High-Tech Defense Office Takes Lead On Telecommuting

Penkoske said officials will be paying special attention to network security and to productivity measures to ensure that employees keep up with their workloads.

Theresa Noll, a senior telework program analyst at the General Services Administration, said research has found that telecommuting programs help agencies retain workers and maintain or improve their productivity.

In contrast, she noted, "it's widely recognized in all managerial circles that when you lose employees or significant parts of your workforce, there is a break in productivity."

Although DISA anticipates that telecommuting will help it keep employees, Penkoske said that telework should also aid in recruiting the next generation of workers, who, by most accounts, are keen on employers that offer flexible work arrangements.

The agency hires about 100 recent college graduates as interns each year and spends $60,000 to $70,000 over three years to train them, an investment that the agency is not eager to lose, Penkoske said.

Terry Holzheimer, director of economic development for Arlington County, said officials are looking to partner with the federal or state government to set up a telework center for DISA employees in Crystal City as they near their 2011 deadline for moving to Fort Meade, where the military plans to build a 1 million-square-foot building for DISA.

"It is one thing to lose the jobs. We don't really want to lose the people," Holzheimer said. "Taking that many people off the Metro and disrupting their lives and commuting patterns is not good public policy."

Setting up a telework center in Crystal City would provide a workplace for DISA employees on those days they do not have to be at Fort Meade or for days when they have meetings at the Pentagon, he said.

Penkoske said DISA is looking into providing daily buses "from different places" in Northern Virginia to Fort Meade so that employees can have a mass transit option for getting to work. DISA also will help employees sell and buy homes if they decide to relocate to Maryland, he said.

Unknown, of course, is how many DISA employees will move, how many will try telecommuting, and how many will quit and take jobs with other government agencies and contractors.

"My sense is that many will make that decision in 2008," Penkoske said.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.