Employees who telework three or more days per pay period are more likely to score higher on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey employee engagement. Image: Daisy Daisy/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffOPM’s latest report on telework again cites familiar arguments of its advantages to both employees and agencies, although adding that specific impacts such as on employee productivity and costs are difficult to track.
For example, it cites telework as a tool for “recruiting high-quality and geographically dispersed candidates who may not otherwise have access to specific industries or career opportunities. Agencies continue to recognize that telework is an alluring non-monetary incentive for attracting talent to federal service.” Similarly, agencies “reported using telework most effectively as an incentive to remain in the workforce for valued employees who require geographic flexibility face challenges with family care or specific medical situations or may be inclined to retire or find work in other sectors,” it says.
While the data showing a slight decline in teleworking in 2022 do not “fully reflect agency behaviors beyond a maximum telework environment we are able to draw some conclusions and identify considerations for future telework,” the report says. It said those lessons include that:
* Employees who telework three or more days per pay period are more likely to score higher on the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey employee engagement index—widely seen as a proxy for morale—than those who do not, although only about the same as employees who are eligible but choose not to telework.
* “Individuals who teleworked more frequently were less likely to express a desire to leave or retire compared to those who did not.”
* “Agencies reported observing higher levels of work-life balance increased productivity due to fewer distractions and disruptions increased performance reflected in annual reviews and improved management practices to ensure accountability and monitor employee performance.”
It notes, though, that “evaluating the causal relationship between telework and performance may be challenging.” Agencies attempt to measure it using “performance ratings, employee comments, internal surveys and FEVs data,” it said, although it did not list specific results. OPM added that it is working “to more accurately assess employee telework data and the ways agencies are utilizing telework to meet specific agency performance metrics.”
Further, “34 percent of respondents reported being unable to track cost savings, an increase from the 28 percent reported in fiscal year 2021. Respondents’ most common explanations for this inability included not having a system in place to track telework cost savings, difficulty isolating costs associated specifically with telework, and lack of access to data.”
Of agencies reporting that they identified savings, the most common involved subsidies for employees to use public transit in commuting. Only 10 percent reported savings in rented office space, which like productivity has become a central issue in the debate over telework.
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