Telework Best Practices: Take a Lesson From USDA

Results from the 2011 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, released late last month, found that most federal employees are not satisfied with their agency's telework program, and only a little more than one-quarter of employees are even aware of their eligibility to telework. But according to a new case study by the Telework Exchange, there's one agency that's far ahead of the game when it comes to telework implementation -- the Agriculture Department.

USDA's telework program, which began seven years ago, includes field workers, teleworkers and "mobile warriors," or those employees who work on the go from airports, hotels and on the road. The department also has increased its number of eligible teleworkers from 16,000 in 2010 to more than 58,000 in 2011 and plans to increase telework participation to 40 percent of its eligible workforce by the end of 2012.

In addition, since the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act was passed, USDA has worked to revamp its telework program, in part by creating a new, standardized telework agreement form and publishing a technical desk guide on telework, which outlines guidelines for using wireless and wi-fi connections, managing classified communications remotely and accessing network e-mail servers remotely. Telework training programs also have been revamped, and the agency plans to launch new short online training modules on telework subjects, such as teaching managers how to rethink their processes and how to take advantage of telework, the study notes.

USDA also is going above and beyond to implement a telework management system to track and report telework agreements, types of arrangements and other important statistics related to telework eligibility and participation.

Meanwhile, USDA has already seen a return on investment for its robust telework program, and its proposal for significant savings in transit subsidies each year was submitted to the White House for a Presidential SAVE Award this year, the study notes. The agency has determined that it would save more than $1 million each year if just 78 percent of eligible employees who currently receive transit subsidies opted to telework for more than one day each pay period. Overall, savings from telework at USDA are estimated to be $250 million in real estate, turnover, absenteeism and productivity, Telework Exchange found.

How does your agency's telework program stack up against USDA's? Are there any valuable lessons or best practices from USDA that could be useful at your agency?