Feds Still Ahead on Telework

While the federal government often gets a bad rap for being slower than the private sector on implementing new technologies and adapting to new ways of working, there’s at least one area where government is leading the charge: telework.

A new study by the Society for Human Resource Management shows that the number of organizations offering telework to employees has changed little over the past four years, even despite some significant advances in technology. Just 58 percent of organizations offer some type of telecommuting benefits, up slightly from 51 percent in 2009, SHRM found. In addition, the majority of organizations that offer telework only offer the benefit on an ad-hoc basis. Forty-five percent of organizations offer ad-hoc telework agreements, and that figure has not increased since 2009. Just 36 percent of organizations offer telework on a part-time basis, and 20 percent offer it on a full-time basis, up from just 34 percent and 19 percent, respectively, the study found.