United States General Services Administration

Interagency Telework Issues Working Group Subcommittee DRAFT Reports

United States Office of Personnel Management

(Revised May 10)

Existing Arrangements

• Determining eligibility criteria for telework is currently left to the discretion of agencies, since neither OPM or GSA have policy in this area.
• OPM guidance states that employees who are good candidates for telework have the following characteristics: organized, highly disciplined, conscientious, self-starter, requires minimal supervision, and at least a fully satisfactory or equivalent performance rating. In addition, OPM states that these characteristics are critical for the supervisors of employees who telecommute: comfortable with managing by results, willing to try out new arrangements, and willing to take steps needed to ensure success.
• In its telework guidance, GSA does not actually address an employee's or supervisor's eligibility criteria to participate in telework arrangements.

Areas of Concern with Existing Arrangements

• There is inequity among Federal agencies and also within agencies as to which employees are eligible to participate in telework arrangements. Since there is no Government-wide eligibility criteria, each employing agency defines its own employee eligibility criteria. Therefore, whether an employee participate in telework varies from agency to agency and often among agency sub-components.
• OPM guidance on eligibility criteria is based on general characteristics that an employee should have to be able to telework. These characteristics (organized, conscientious, highly disciplined, self-starter) are difficult to measure. Often whether the employee has these characteristics is more important than whether the work done in the job is portable or the job itself is suitable for telework.
• Since identifying which employees can participate in telework arrangements is currently a subjective process, participation in telework arrangements is impeded by how the supervisor views the employee. Generally, agencies want successful telework programs and develop eligibility criteria that is too prescriptive to the point where some employees (who would be suitable for teleworking) are excluded because of the extreme specificity of the definition of eligibility. o
• With the passage of Public Law106-346, each agency is required to establish telework policies that will allow eligible employees to telework to the maximum extent possible. Again the law did not define eligibility criteria, however, its intent was for agencies to make telework opportunities available to employees in the furthest extent possible.

Existing Flexibilities

• Currently, agencies can define their own eligibility criteria. The OPM guidance is not policy. OPM simply offers that employees who are good candidates for telework have the following characteristics: organized, highly disciplined, conscientious, self-starter, requires minimal supervision, and at least a fully satisfactory or equivalent performance rating.
• The Department of Energy's Flexiplace Program further defines an eligible employee as one who has a good understanding of the operation of his or her organization and responsibilities, e.g., worked in the organization at least 6 months and the current position at least 3 months. DOE also states that employees who should not be considered for telecommuting arrangements are: new employees, those who require close supervision, those who are dependent on interaction with co-workers and may suffer from the feeling of being isolated, or those who are dependent on resources that cannot be accessed from a remote site. Employees who need to care for a family member at home should not be eliminated from consideration unless the needs of the family member will be too distracting or preclude the employee from being productive during the hours required to be available for work. o
• The Department of Commerce's Central Administrative Support Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requires its eligible employees to possess additional characteristics: good time management and organization skills, demonstrates solid verbal and written communication skills, finds satisfaction in completing tasks on his or her own, and solves many of his/her own problems.

Possible New Approaches

• Although being able to telework is not an employee benefit or entitlement, OPM could define eligibility criteria as a universal, covering all Federal employees, but with certain exclusions identified (for example, employees on temporary or probationary appointments, or those with unsatisfactory ratings). OPM defines a Federal employee's eligibility for benefits under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and the Federal Employees Life Insurance Program in this manner.
• Eligibility criteria could be based exclusively on the employee's position of record, also taking into account that any job may have a portion of its duties or tasks that are portable and therefore qualifying for telework.
• Continue to allow individual agencies to define eligibility criteria for their telework programs, as long as an agency's eligibility criteria is equitable, reasonable and understandable. Since determining who is eligible to participate in telework is a subjective process, it should be left with agency management to resolve in an equitable basis. The fact that eligibility criteria might vary from agency to agency should not be a problem.

Recommendations

• We recommend that OPM establish policy that all Federal employees are potentially eligible to participate in telework, unless excluded by their agency based on their position of record, type of appointment, current performance rating, or other objective criteria that is equitable, reasonable and understandable.
• We recommend that OPM require each individual agency to identify and define its exclusions (of its workforce that may not participate in telework arrangements) in its telework policy.

References Used:

www.opm.gov/wrkfam/telecomm.policies.htm
http://policyworks.gov/org/main/mp/library/policydocs/manual5.htm
www.ma.doe.gov/pol/doeflex.html
CASC Policy for Telecommuting Program

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