After considerable effort getting agencies to increase the
amount of time employees spend telecommuting, five agencies
were unable to give the “actual number of employees who
telework and how often they do so because they had not fully
implemented the capability to track this through their time
and attendance systems,” the Government Accountability Office
has said.
After reviewing the telework methodologies at the Departments
of Commerce, Justice, State, the Small Business Administration,
and the Securities and Exchange Commission, it noted the lack
of consistency with how eligibility is determined,
opportunities are made available, and employee participation
is measured, and called on Congress to promote more consistent
telework definitions and measures.
DoJ surveyed supervisors to report on the number of participants,
while the other four agencies based their estimate on the number
of signed telework agreements in place, which tended to miss
“ad hoc” teleworkers, according to GAO-05-1055R.
It said the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State block
groups of employees from telework based on position, while SEC
and SBA make all positions eligible.
Employees at the State department are excluded if they handle
classified information, while all five exclude employees based
on performance — though the agencies counted them when they
reported recently on the total number of employees eligible
to telework, GAO said.
It said SEC and Justice were currently working to lessen
managerial resistance through awareness training, to show
managers how the program can work.
