Federal Telework Picking Up Speed

On Monday, CDW Government, Inc. announced the findings of its second annual CDW-G Federal Telework Survey. The report reveals new momentum in federal telework, with 41 percent of responding federal employees indicating that they currently telework - up from 19 percent at the same time last year. Validating the jump in participation, 43 percent of surveyed federal teleworkers indicate that they have started teleworking in the last year.

The 2006 CDW-G Federal Telework Report is based upon online, telephone and in-person interviews with 542 federal employees and an online survey of 235 federal IT professionals.

The report also reveals that federal IT professionals have significantly expanded technical support for telework initiatives over the past year. Thirty-two percent of surveyed federal IT professionals indicate that their agency has started or expanded a telework program in the last year. Twenty-eight percent of the same respondents believe that their agency provides IT support to 100 percent of eligible teleworkers -- up from just 5 percent of respondents in 2005.

Information Security Remains the Largest Roadblock

For federal IT professionals, information security remains the single most significant roadblock for broader telework adoption in 2006, as it was in 2005. Fifty-three percent of federal IT professionals feel that information security is the primary challenge associated with telework. Federal IT professionals' distant second and third concerns about enabling telework are service and support (26 percent) and collaboration (16 percent). That said, just 6 percent of federal IT professionals believe that federal telework requirements hamper compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Thirty-nine percent believe that telework poses no conflict with FISMA compliance.

"More than half of federal IT professionals still are unclear about how telework programs will impact FISMA compliance," Peterson said. "This is clearly an opportunity for industry, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Management and Budget to step in and tear down a major roadblock for telework growth."

Flu the COOP?
Beyond the obvious benefits of federal telework, such as reduced traffic and pollution, as well as improved employee retention, federal telework also provides Continuity of Operations (COOP) benefits. According to the 2006 CDW-G federal Telework Report, 87 percent of federal employees with the option to telework would be able to continue their work via telework if their office were closed due to a storm or some other catastrophe. In comparison, only 62 percent of non-teleworkers said they would be able to execute their jobs remotely via telework.

Other 2006 Federal Telework Report Findings
91 percent of federal employees with the option to telework are either very satisfied or satisfied with their current jobs, compared to 80 percent of federal employees without the option to telework

Of federal employees that do not telework, 84 percent would telework if given the option

For 2006, 46 percent of federal IT professionals state that their agency has written IT policies for telework, compared to 34 percent in 2005

54 percent of federal employees report that their managers view telework favorably, compared to 45 percent in 2005. The percentage of supervisors that view telework either very unfavorably and unfavorably did not change from 2005 to 2006

federal employees cite the elimination of their commute (80 percent) and an improvement in work flexibility (68 percent) as the primary reasons for preferring telework

Approximately 16 percent of federal employees would not telework if given the option. Forty-seven percent said isolation is the primary deterrent, followed by 42 percent who simply do not want to be at home. Among federal workers who said they would not telework, concerns about productivity dropped from 62 percent in 2005 to 40 percent in 2006

Federal IT professionals utilize telephone help desks (40 percent), online support (26 percent) and remote fix technologies (20 percent) to support teleworkers

Federal agencies primarily utilize Web-based applications and intranet/extranet solutions to support collaboration for remote workers

Anti-virus software (66 percent), network security hardware (61 percent) and authentication/PKI/encryption technologies (50 percent) are the primary security solutions for teleworkers

CDW-G executed the research for the 2006 Federal Telework Report in February 2006. The margin of error for the report is +/- 4.21 percent for federal employees and +/- 6.3 percent for federal IT professionals.