Telework Exchange

If any agency had a chance for quick telework success, it was the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The agency, which launched its official telework program in May, has an enthusiastic champion in its Director, David Paylor, as well as a number of telework eligible positions whose work lends itself to measuring outcomes, and an expansive, mandatory telework training program.

Still, many employees and managers were leery about giving the work arrangement a try, recalls Peggy Hawkins, Human Resources Director at DEQ. While a large percentage in the Northern Virginia, Richmond, and Tidewater regions were open to a regular telework schedule, only 11 of 776 total employees statewide had signed up for occasional telework at the end of June. "We needed to let people really get in there and try it and address their concerns," Hawkins says.

This is why DEQ decided to use Virginia's Telework Day on August 3, 2009, as a second launching pad for its telework program. With plenty of promotion from Paylor and Governor Tim Kaine, and an understanding that managers and existing teleworkers would make sure the DEQ offices were fully covered, 275 DEQ employees – more than a third of the workforce – signed up to telework that day, including 121 who had never tried it before.

In large part because of Telework Day, DEQ boosted its statewide numbers of regular teleworkers from 28 percent in June to 33 percent in September, with an additional 16 percent who now telework on occasion.

Hawkins says the real impact won't be known until the agency conducts an employee satisfaction survey in the next six months, but her anecdotal take on the day is that it had a significant impact on employees' understanding of the benefits of telework.

"In HR alone, I only had two people who teleworked and now everyone (except for two who are ineligible) are doing it on at least an occasional basis," she said. "And what I'm seeing is that when people telework they get reports and presentations done in less time and with better quality. Their work product improves and there is less need for me to spend time editing that work."

Hawkins has even started teleworking more frequently herself. On a recent telework day, she was able to start and finish all of her employee performance evaluations, a task that typically takes her up to three weeks to do in the office. "In one day, I got them all done and was able to hand them to my manager," she says.

Based on its strong start, Hawkins says, DEQ has announced a bold goal: to have 100 percent of its eligible employees teleworking at least occasionally. "We think we're well on our way to achieving that," she says.