Collecting and reporting data on telework “remains an area of challenge for agencies,” OPM has said in a memo that meanwhile asks them to review their agency-wide and subagency reports to assess the accuracy of the data and look for problems.
“OPM will initiate a series of agency meetings that will bring together HR directors, [telework managing officials], and payroll providers to identify and discuss steps and assistance needed to ensure accurate data reporting. Based on these meetings, OPM will assess the need for additional guidance or consultation with individual agencies,” it said.
OPM in 2012 ago changed the annual telework reporting requirements from a year-long to a snapshot-based system, which making it more difficult to draw long-term comparisons of the numbers employees who telework.
Further, due to differing definitions of what is telework—including whether sporadic work counts or not, and whether only work under a formal agency agreement with the employee counts or not—the data OPM gathers and reports sometimes differ widely from telework statistics in other sources such as the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey.
