If Federal employees call in sick during a potential pandemic like the recent H1N1 swine flu outbreak, who will tend to America's essential business? For some agencies, that is an easy answer: teleworkers. Those who work from home regularly are a key part of continuity of operations planning (COOP) and can play a vital role in helping organizations stay up and running when emergency situations make it impossible or undesirable to go into the office.
At this point, unfortunately, it will not be enough. Although 60 percent of Federal agencies include telework in their COOP plans, only 7.62 percent of Federal employees actually telework on a regular and recurring basis, according to the United States Office of Personnel Management's most recent "Status of Telework in the Federal Government Report to Congress."
On the day that the swine flu first began showing up in the United States, Telework Exchange officially called on public and private sector organizations to proactively adopt telework and incorporate it into their COOP plans. This step, the organization noted, is the only strategy available to achieve 100 percent effectiveness in maintaining mission-critical operations, while protecting employee health.
"Telework is not a 'break glass in case of emergency' solution," said Cindy Auten, general manager of Telework Exchange. "As households stock up on necessities and watch for school notices, organizations must embrace telework now to inoculate themselves against the current swine flu threat, as well as future emergency situations. We encourage workers across America to ask their managers about telework options now."
Telework Exchange offers a number of resources to support Federal agencies and other organizations in their COOP preparedness and telework initiatives, such as:
