GSA Workplace Innovation Lab at GSA Headquarters in Washington DC. GSA has also launched six Federal coworking test sites in Tacoma, WA; San Francisco, CA; Denver, CO; Kansas City, MO; Chicago, IL; and Philadelphia, PA. Image: GSA
Following is the section of the fiscal 2025 budget proposal addressing how the mix of onsite vs. offsite work in the federal workplace is continuing to evolve, four years after the pandemic first hit and nearly one year after it was officially declared over for work scheduling purposes.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of Federal employees worked countless hours, in-person and on-site, to continue delivering the vast Federal services that the American people count on despite the risk present in the community. Over the course of 2022 and 2023, agencies brought nearly all other employees back to their regular pre-pandemic duty stations, by carefully managing space, resources, mission needs, and public health guidance. As of January 2024, in excess of 80 percent of Federal work is performed in-person at employees’ assigned job sites, either at a Federal facility or at postings around the Nation as required to fulfill Agency missions.
In the wake of the pandemic, Federal agencies continue to evaluate their work environment policies and build toward a durable, long-term work environment posture that maintains a focus on delivering results for Americans and reflects new rhythms of work across the economy that have necessitated a thoughtful redesign of norms around hybrid work. In general, agencies are moving towards a posture whereby hybrid teams are working in-person at least half of the time, on average. This balanced approach recognizes the vital importance of in-person collaboration, while still ensuring flexibilities are in place so that the Government can attract and retain top talent. It engages with the vast diversity of occupations across the Federal Government, recognizing that work modality and duty station vary immensely across the workforce. The Budget assumes resources to complete this transition in a thoughtful, intentional, data-informed manner. It will build on current investments such as OPM’s free “Thriving in a Hybrid Work Environment” training that was completed by more than 25,000 Federal employees.
To ensure that agencies continue to improve organizational health and organizational performance in a post-pandemic work environment and sustain a singular focus on service delivery, OMB released OMB Memorandum M-23-15, Measuring, Monitoring, and Improving Organizational Health and Organizational Performance in the Context of Evolving Agency Work Environments, in April 2023. Memorandum M-23-15 included a call for agencies to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work at Federal offices, particularly at headquarters and equivalents” where hybrid work is mostly concentrated. Agencies were directed to develop updated Work Environment Plans over the summer 2023 that considered how best to accomplish this given the unique circumstances, missions, and customers of each Agency. OMB has continued to monitor Agency implementation and collaborate with agencies on areas of common concern in executing this shift, including commuter benefits, reopening cafeterias, modernizing workspaces, human capital data standards, and other implementation components.
Work environment is one component of organizational health and performance frameworks and the Administration continues to make investments to hone work environment policies using the same research and evidence-based approach that drives the broader framework. The Administration has engaged the National Academy of Public Administration to expand on its 2018 report, Strengthening Organizational Health and Performance in Government. Additionally, OPM is conducting and disseminating three research studies on the future of work, assessing the effect of telework, remote work, and hybrid work on hiring, engagement, and retention, as well as a project to improve accessibility of organizational health and organizational performance data for Agency leaders through toolkits and dashboards.
The Administration has made critical investments to ensure that Federal employees have the tools to succeed in this new equilibrium. In March 2023, OPM released a memorandum on “Advancing Future of the Workforce Policies and Practices to Support Mission Delivery,” which outlined a strategic vision for the future of the Federal workforce that is inclusive, agile, and engaged, and possesses the right skills to enable mission delivery. It identifies five priority areas for which OPM will provide support to agencies to realize the future state: Policy and Resources, Research and Evaluation, Training and Technical Assistance, Data Analytics, and Stakeholder Engagement. To do this, OPM has detailed the key steps for the Agency action strategies into a Future of the Workforce Playbook, which provides implementation strategies for new innovations and existing authorities and practices that have not been fully utilized.
Additionally, the Administration is investing in innovative, next-generation workspaces to support agencies as they build toward durable norms informed by the lessons of the pandemic. In 2023, the General Services Administration (GSA) launched the Workplace Innovation Lab to share best practices and spur creative thinking and cross-agency collaboration related to the workplace of the future. The lab offers a variety of workspaces, collaboration spaces, and conference rooms, with deeply integrated technology assets and modular flexibility, all in a Federal building equipped with an access control system and on-site security personnel. In its first nine months of operation, employees from 13 different agencies booked more than 22,000 hours of reservations. Through careful measurement of customers’ work patterns and regular customer surveying, GSA is using the lab to generate insights to inform the design of Federal workspaces throughout the Nation.
Further, GSA has launched six Federal coworking test sites in Tacoma, WA; San Francisco, CA; Denver, CO; Kansas City, MO; Chicago, IL; and Philadelphia, PA. These move-in ready spaces complement existing Agency office space, provide a venue for proactive cross-agency collaboration in regions, and illustrate opportunities for cost-savings. GSA also released an updated menu of contracts and solutions to support Agency planning for hybrid work. As GSA continues to test and assess design, technologies, and operations, it will diffuse leading practice and help position the Government as a competitive employer with a workplace model that ensures quality service delivery.
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