OPM works to change managers’ attitudes toward telecommuting

The Office of Personnel Management is working to change managers' minds about telecommuting, saying that negative attitudes are impeding telecommuting throughout the federal government. Language in the fiscal 2001 Transportation appropriations bill required federal agencies to establish policies allowing eligible employees to telecommute. The law also required the Office of Personnel Management to ensure that 25 percent of the federal workforce was participating in telecommuting programs at least part of the time by last month. To comply with the law, OPM instructed agencies to identify positions that lend themselves to telecommuting and then offer those employees the option of working from home or at a telecommuting center. Those reports were due on April 16. The results will go to Congress later this month. "We asked the agencies to tell us the number of teleworkers as of March 2001 and any barriers that they perceive to moving forward in increasing the number of teleworkers," an OPM official said. While OPM is evaluating the information gathered from the agencies, officials there say they are aggressively promoting telecommuting practices within the federal government by holding information seminars and training sessions. The goal is to eliminate confusion and show managers that telecommuting works in the hope that it will increase in the federal workplace. "[Managers] need to understand how to rate an employee's performance in a remote environment, which is no different than rating an employee in the office," the official said. "That's part of the lack of information that tends to be out there." To reach out to those managers who may opt not to attend a session devoted to telecommuting, OPM is integrating facets of the training into other training courses. "We have already started to integrate telework into the performance management training course," the official said. "Through our training effort, we think that we can eliminate some of that reluctance." OPM is also encouraging telecommuting by showing managers how to use the practice as a retention and recruitment tool. "Employees are saying that when their milestone is met, they're going to retire because they're tired of the commute," the official said. "Telecommuting can help retain these individuals by allowing them to work at home or allowing them to work at a [General Services Administration]-sponsored telecenter."