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- National Wildlife Federation
Background National Wildlife Federation launched its telework program about five years ago. The motivation for starting the program was twofold. Telework fits the Federation’s mission as a conservation organization, helping it to reduce traffic and thus giving it "a chance to walk the talk," explains human resources director Maria Litman. The Federation’s second reason: attract and retain employees by helping people achieve work-life balance. Telework enhanced the Federation’s flexible work schedule program by providing employees with another option: They could work a condensed-hour day (4/10), a half-day every two weeks, or telework. People also have the option of working around a certain number of hours versus days.
case studies - Research Shows Working From Home Could Reduce Greenhouse Gases by 107 Million Tons and Cut Foreign Oil Dependence by 80%
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case studies - Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative (SMECO)
In 2006, a committee was formed consisting of IT, Customer Service, HR, and Security as well as union representatives. The committee surveyed other cooperatives in an attempt to research other programs and best practices. SMECO found only one COOP in the Midwest that has implemented a telework program establishing themselves as a telework pioneer on the East Coast. The committee drafted telework procedures, remote office space procedures and requirements, technology needs and guidelines around the acceptable use of the Internet. In some cases existing policies and procedures were modified to accommodate the telework program Pre teleworking, SMECO had policies and procedure in place with regard to the use of the Internet, work procedures and equipment. The new procedures addressed uses from a home office location.
case studies - Telework - The Value of Mobile Technology
Intel released this study on new research on the value of mobility
case studies - Tinker Air Force Base
Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker Air Force Base, who is responsible for keeping large military bombers and transports at peak operating condition, deployed a wireless mobility solution to assist with the tracking of maintenance forms so technicians can record, update, and access critical information at the point-of-maintenance. The Tinker Air Force Base offers a successful wireless deployment that can be used as a best practice model and repurposed, considering wireless solutions benefit teleworkers and the environments in which they work.
case studies - Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA): TIGTA’s Telecommuting Program
Recipient of the 2006 Telework Exchange "Excellence in Telework Leadership" Tele-Vision Award
TIGTA’s telework program grew out of a task group that had been formed to make TIGTA a better place to work and to position the agency as an employer- of-choice. Every time the task group met, its members talked about wanting the flexibility to work from anywhere. "Telework just seemed to fit the bill," recalls Donna Leach, Human Resources Specialist & Telework Program Manager. The task group talked with the inspector general (IG - the head of the agency) and proposed a pilot program. TIGTA itself was formed January 1999. The agency implemented its telework pilot in September 2000. The pilot was supposed to last nine to 12 months, but after six months the agency cut it short and made plans to move ahead. Program implementation began in August 2001.
case studies - United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) uses a Telework Management System (TMS) as an automated tracking system. The system provides detailed information about teleworkers, including grade level and occupation, location, frequency and type of telework, and whether the work is ad hoc or regular basis. USDA’s IT department is notified of employee telework approvals and arrangements by e-mail to streamline the equipment planning and support needs.
Since the program’s inception, three USDA agencies have deployed the system, and as of 2007, there were 225 teleworkers in the system with 400 more on the way. The TMS is a system that could be easily employed by other Federal agencies.
case studies - United States Navy: Virtual Command Pilot Program
Recipient of the 2009 Telework Exchange "Best New Initative" Tele-Vision Award
The U.S. Navy’s Virtual Command Pilot Program allows for selected active duty Navy Officers and senior enlisted personnel to be assigned to shore duty commands in locations like Washington, D.C. while remaining in their current geographic location. Using existing technology available through the Navy and Marine Corps Intranet, these individuals work remotely for their new command through telework. This cutting edge concept improves the quality of life for military members and their families while reducing the costs of permanent change of station transfers. The program provides a virtual command relationship between the parent command in one geographic location and the service member located, in another. Telework is the foundation of this program, as participants work from their homes or alternate sites, and access the Navy’s Intranet by use of the Broadband Remote Access System. Thus far, the program has allowed geographic stability and increased transportation savings for service members and their families.
case studies - United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce: Enterprise Remote Access (ERA) Portal
Recipient of the 2010 Telework Exchange "Innovative Application of Technology to Support Telework" Tele-Vision Award
The Enterprise Remote Access (ERA) Portal was designed to extend telework as a versatile and economically-viable option by providing access to employee desktops and files through user-furnished equipment. Each portal user receives comprehensive pre-telework training and a USPTO-supplied secure ID token for sanctioned network access. The ERA Portal delivers an alternate solution to agency business units seeking to deploy safe, secure, and low to no-cost telework access for eligible employees.
Previously, USPTO telework programs required government-furnished equipment (GFE) at an average cost of $2,800 per user. By contrast, the ERA Portal approach allows USPTO operating units to deploy teleworkers with user-furnished equipment for as little as $105 per user. Since the ERA Portal launch in early 2009, more than 350 USPTO staff members have been trained and deployed to telework, an option not previously available to these employees. A key component of the program’s success to-date is the mandatory training for each user with a focus on telework best practices, common questions, and essentials for secure remote operations – to prepare employees to work from home within the agency’s operating guidelines. It has been a successful solution for agency teleworkers and another means for the agency to meet its mission and business goals.
case studies - United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce: Office of General Law Telework Program
Recipient of the 2009 Telework Exchange "Best Use of Innovation and Technology to Support Telework" Tele-Vision Award
The Office of General Law (OGL) Telework Program is one of the only telework programs for a Federal government general counsel’s office. The goal of the OGL Telework Program is to attract and retain highly-skilled employees by providing work-life balance while advancing operational goals in productivity, responsiveness, efficiency, and space planning. Following a telework pilot, completed in 2007, the OGL Telework Program was fully implemented and expanded in 2008 to include 100-percent participation by eligible employees. The program improved employee retention and recruiting efforts as well as assisted OGL in managing office-space shortages.
case studies - United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce: Patents Hoteling Program
Recipient of the 2007 Telework Exchange "Best New Telework Initiative" Tele-Vision Award
The Patents Hoteling Program (PHP) is the primary telework program for USPTO’s Patent Examiners. Started in January 2006, the PHP now includes 910 participating examiners who work from home four days per week and share reserved office space one day a week on the agency’s Alexandria, Virginia campus. Major PHP components include remote online access to required USPTO patent business systems, job performance tools, patent information, and patent application documentation. Examiners working from home also have access to collaborative communication technologies which enable collaboration among colleagues and supervisors. USPTO plans to have 3,000 Patent Examiners working from home, at least four days per week, by 2011.
case studies - United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Department of Commerce: Trademark Work at Home Program
Recipient of the 2006 Telework Exchange "Telework Program with Maximum Impact on Government" Tele-Vision Award
The Trademark Work at Home program began in 1997 as a feasibility pilot of eighteen teleworkers. Today, TWAH is a comprehensive program involving more than 220 employees (80 percent of eligible examining attorneys) who spend the majority of their workweek at home and share office through a hoteling arrangement. Each employee is provided with the necessary equipment for secure remote access to the agency’s network and automated systems enable users to perform all of their trademark examination duties electronically. The TWAH program has proven to be an innovative telework prototype. By incorporating measurable performance goals in the evaluation of worker performance, Trademarks has created a model of an extremely successful telecommuting program for government agencies.
case studies - Virginia Department of Taxation: Telework Program
Recipient of the 2010 Telework Exchange "Excellence in Telework Leadership" Tele-Vision Award During the past year, the Department of Taxation has increased its telework participation by more than 300 percent. More than 60 percent of the nearly 700 teleworking employee workforce currently works from home one day per week and more than half are now permanently home-based. As a result, the Department expects to save $130,000 annually and initial metrics indicate that productivity for home-based staff has increased significantly.
The agency was able to use innovative technology to support the rapid adoption of telework, including implementing live chat and an advanced supervisory software. As a result, the number of applicants eligible for customer service positions increased by creating home-based jobs in geographically-dispersed and economically-depressed regions in the Commonwealth. Access to this expanded talent pool and regional diversity has been mutually beneficial for taxpayers, employees, and agency officials. The Virginia Department of Taxation shows how combining situational knowledge, leadership, technology, and workplace flexibility can improve an agency’s performance – even under challenging economic conditions.
case studies - Washington State Department of Transportation
When the Washington State Legislature assigns more work but fewer employees, comprehensive change in how a public agency does business is required. In 1993, the Washington State Department of Transportation embarked on a long-term mission to change its decision-making and work processes, inverting its old-fashioned hierarchy. Along the way, WSDOT management discovered that encouraging work options, including compressed workweeks, flextime and telework, fits hand in glove with finding more efficient ways to get work done, while retaining and recruiting top-performing employees.
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