OPM expands telecommuting guidance

The Office of Personnel Management has expanded its guidance on agency telecommuting policies to include federal workers who telecommute infrequently. By law, federal agencies must establish policies allowing eligible employees to telecommute. The law also requires OPM to ensure that 25 percent of the federal workforce is participating in telecommuting programs at least part of the time by April. In a Feb. 9 memo to department and agency heads, OPM Acting Director Stephen Cohen instructed agencies to identify positions that lend themselves to telecommuting and offer employees in those jobs the option of working from home or at a telecommuting center. Agencies must report on their telecommuting arrangements by April 2. In the new guidance published on March 6, agencies are asked to include in their April 2 reports "employees who telecommute episodically." The reporting form agencies must turn in to OPM has been updated to include a question about the number of employees who participate in non-regularly scheduled telecommuting on average at least once a week. To help facilitate telecommuting arrangements in the federal workplace, OPM is sponsoring a seminar March 14. Members of the Interagency Telework Issues Working Group will clarify telecommuting policies, and several OPM employees will provide first-hand accounts of their telecommuting arrangements. Click here for more information about the seminar.