Certain agencies are either exploring or taking actions such as increasing “telework” participation and implementing a “hoteling” program with open common space and desks in order to reduce space needs, but most efforts are too new to have realized savings, GAO has said.
It looked at five agencies: GSA, the Department of Agriculture, the IRS, the Patent and Trademark Office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms which held or leased over 400-million square feet of office space in fiscal 2011.
It said GSA, for example, is making use of open, collaborative work environments and implementing a hoteling program for all employees, and that the Department of Agriculture set agency-wide goals for increasing the number of its employees with approved telework agreements as well as its overall telework participation rates for fiscal 2013.
The Patent and Trademark Office has also taken steps to reduce its space needs as a result of increased workforce mobility for more than a decade, and there are indications that it has avoided real estate costs as a result of its efforts, according to GAO-14-41.
It said however that it was unable to obtain sufficient information to determine the accuracy and validity of USPTO’s estimated cost savings, and that beyond USPTO, the agencies reviewed have not yet realized space reductions or cost savings because their efforts are too new.
GSA however believes such efforts will ultimately be less expensive and could improve productivity and has undertaken a “total workplace initiative” to help agencies reduce office space through a variety of means such as office reconfigurations.
