Survey: Gov’t managers don’t see support for telework

Just 35 percent of U.S. government managers believe their agencies support telecommuting despite a 7-year-old law requiring agencies to offer telework options to workers, according to a study released Monday.

The study shows that federal agencies and managers still need to be convinced of the value of telecommuting, said Joel Brunson, president of Tandberg Federal, a videoconferencing software and services vendor that helped fund the survey. Sixty-one percent of federal managers surveyed said they have misinterpreted co-workers when communicating by e-mail, and 43 percent misinterpreted phone conversations, according to the survey.

Thirty-two percent of managers said the lack of face-to-face communication is a telework challenge, Brunson noted. “The big thing the survey showed was that there is a real inertia among federal managers and the agencies to endorse teleworking,” he said.

The U.S. Congress passed a law in 2000 requiring federal agencies to offer telecommuting as an option to many employees. Advocates of telework say it can provide government agencies several benefits, including a way to remotely continue operations during a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Telecommuting can also ease the Washington, D.C., area’s traffic problems, reduce pollution, and increase worker productivity, advocates say.

Although many agencies seem to see organizational benefits from telecommuting, there’s a “misalignment” between agency views and manager views, Brunson said. In addition to continuity of operations, agencies see telework as a way to recruit workers, he said.

But managers see mostly benefits to employees, Brunson said. Seventy-four percent of federal managers who do not manage teleworkers said a better work/life balance was the top driver for telework, while only 32 percent saw continuity of operations as the top reason.

“Maybe we need to do a better job of educating the managers on how … telework helps the agency,” Brunson said.

Fear of not having control over employees’ activities was the biggest concern from managers who do not manage teleworkers, while productivity concerns were the largest among managers who do manage teleworkers. Those fears are understandable, Brunson said, but many companies use performance metrics to track teleworker production, and several studies have suggested that teleworkers are more productive than their in-office counterparts.

“Telework is not a substitute for a face-to-face meeting,” he added. “But there’s a lot of technology out there that will allow you to collaborate on face-to-face communications, spreadsheets, and whatever you’re working on.”

While 35 percent of the 214 U.S. agency managers surveyed said they believe their agencies support telework, 18 percent were unsure and 47 percent said they don’t believe that’s the case. Last May, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report saying only nine of 23 agencies surveyed reported they had plans in place for essential workers to telecommute.

The survey also found that support for telecommuting grew the more a manager was involved with it. Only 54 percent of managers who do not manager teleworkers had a favorable impression of telecommuting, while 63 percent of managers who do manage teleworkers were favorable and 75 percent of mangers who are teleworkers were favorable.

The survey was commissioned by Telework Exchange, a public and private partnership focused on government telecommuting, and the Federal Managers Association, an organization representing U.S. government managers.