services and resources to support and encourage telework in
the federal government. GAO noted in its July 2003 report that although
OPM and GSA share responsibilities for the governmentwide telework
initiative, past efforts were not well coordinated. In an October 2003
letter describing progress made since the issuance of the GAO report, GSA
and OPM reported that a number of actions had been taken to improve
coordination. The letter notes that the agencies signed a memorandum of
understanding to reflect their unified approach to implementing telework.
Revisions to the telework Web site were also noted in the letter,
including the posting of a revised telework guide for managers.
Additionally, training modules for managers and employees were developed.
GAO did not evaluate how well coordinated efforts have been since the
issuance of the July 2003 report.

o  	OPM's May 2004 telework report indicated that the percentage of
eligible employees teleworking did not increase between 2002 and 2003,
remaining at approximately 14 percent. This outcome, in light of the
increased action taken by OPM and GSA, suggests that individual agencies,
OPM, and GSA should seek to more fully understand the barriers to telework
and take action to remove those barriers.

Chairman Davis, Mr. Waxman, and Members of the Committee:

Telework, at times referred to as "telecommuting" or "flexiplace," has
gained widespread attention over the past decade in both the public and
private sectors as a human capital flexibility that offers a variety of
potential benefits to employers, employees, and society. The term telework
refers to work that is performed at an employee's home or at a work
location other than their traditional office. Mr. Chairman, at your
request we reported almost 1 year ago on the progress federal agencies
have made in implementing telework initiatives and identified a set of key
practices that agencies can use to develop and strengthen their telework
programs.1

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, there is
growing awareness of the importance of telework as a critical management
tool for coping with potential disruptions in the workplace, including
terrorism. Disruption of normal operations challenges an organization to
use the dedication and flexibility of its people to its advantage. We
reported in April 2004 that organizations may use approaches such as
telework to increase the ways in which employees may contribute to the
organization in the event of a disruption.2

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) May 2003 guide on implementing
telework noted that the ability to telework has been, and will continue to
be, important in times of emergency situations. OPM suggests, and our work
confirms, that agencies should make telework part of their continuity of
operations planning. OPM's guide advises that part of planning for the use
of telework in an emergency situation can include conducting an inventory
of equipment, discussing contingency plans with staff, and periodically
assessing emergency procedures. Additionally, the guide proposes that
routine emergency exercises be held to assess the potential effectiveness
of emergency plans, including plans for teleworking.

A General Services Administration (GSA) report, published in 2000,
likewise notes that unplanned work stoppages caused by disasters or

1U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Further Guidance,
Assistance, and Coordination Can Improve Federal Telework Efforts,
GAO-03-679 (Washington, D.C.: July 18, 2003).

2U.S. General Accounting Office, Human Capital: Opportunities to Improve
Federal Continuity Planning Guidance, GAO-04-384 (Washington, D.C.: Apr.
20, 2004).

weather shutdowns can be overcome by the use of telework. The GSA report
describes telework as a practical strategy that serves both emergency
response and emergency preparedness functions. As an emergency response
strategy, GSA notes that telework can be used to put disrupted
organizations and their employees back in a work status prior to the
actual resolution of the cause of the work stoppage.

Since maximizing performance and assuring accountability are at the heart
of our mission at GAO, we believe it is our responsibility to lead by
example, especially in the human capital area. On June 21, 2004, we
completed revisions to the telework program available to GAO employees.
This revision provides our staff the opportunity to apply to telework on
an episodic, short-term, or continual basis.

My statement today will first provide an overview of key practices our
research identified as important to implementing successful telework
efforts. Next, I will discuss our past analysis of OPM and GSA efforts to
coordinate and promote telework in the federal government, and discuss how
that coordination has improved. Finally, I will comment on the issues
raised in OPM's May 2004 report titled The Status of Telework in the
Federal Government.

  Implementation of Key Telework Practices Can Ensure Successful Agency Programs

Overall, telework has received significant attention in Congress and the
executive branch and is an increasingly popular flexibility among federal
employees. Federal employees' interest in telework has been highlighted in
a number of studies. For example, based on its 2000 Merit Principles
Survey, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board reported that, of all the
family-friendly programs studied, telework showed the greatest gap between
importance and availability. According to a more recent survey, OPM's 2002
Federal Human Capital Survey, almost 74 percent of federal employee
respondents said that telework was at least somewhat important to them.
Despite this level of importance, more than 59 percent of the respondents
reported that this flexibility was not available to them. We have reported
that much of the authority agency leaders need to manage their people
strategically already is available under current laws and regulations and
we have encouraged leaders to make use of all appropriate

administrative authorities available to them, such as the telework
initiative, to manage their people for results.3

To help agencies develop a successful telework program, we identified a
set of key practices for the implementation of successful telework
programs (see fig. 1). Regular attention to these practices can help to
foster program growth and remove barriers to telework participation. In
October 2003, OPM and GSA reported they distributed these practices to
agency telework coordinators and recommended that agencies use them to
self-assess their programs. These practices are:

3U.S. General Accounting Office, High-Risk Series: Strategic Human Capital
Management, GAO-03-120 (Washington, D.C.: January 2003).

Figure 1: Key Telework Practices for Implementation of Successful Federal
Telework Programs

         Program planning  o  Designate a telework coordinator.  o  Establish 
         a cross-functional project team, including, for example, information 
          technology (IT), union representatives, and other stakeholders.  o  
                  Establish measurable telework program goals.  o  Develop an 
         implementation plan for the telework program.  o  Develop a business 
        case for implementing a telework program.  o  Provide funding to meet 
            the needs of the telework program.  o  Establish a pilot program. 
             Telework policy  o  Establish an agencywide telework policy.  o  
                Establish eligibility criteria to ensure that teleworkers are 
         selected on an equitable basis using criteria such as suitability of 
                    tasks and employee performance.  o  Establish policies or 
        requirements to facilitate communication among teleworkers, managers, 
              and coworkers.  o  Develop a telework agreement for use between 
          teleworkers and their managers.  o  Develop guidelines on workplace 
            health and safety issues to ensure that teleworkers have safe and 
                                            adequate places to work off-site. 
                  Performance management  o  Ensure that the same performance 
         standards, derived from a modern, effective, credible, and validated 
                performance system, are used to evaluate both teleworkers and 
          nonteleworkers.  o  Establish guidelines to minimize adverse impact 
           on nonteleworkers before employees begin to work at alternate work 
                                                                       sites. 
              Managerial support  o  Obtain support from top management for a 
             telework program.  o  Address managerial resistance to telework. 
             Training and publicizing  o  Train all involved, including, at a 
            minimum, managers and teleworkers.  o  Inform workforce about the 
                                                            telework program. 
             Technology  o  Conduct assessment of teleworker and organization 
                   technology needs.  o  Develop guidelines about whether the 
                  organization or employee will provide necessary technology, 
          equipment, and supplies for telework.  o  Provide technical support 
           for teleworkers.  o  Address access and security issues related to 
              telework.  o  Establish standards for equipment in the telework 
                                                                 environment. 
             Program evaluation  o  Establish processes, procedures, and/or a 
        tracking system to collect data to evaluate the telework program.  o  
           Identify problems and/or issues with the telework program and make 
                                                     appropriate adjustments. 

Source: GAO-03-679.

Our telework report discusses these practices in more detail and provides
illustrations of their implementation. We found that individual agencies

may need additional guidance, guidelines, and/or individualized technical
support to fully implement these practices.4 For example, agencies we
studied had not established program goals, provided full funding to meet
the needs of their telework programs, nor had all established eligibility
criteria to ensure that teleworkers were selected on an equitable basis.
Obtaining support from top management for telework, addressing managerial
resistance to the flexibility, and providing training and information on
the telework program were also identified as challenges at the agencies we
examined.

  OPM and GSA Are Working to Coordinate Their Efforts to Help Agencies Meet
  Statutory Telework Requirements

A statutory framework for the use of telework in the executive branch
began to develop in 1990. The framework includes requirements for agencies
to take certain actions related to telework, provides agencies with tools
for supporting telework, and designates leadership roles for OPM and GSA
in governmentwide implementation efforts. The most significant piece of
legislation, passed in 2000, requires each executive branch agency to
establish a telework policy "under which eligible employees of the agency
may participate in telecommuting to the maximum extent possible without
diminished employee performance."5 OPM issued guidance in 2001 related to
the implementation of this law. However, that guidance did not include a
specific definition of what it meant to provide eligible employees the
opportunity to telework. After we discussed this issue with OPM officials,
they reacted promptly by issuing new telework guidelines that defined the
difference between identifying which positions are eligible to telework
and informing employees they have the opportunity to telework.

As lead agencies for the governmentwide telework initiative, both GSA and
OPM offer services and resources to support and encourage telework in the
federal government. Some of the services are offered jointly by GSA and
OPM; some are offered individually by both agencies; and others are
offered uniquely by either OPM or GSA. Our report found that although OPM
and GSA share responsibilities for the governmentwide telework initiative,
past efforts were not well coordinated. To illustrate the lack of
coordination, a GSA official told us that agencies had expressed concern

4We did our detailed work at four agencies: the Department of Education,
GSA, OPM, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

5Section 359 of the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies
Appropriations Act, 2002, Pub. L. No. 106-346 (Oct. 23, 2000).

about conflicting messages they received from OPM and GSA on several
topics, including dependent care. Officials from both agencies confirmed
that there were different policies at the time of our review. GSA's
position was that employees could care for dependents when teleworking, as
long as it does not interfere with accomplishing tasks, while OPM's
position was, until recently, that dependents should not be in the home
when an employee was teleworking. After discussing the conflicting
messages with OPM officials, OPM revised its position in new telework
guidelines it released shortly thereafter. These guidelines state that
while teleworkers should not generally be engaged in caregiving activities
when working at home, teenagers or elderly dependents might be at home
when the employee is teleworking, as long as those dependents are
independently pursuing their own activities.

Our report recommended that the Administrator, GSA, and the Director, OPM
ensure that offices with responsibility for the governmentwide telework
initiative better coordinate efforts to provide federal agencies with
consistent support and guidance related to telework. To accomplish this we
suggested that the agencies clearly delineate their responsibilities for
this initiative. After we discussed the issues created by a lack of
coordination between GSA and OPM with both agencies, a GSA official
indicated that the two agencies had a new commitment to coordination. We
have not evaluated how this commitment has manifested itself in the past
year since the issuance of our report. However, such a commitment reflects
a promising start for better assisting federal agencies in improved
implementation of their telework programs. We reported that the key to
success will be sustained efforts by both agencies to work together in
assisting agencies and providing consistent and straightforward guidance,
services, and resources on the governmentwide telework initiative.

In an October 14, 2003, letter describing progress made since the issuance
of our report to you, Chairman Davis, GSA, and OPM reported that a number
of actions had been taken to improve coordination. The letter notes that
the agencies signed a memorandum of understanding to reflect their unified
approach to implementing telework. Revisions to the telework Web site were
also noted in the letter, including the posting of a revised telework
guide for managers. Additionally, training modules for managers and
employees were developed and are available through www.golearn.gov, the
federal government's e-training Web site.

  OPM Reports That the Percentage of Eligible Employees Who Actually Telecommute
  Has Not Increased

In May of this year, OPM released its annual report, titled The Status of
Telework in the Federal Government, summarizing the findings from its
October 2003 survey of federal agencies. According to OPM, 74 agencies
responded to the survey. The OPM report identified a number of findings
from its 2003 survey.

o 	The percentage of telework-eligible employees grew from 35 percent in
2002 to 43 percent in 2003. This translates to a change from 625,313
employees in 2002 to 751,844 employees in 2003.

o 	Sixty-nine percent of teleworkers have their primary place of duty
outside the greater Washington D.C. area. Comparatively, 84 percent of the
federal workforce is located outside the greater Washington D.C. area.

o 	Use of federal telework centers declined by 5 percent from 2002 to
2003, despite the availability of increased funding. This translates to a
change from 459 users in 2002 to 435 users in 2003.

Importantly, the report indicated that the percentage of eligible
employees actually taking advantage of telework remained roughly stable
between 2002 and 2003 at approximately 14 percent. The number of employees
increased from 90,010 in 2002 to 102,921 in 2003, while the percentage of
eligible employees actually taking advantage of telework remained at 14
percent because of the increase in the number of employees eligible to
telework, despite the efforts of GSA and OPM that are cited in OPM's
report. For example, OPM reported that it and GSA provided assistance to
agencies in which 2 percent or fewer employees telecommute, including help
in developing policies, providing workshops, and developing promotion
materials. Training modules, a video, and materials for agency
publications were also developed for all agencies to use. The lack of
growth in the percentage of employees teleworking, in light of the
increased action taken, suggests that each agency, OPM, and GSA should
seek to more fully understand the barriers to telework and take action to
remove those barriers.

The OPM report additionally described in some detail the nature of agency
telework policies. According to survey respondents, telework policies are
in place in 73 of the 74 agencies that completed the survey. OPM
acknowledges, however, that the presence of a policy does not provide a
viable telework program. Survey results indicate that only 34 agencies

have a procedure in place for giving employees formal notification of
their eligibility to telework. The report also notes that 52 agencies have
established a minimum performance rating for teleworkers that would
provide a clear indication to employees regarding whether they are
eligible to telework and 36 agencies specify occupations in which telework
can or cannot be used. Additionally, it was noted that 46 agencies provide
for telework for employees with health problems and 46 allow employees to
use alternative work schedules in conjunction with telework.

In conclusion, much work remains to be done to ensure that federal
employees have the opportunity to telework. While progress is being made
by agencies, OPM, and GSA, all have a role to play in expanding the use of
this flexibility and more work remains to be done. Specifically, the
recent OPM report shows that federal agencies can do more to ensure that
as many employees as appropriate are provided an opportunity to
participate in telework. Telework should be viewed as a key tool in an
agency's effort to manage its human capital strategically, and implemented
as an investment in the organization's people and the agency's capacity to
perform its mission. The telework practices that we identified and
distributed by OPM and GSA should assist agencies in strengthening their
telework efforts.

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Waxman, and members of the committee, this completes my
statement. I would be pleased to respond to any questions that you might
have.

  Contacts and Acknowledgments

(450335)

For further information on this testimony, please contact J. Christopher
Mihm, Managing Director, Strategic Issues, (202) 512-6806 or at
[email protected]. Individuals making key contributions to this testimony
include Boris Kachura, Ellen V. Rubin, Joyce Corry, Ellen Grady, and
Tiffany Tanner.

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