By any measure, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) makes telework look easy. Its program, established in 2001, now has more than 1,600 regular teleworkers across every grade level and division - and more than 2,600 of FDIC's over 4,500 employees, including nearly 50 percent of its managers, teleworked at least one day during 2007. FDIC also permits bank examiners to choose to telework from home versus a field office when they are not in a bank, allowing the agency to reduce its real estate needs. The Corporation estimates that it will reap savings in rental costs in 2008 equal to approximately $1,748 per "work at home" employee.

Achieving that kind of track record, however, has hardly been uncomplicated, says Arleas Upton Kea, director of the FDIC's Division of Administration. Kea received the 2008 Telework Driver Award by Telework Exchange for her creativity and forward thinking in getting telework underway long before it became a more popular work option.

She faced pockets of fierce cultural resistance along the way and had to work hard to find ways to overcome concerns about security and privacy, as well as executive and managerial doubts about the potential benefits of the program. However, Kea and her team did their research and came up with innovative ways to get the rest of the agency on board. She discussed her lessons learned recently with The Teleworker.

A key part of success, she says, was simply laying the groundwork. Kea and her team took time upfront to do their homework and were able to ward off a lot of major challenges by finding and implementing best practices from the start. They also defined the telework program in overarching business terms - rather than from a strictly human resources viewpoint.

"We developed a business case to demonstrate how telework could support the mission of the FDIC by providing flexibilities that enable us to meet our mission demands and human capital objectives while recognizing the differing priorities and needs of our employees," explains Kea, who noted that bank examiners can telework full-time and that she herself is a regular teleworker.

To garner senior managers' support for the telework program as part of the agency's Diversity Strategic Plan, Kea included telework adoption under the Corporate Objectives for 2000 and 2001 - and gave the leadership plenty of incentive to jump on the bandwagon. "Our executives were measured on their support (of telework), and their pay increases and bonus decisions were dependent in part on their actions on this program," she explains.

Kea and her team also met with every management team across FDIC before rolling out the telework pilot, briefing them on how it would work, what benefits they could expect, and answering their detailed questions. Regions were asked to send representatives to the headquarters site to be trained as telework liaisons, and an education program was established to provide ongoing management training. The effort has paid off, as 277 of 584 managers, or 47.4 percent, teleworked during 2007.

Telework officials worked hard to make sure that teleworkers had, to the degree possible, the same legal benefits as regular office workers. Officials set unambiguous expectations by developing a Telework Policy that outlined the roles and responsibilities of teleworkers and their managers. "We made it clear in our marketing that telework is not an entitlement and that the mission of the Corporation is paramount," Kea explains.

The program began to show results in unexpected ways as well. For example, in the 2006 Federal Human Capital Survey conducted by the Office of Personnel Management, FDIC employees reported an overall satisfaction rate of 56.6 percent with the telework program, well beyond the 21.8 percent rate reported government-wide.

To add to their telework program, two years ago, Kea and her team implemented a Corporate Telework Week during which employees were encouraged to try telework at least once. The program has been a huge success. In 2007, 880 employees participated.

Another critical success factor, Kea says, was seeking out and developing relationships early on with the agency's Division of Information Technology, as well as its chief privacy officer. The telework program has a system in place that provides several access and security options to teleworkers, and they are well-educated on the proper handling and safeguarding of sensitive information regardless of their work location. "The majority of FDIC employees are capable of teleworking and sustaining FDIC operations from almost anywhere at any time," Kea says.

Kea has worked to make sure that telework is a key component of the agency's Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP), and over the last several years, the telework program has been actively involved in planning business continuity strategies. This past year, she notes, the program got an unexpected practice at its headquarters site when the South Capital Street Bridge was closed. The FDIC successfully encouraged supervisors "to consider using telework and other flexibilities wherever practical, enabling employees with extended commutes to save personal time and conserve gasoline while continuing to complete their work assignments."

Finally, it is important to never feel that you have truly made it, Kea says, explaining that she is constantly researching ways to improve the program. For example, she continues to keep tabs on managers to make sure they are supporting telework and is always looking to find ways to increase teleworking opportunities for all employees. She stays abreast of technology trends in hopes of finding new automated ways to track and report telework participation more efficiently and to integrate new computing and communication tools.

Most recently, Kea and her team launched a Telework Survey that will help measure in greater detail the program's impact and success. "Besides capturing the number of recurring and episodic teleworkers," she notes, "it will assess the effect of telework on productivity and provide a snapshot of commuting costs saved."