By Stephen Barr
Thursday, September 13, 2007
For several years, the General Services Administration has urged other federal agencies to set up telecommuting programs. Now, the GSA plans a big push on its home turf.
Lurita A. Doan, the GSA administrator, yesterday called on her agency to dramatically increase the number of employees who can work one or more days per week from home or from a regional telework center.
About 10 percent of the GSA's eligible employees telecommute, and Doan said she would like to see that number jump to 50 percent by 2010. She laid out interim goals to increase the number of GSA telecommuters to 20 percent by the end of 2008 and 40 percent by the end of '09.
"It won't be easy," Doan said at a forum sponsored by the Telework Exchange, a public-private group that promotes telecommuting. But she said the benefits, such as reduced energy use and less traffic, warranted an aggressive effort by the GSA to lead by example.
The GSA and the Office of Personnel Management have increasingly pushed telecommuting in recent years, in part because they believe they can help agencies cope with emergencies and catastrophic events that shut down main offices.
But many federal managers have shown little enthusiasm for the program, in part because they are concerned about data security, equipment and software costs, office staffing, and employee productivity. About 4 percent of the federal workforce telecommutes, the GSA estimates.
In a telephone interview, Doan said the GSA would use annual employee performance evaluations to review the nature of their jobs and whether they are suitable for telecommuting. Managers will enter a code on each employee's record "as to whether they are eligible for telework," she said.
The GSA, which has about 12,000 employees, manages about a quarter of the government's procurement spending and provides buildings, cars and office supplies to federal agencies.
Doan said some GSA employees will be able to work from home, while others may go to telework centers because they need a more secure system for handling sensitive information.
"What we're looking for is maximum flexibility, and that is what we believe is the key to success," she said.
Although many federal managers are wary of telecommuting, studies have found that it does not reduce employee productivity or the quality of work, she said. She noted that telework programs are "structured and disciplined," with employees signing contracts that can include fixed working times.
So far, relatively few managers have signed up for trial runs in the GSA's 14 telework centers, which provide computer work stations, copying machines, telephones and other equipment. Most of them are outside the Beltway, in Maryland or Virginia. Doan said she believes that if skeptical managers give telecommuting a try, their concerns will fade.
At the Telework Exchange forum, Doan said the GSA looks forward to working with Congress on expanding the number of federal employees who are deemed eligible for telecommuting by their agencies.
Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), who has urged agencies to set up telecommuting programs, called Doan's plan for GSA "a great idea," adding that her initiative "is a good thing for the whole government. I salute it and commend it."
Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) said expanding telework opportunities is a way "to reduce carbon emissions and traffic gridlock and to improve quality of life and recruitment efforts in the federal workforce."
The House recently approved, as part of an energy bill, a Sarbanes measure that would encourage agencies to allow as many employees to telecommute as possible, as along as the effort did not prove disruptive to the agency's mission.
Stephen O'Keefe, executive director of the Telework Exchange, called Doan's plan "very encouraging."
"I think it is great to see the government, at the highest level, sign up to tangible telework goals," he said.
Doan acknowledged that she has set "an incredibly aggressive and ambitious goal" for the agency but said the GSA should be able to achieve it "if we are very disciplined in our approach."
Asked if she would be working at home at least one day a week, Doan did not rule it out but noted that she travels frequently to GSA field offices and carries three BlackBerrys. "So I do telework inherently," she said.
Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.