The share of federal employees who are considered eligible to telework remained constant in 2015 at 44 percent, about the same level prevailing since a 2012 jump from the 33 percent of 2011 as a 2010 law encouraging telework started to show its effects, OPM has said.
It added that “many agencies do not regularly update the eligibility status of employees” and that “as telework policies, capacities, and norms have evolved, it is possible that some employees who were previously deemed ineligible to telework could now perform a portion of their work from an alternative location, particularly in emergency situations.”
Of those eligible to telework, 46 percent now do so at least on a situational basis, up from 39 percent in 2013—meaning that the percentage of the entire workforce that teleworks rose from 17 to 20 percent. “Given the challenges involved in telework data collection, it is likely that these numbers are conservative estimates and that actual participation is higher,” OPM said in an annual report on telework covering 2015.
Of those who telework, 46 percent do so only on a situational basis, a percentage that has held the same over three years, and another 18 percent do so no more than once monthly. Of the rest, 34 percent do so one or two days a biweekly pay period—about the same as in 2012—while 31 percent do so three or more days—up from 27 percent.
Even situational telework has value in that it can be “a useful tool for maintaining agency operations in response to unexpected emergency events such as snowstorms,” OPM said. However, to achieve other goals of telework, such as reducing real estate and energy costs, more frequent routine telework is needed, it added.
