OMB found significant variation agency-to-agency in their progress towards its goal of 50% of time spent in-person among teleworkers. Image: Markus Stappen/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffFederal employees who telework are onsite at their agency facilities three days per week on average as agencies “are moving towards a posture where, on average, telework-eligible teams are working in-person at the office at least half of the time,” according to a White House report to Congress.
Specifically, over two pay periods in May, 54 percent of federal employees worked onsite full-time; of the rest, 10 percent worked remotely with no expectation of regularly reporting onsite; excluding remote workers, 79.4 percent of regular working hours were in-person, including 61.2% by teleworkers.
However, it added that “there is significant variation agency-to-agency in their progress towards OMB’s goal of 50% of time spent in-person among teleworkers.” Onsite working hours percentages by teleworker-eligible employees among the 24 Cabinet departments and largest independent agencies ranged from a low of about 36 percent at Treasury, EPA ang HUD to highs of about 80 percent at Agriculture and State.
The rates were about 64, 68 and 74 at DoD, VA and DHS, which together account for about two-thirds of federal employees.
The report was ordered in a budget measure earlier this year as Congress sought a more complete accounting of offsite work policies and practices amid the controversy over rates that remain high by the government’s historic standards. Bills pending in Congress would require still further reporting, while several seek to reduce or even ban offsite work at certain agencies, including at the largest employer, DoD.
The report reiterates a point the administration commonly makes in response to claims that federal offsite work rates are too high, that about half of federal employees are not eligible to work offsite due to the nature of their duties—and did not telework even at the peak of the pandemic.
A posting releasing the report says the figures show that “the federal workforce is generally in line with the rates of on-site work performed across all sectors in the economy, as demonstrated by independent analysis from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (The Congressional Budget Office similarly reported recently that rates of telework are about comparable in the federal and private sectors, with the federal rate slightly lower, when accounting for factors such as levels of education and nature of occupation.)
The report also again repeats arguments that the pandemic permanently changed the nature of workplaces and that the government must keep up.
Increased use of flexibilities such as telework has been “incorporated into American work culture in all sectors and regions” and “aligns the federal government’s posture to industry while allowing agencies to remaining competitive in the marketplace for talent.” About a quarter of current federal employees were hired after the pandemic began and have expectations of work reflecting that change, it says.
The report adds that while agencies have discretion to manage their workforces, OMB is monitoring “agency policies as well as what peer employers are doing across the economy to set reasonable goals for agencies that balance flexibility and in-person work.”
OMB believes that the target of 50 percent onsite work by teleworkers “allows agencies to continue to be competitive employers while also making a significant investment in the organizational health of our workforce by enabling collaboration, promoting mentorship and learning, and helping teams to innovate as they tackle problems of ever-increasing complexity,” it says.
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