Bigger threat: National crises or unprepared managers?

More than 90 percent of federal employees believe it is important that they continue working during a national emergency or natural disaster, according to a recently released survey about continuity of operations and teleworking.

The survey, conducted by the Government Business Council, the research division of Government Executive Media Group, and CDW Government LLC, revealed that more than half of federal workers could function remotely for more than six days, and an additional 20 percent could accomplish critical tasks from an alternate location for as many as five days.

“Federal employees want to get the job done, no matter the circumstance,” said Andy Lausch, vice president of federal sales for CDW-G. “Today more than ever, federal employees rely on mobility for seamless business operations. In turn, federal agencies can better enable employees by creating secure virtual work environments and outfitting employees with the tools they need to make remote work possible, even under challenging circumstances.”

While the majority of the randomly sampled federal employees reported being willing and able to work remotely during a crisis, 31 percent said telework eligibility requirements and lack of coordination among agency decisionmakers have prevented their agency from being better prepared to continue operations. Sixty-two percent expressed concern that communications technology such as cell phones and wired phones would not work, and approximately 50 percent said they worried that data would not be accessible remotely, and that servers or networks would be overloaded.

Government lags behind industry in telework opportunities

Telework: The future is on hold

Telework: Senate gives unanimous thumbs up

Although the vast majority federal workers expressed the desire to telework during an emergency, a FedScoop survey reveals that only 23 percent of federal IT workers reported telecommuting exclusively or regularly, while an additional 27 percent of federal IT employees said they weren’t allowed to telework at all.

FedScoop polled 110 federal and 67 industry IT workers about their thoughts on telework, and reported that 93 percent of all managers surveyed were satisfied with work done remotely. The report added that 93 percent of federal government sector employees said the opportunity to telework would make working for an organization more desirable; 95 percent of the feds surveyed have a generally favorable opinion of telework.

FedScoop said the results showed that agencies aren’t “capitalizing on telework opportunities to the same extent as private sector organizations, and perceived organizational values may be affected.”