Telework is a proven tool for recruiting and retaining top talent, cutting costs, improving productivity, and boosting employee morale, all of which begs the question: Why does telework remain underutilized by the Federal government?

Max Stier, president and CEO for the Partnership for Public Service, took on that very question during his keynote address at the Spring 2009 Telework Exchange Town Hall Meeting on April 8, in Washington D.C. He concluded that the primary underlying barriers to widespread telework adoption are not cultural resistance, technology issues, or even security, but instead are the same management issues that have chronically challenged government effectiveness.

The greatest hurdle to telework, he stated, is the government's longstanding struggle to effectively translate its mission into measurable objectives, tasks, and outcomes.

"Without a clear understanding of what the objectives are and how to measure them, and how each individual contributes to common organizational goals, there is no system in place that will allow managers to effectively determine whether someone is doing their job right – this is regardless of whether they are working in their office, at home, or from another remote location," Stier stated. "You have got to be able to answer the question: What am I trying to get done, and how do I know if I've done it?"

In fact, he said, one reason why private sector firms like IBM and Microsoft have been so successful with telework is that they have one simple metric by which all activities are easily gauged: Are they making money?

Establishing a clear set of objectives for a government organization is more complex, Stier admitted. Further, it does not help that political appointees who lead Federal agencies serve an average tenure of just 18-24 months and consequently, they are focused on and rewarded for crisis management and policy development – not for improving the long-term organizational health of the agency. "This dynamic translates into a failure to understand that talent – people are the government's most important asset," he said, noting that the creation of a U.S. Government Chief Performance Officer role in the Executive Office of the President should help to provide high-level attention to the importance of investing in metrics as a means of enabling more effective government.

Agencies that have had the greatest telework success, he pointed out,tend to have more easily defined metrics, such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Their examiners are working on tangible, easily understood deliverables that directly contribute to mission success. It is much harder to define metrics for, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which would have to measure how an individual employee is contributing to the larger goal of keeping the country safe from a range of threats and attacks.

"What's your outcome metric?" Stier asks. "It is not, how many people did you search at the airport, but how do you actively measure that in a way that you can hold folks accountable for it?"

Being able to effectively answer that question will go a long way toward helping public sector managers overcome their angst over whether an out-of-sight employee is actually working, Stier said. This kind of accountability system is what is needed for managers to not only enable effective work, but effective telework. "In order for this to work well, managers must change their current view that having someone working at their desk is a proxy for whether or not they are doing their job."

Nevertheless, Stier is optimistic that the government can rise to the challenge. "As hard as it is to measure stuff in the public sector, it is not impossible."

One metric, albeit a lagging one, that his own organization provides is the annual "Best Places to Work in the Federal Government" ratings. The survey looks at a number of indicators, including work/life balance. What this annual report ultimately provides is a measure of employee satisfaction, which Stier describes as "a pretty darn good proxy for whether or not an agency is working well."

He cited the example of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). When the survey was first conducted in 2003, FEMA, then not part of DHS, came in as the agency ranked lowest by its employees. That information clearly indicated that FEMA would not be prepared to respond to a real challenge, Stier said. "And lo and behold, we get a real challenge, Hurricane Katrina, and the agency responded inadequately."

Metrics, of course, need to be real-time and they must extend from the agency's top-line objectives to the individual workers "so that they can appreciate what the line of sight is between their activity and the common purpose of the organization," Stier said. "That is really at the heart of what you have to achieve in the government space before you are ever going to succeed in having a well-run, well-managed organization and – I would argue – whether you ever really will get to telework success."

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