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Welcome, today is Thursday, September 2, 2010 |
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The Telework Exchange is an online
community focused on eliminating
telework gridlock. The Telework Exchange
focuses on demonstrating the value of
Federal telework, promoting telework best
practices, and measuring Federal agencies’
progress on telework requirements.
Online and On a Mission
The Telework Exchange Web site is
designed to create an online community
for Federal workers already teleworking,
and for those waiting in the wings.
In an effort to show the value of
teleworking, the Telework Exchange
recently unveiled new features on its
Web site: the Telework Dividend
Calculator and Water Cooler forums.
The Telework Dividend Calculator tallies
the savings from Federal telework, adds
up the environmental dividends, and
tracks how well Federal agencies are
meeting teleworking mandates. Where
do these numbers come from? When a
Federal employee registers with the
Continued below
The mission of the Telework
Exchange is to enable future
telework initiatives by facilitating
discussions between Federal
teleworkers, Federal managers,
and IT professionals regarding
telework strategies, technologies,
and best practices.
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The average commuter in the Washington,
D.C., Metropolitan area spends 69 hours
sitting in traffic each year, consuming
54 gallons of fuel and spending $600 in
congestion costs*, according to the Texas
Transportation Institute’s most recent
statistics, cited by the U.S. Department
of Transportation. These costs would be
avoided if commuters were able to travel
at posted speeds.
For the region’s 343,000 Federal
civilian employees and 262,000 Defense
employees – and all 1.77 million Federal
employees nationwide – a congressional
mandate introduced in 2000 should have
lessened the commuter gridlock. The
mandate – included in Public Law (PL)
106-346 – required Federal agencies to
provide all eligible Federal employees
with the option to telework by 2005,
thereby decreasing the time and money
they spend sitting in traffic.
However, recent research by CDW
Government, Inc. (CDW-G), a leading
provider of Information Technology
(IT) solutions to the
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Federal government, showed that most Federal employees are
still stuck in their daily commutes because
agencies are not meeting the telework
mandate. In April 2005, CDW-G found
that just 20 percent of Federal employees
were teleworking, up one percent from
January 2005.
CDW-G’s research showed that even
the threat of $5 million fines for not
allowing telework did not spur broader
adoption. PL 108-447, the Consolidated
Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year
2005, included fines for the Departments
of Commerce, Justice, and State, the
Small Business Administration, and the
Securities and Exchange Commission if
they did not allow 100 percent of eligible
employees to telework by 2005. Despite
the requirement, the percentage of
Federal employees eligible to telework
remained unchanged between January
and April, at 51 percent.
The vast majority of Federal employees
want to telework, however. The CDW-G
Continued below
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Teleworker: Norma Costa,
Emergency Management Assistant in the
Response & Recovery Division
Agency: Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA),
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Norma Costa joined FEMA three and
a half years ago. She commutes into
Boston from Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
Norma regularly teleworks several times
a month, and also during inclement
weather. She also travels to nuclear
power plants and other FEMA sites.
Because she can work outside of her
office, she does not miss a beat or a
keystroke. To be eligible for teleworking,
she took a four-week training course
offered by her agency. At FEMA,
employees are encouraged to telework.
Q. When you are not teleworking, how
long is your commute?
A. I work in the downtown Boston office
of FEMA. I start my day at 4:30 a.m. I
leave at 5:00 a.m. to get the 5:35 a.m.
train to work. I am in the office at 6:30
a.m. and work until 4:00 p.m. each day.
I get home around 5:45 p.m.
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Q. How does teleworking affect your
travel schedule?
A. Telework is good for travel time.
A couple times per year, I serve as a
radiological emergency preparedness
(REP) evaluator for nuclear power plant
drills. These drills start somewhere in New
England generally late in the afternoon
on a Monday. Teleworking lets me work
at home in the morning before I leave;
that way I do not have to go in and out
of the office and get stuck in city traffic.
Q. How do you keep up with managers
and colleagues at FEMA?
A. I use e-mail and mobile phones to
keep in touch, and of course, a laptop
computer. For meetings, we all use
teleconference calls.
Q. In your opinion, what are the benefits
of teleworking?
A. You get a lot done. Telework improves
morale and increases productivity. When
it is snowing outside, I opt to telework.
That way, when the government gets
out early, I do not lose any time driving
home. Teleworking has been a very
positive experience for me, and for
FEMA in return. I can get more
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done in a quiet environment and have plenty of room
to spread out materials. It is a great
“feel-good” perk too. There is nothing
like avoiding the commute in a bad
snowstorm. Instead, you work in the
warm comfort of your home, or you can
glance out the window to look at beautiful
trees and flowers in the nice weather. By
teleworking, I am a happy and productive
worker – a win/win situation for me and
my employer.
Q. Do you feel that your remote
computer network is secure?
A. Yes. FEMA is very strict and I feel very
confident in secure access to the network.
Q. How do your managers handle the
performance of teleworkers?
A. We have performance reviews and
quarterly work plans. Managers set goals
for employees to meet. It is very effective.
Q. Can you recall an instance when
having the option to telework proved
invaluable?
A. Last year, I commuted into Boston
around the time of the Super Bowl. Patriot
fans were out in force. The train was
absolutely packed with fans and workers
trying to get home that evening. I tried
to leave around 2:00 p.m. and it took me
forever to get home. During this year’s
Super Bowl, I teleworked. Since I had
the flexibility to work from home, I
didn’t have to worry about the extra long
commute home or having to leave work
early.
Q. How did you turn your home into
an office?
A. I turned my den into a combination
den/office for teleworking. It already
had all the basics I would need -
telephone, bookcases, printer, scanner,
fax, and a computer, complete with
broadband for easy access. An added
plus is the comfortable couch for reading
materials.
Are you interested in telling your story?
Please send your teleworking story to
info@teleworkexchange.com.
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By Alfred Toussaint, Intel Corporation
As telework initiatives continue to gain
momentum in the Federal government,
managers are confounded by how to
provide secure and economical telework
solutions for their eligible staff,
while maintaining productivity and
performance. Federal managers are not
concerned with where you work or when
you work, but how you can work in a
secure and productive environment.
Why Now?
Based on Federal regulations, agencies
must provide telework options to eligible
employees. Congressman Frank Wolf
(R-VA) is continuing to push for increased
telework opportunities for Federal
workers through his work on the House
of Representatives Appropriations
Subcommittee. As recently as June
2005, the Subcommittee approved a
version of the Science-State-Justice-
Commerce appropriations bill that
includes language requiring several
agencies to prove the number of
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teleworkers in their agencies is increasing,
or risk losing funding.
Why Telework?
The notion of teleworking was born from
increasing traffic congestion problems.
With traffic getting worse each year, the
Texas Transportation Institute estimates
Washington, DC commuters spend 69
hours sitting in traffic each year -
ranking the city as the third worst
congested city in the nation behind
Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Perhaps an even more compelling driver
for telework is the Federal government’s
need to deliver a fail-over infrastructure
to ensure continuity of operations (COOP)
during inclement weather or in the event
of a natural or man-made disaster.
Telework enables this. For example,
focused on productivity and enhancing
COOP, Intel Corporation made the
decision to move 80 percent of its
employees to mobile PCs. This enabled
Intel to avoid significant disruption of its
worldwide operations during the SARS
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epidemic in Asia Pacific, the Pacific
Northwest blizzard of January 2004, and
a water main break at its largest facility
in Folsom, CA.
Federal agencies’ personnel retention and
recruiting crises are well documented.
Studies by CDW Government, Inc., a
trusted technology advisor to government
agencies, and other respected
organizations show that the work/life
balance advantages of telework are
important to Federal employees -
and the telework option can provide
government significant dividends in
recruiting the best and the brightest.
The private sector has made telework
options so common that they are now
expected by the workforce. The Federal
government must compete on this level.
What’s in Store for the Future?
The move to mobility, like many
compelling technologies, has become
an unstoppable force. Intel anticipates
Continued below
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Wireless connectivity and some features may require you to purchase additional software, services or external hardware. System performance, battery life, wireless performance and functionality will
vary depending on your specific hardware and software configurations. See http://www.intel.com/products/centrino/more_info for more information. © 2004 Intel Corporation. Intel, Intel Inside, the Intel
Inside logo, the Intel Centrino logo, and Intel Centrino are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All rights reserved.
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Continued from above
Telework Exchange, they are asked basic
questions: number of roundtrip miles
commuted to work or avoided commuting
by teleworking, number of days worked,
number of days teleworked, and type
of car driven. The calculators empower
Federal employees to understand the
personal cost of commuting and telework
savings - as a raw figure and a
percentage of after-tax income.
The Water Cooler is a place where
Telework Exchange members can meet
virtually to talk about issues and share
best practices about working outside
traditional office environments. To help
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users find what they are looking for,
there are targeted discussion groups for
Federal teleworkers, Federal managers,
and IT professionals. By checking into the
Water Cooler, users can communicate
easily with peers about topics of mutual
interest. Topics include:
- How to justify teleworking to management
- How to manage telework employees
- How to secure government networks accessed by teleworkers
The Telework Exchange is an easily
accessible and cost-effective way
for Federal employees to share
experiences and spread the benefits
of telework. For more information
on the Telework Exchange, visit
www.teleworkexchange.com.
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Continued from above
research found that more than 80 percent
of Federal employees would telework if
they were given the opportunity. Federal
employees said they want to telework
because working from home or a Federal
telework center would save them time
and money and, in many cases, increase
their productivity.
“The time is right to embrace the Federal
telework initiative,” said Jim Shanks,
CDW-G President. “The effort will increase
worker flexibility and productivity,
leading to increased worker retention.
What is needed now is greater awareness
among Federal employees and their
managers on the benefits of teleworking,
as well as stepped-up efforts to address
the information security concerns raised
by the IT professionals CDW-G surveyed.”
Perhaps the highest hurdle to broader
telework adoption is IT security, according
to the 148 Federal IT professionals
surveyed by CDW-G in January. These
professionals cited information security
as their top concern related to telework,
especially given that two-thirds of Federal
employees telework using a personal -
versus a government-issued - computer.
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The Federal Information Security
Management Act (FISMA) requires 100
percent certification and accreditation for
all systems accessing Federal information
over a network. Two-thirds of the IT
professionals surveyed said they were
not sure if telework would impact their
ability to meet FISMA requirements.
Two-thirds also said they do not have a
plan, or were unsure of their plan to
provide technical support to teleworkers.
In addition, CDW-G’s research identified
another stumbling block in the path to
broader telework adoption - simple
awareness of the telework option.
However, awareness is increasing slightly.
In January, 14 percent of Federal
employees said they were unsure if they
were eligible to telework. In April, 12
percent said they were unsure. Eligibility
is determined by the employee’s job
function and ability to work off-site with
no decrease in performance. In addition,
the percentage of Federal employees
who said they did not know if they could
telework if they wanted to, decreased
from 12 percent in January to 9 percent
in April.
* Congestion cost is the value of travel delay and
excess fuel consumption.
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Continued from above
notebook computer shipments will
outpace desktop shipments before the
end of 2005. This transition to mobile
technology occurred late last year
in Europe. With security solutions
available to meet even the most stringent
requirements of the Department of
Defense, teleworking employees are no
longer singularly dependent on working
at the office - they are staying connected
through mobile devices such as smart
phones, Blackberries, PDAs, and notebook
computers. Intel is proud to be one of
the driving forces behind this movement
by enabling wireless hotspots, providing
mobility platforms, and working with the
software community to ensure their code
is optimized for these devices.
Federal government employees have the
need to securely work anytime, anywhere.
Intel is committed to working with Federal
agencies and other private-sector leaders
to help eliminate telework gridlock.
Alfred Toussaint is the Federal Marketing
Manager for Intel Corporation.
Features:
Telework Value Calculators – Tally
Federal telework potential cost
savings and environmental dividends
and provide a mechanism to gauge
Federal agencies’ relative telework
performance
The Water Cooler – A collaboration
and discussion forum designed to
enable Federal personnel to discuss
issues and share best practices
The Teleworker – A news resource
reporting exclusively on Federal
telework initiatives and trends
Resource Center – A repository
of useful tools for teleworkers,
teleworker managers, and
information technology professionals
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The Teleworker, Main Number: 703-883-9000, Fax: 703-883-9007, For Enquiries: Cindy Adams at 703-883-9000 ext. 101
Write to Us: 921 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 or info@teleworkexchange.com.
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