December 7, 2007—Following GSA Administrator Lurita Doan’s call to be a leader in federal government telework, US General Service Administration (GSA) officials have begun making public appearances aimed at promoting the numerous benefits that telework would bring to the environment and the federal workforce.
At the same time, GSA has begun preliminary steps to meet Doan’s “Telework Challenge,” which calls for 50 percent of the agency’s eligible workforce to be teleworking by the end of the decade.
Among the benefits of teleworking that GSA cites are: reduced energy use, fewer greenhouse gas emissions, less traffic, less US dependence on foreign oil, increased worker productivity, and savings for American taxpayers.
GSA hopes to demonstrate to its agency clients how to balance the tricky issues of cost, security, and employee productivity while resolving technical challenges involved in reaching GSA’s target. GSA is starting with the assumption that specific job positions are eligible for teleworking unless supervisors document that they are not.
In September, GSA managers were challenged to draw up plans to enable 50 percent of eligible employees to telework one or more days per week by 2010. Currently 10 percent of eligible agency employees telework, compared to 4.2 percent for the overall federal workforce. Doan noted the benefits of telework warrant an aggressive internal campaign.
In addition to working with the Office of Personnel Management to expand and improve federal teleworking, GSA is developing policy and guidance in areas such as alternative office and space savings, continuation of operations planning, the use of telework centers as an alternative to working at home, and the revision of laws to facilitate telework.
For more information see GSA’s Telework Overview Web page.
