USCIS and the VBA said telework-eligible or remote positions were attracting substantially more applicants than in-office positions. Image: Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAvailability of offsite work—especially remote work, where employees are not expected to regularly report to an agency facility as they are with telework—is now part of the competition for talent among federal agencies and even within agency components, according to the GAO’s recently issued report on the issue.
That issue arose in the context of a report finding that four agencies GAO sampled cited benefits to both management and employees of offsite work, although they could not specify its impact on performance, for positive or negative. The GAO said it plans to issue a report in 2025 on how the use of telework affected the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Social Security Administration, and the Department of State’s ability to provide certain services.
The GAO meanwhile said it also will issue a report specifically on remote work, following findings in the recent report that remote work is even more popular than telework among employees. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Veterans Benefits Administration for example found that telework-eligible or remote positions were attracting substantially more applicants than in-office positions,” while officials of one USCIS division “said they had applicants leave job interviews because they advertised positions as telework eligible but did not allow as much telework as the applicant was seeking.”
USCIS officials told GAO that applicants “were three times more interested in remote work than telework-eligible or in-office positions in 2023 . . . Further, they stated that they were losing adjudicative staff to lower paying USCIS Service Center positions that offered remote work, resulting in staffing gaps,” it said.
In addition, VBA officials “said they also observed increased interest from job seekers looking for positions that offer more telework. However, VBA officials at multiple locations told us they are increasingly competing for talent with other federal agencies and non-governmental organizations that offer greater telework and remote work options.”
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