Implementation of Telework within the Federal Government

In recent years, telework has advanced to be an essential component in federal government daily operations. Technology capability to enable efficient and effective development of telework programs has steadily increased in recent years, therefore its significance to the federal government has also advanced. Teleworks were infused into the federal government by the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 that mandated all federal government agencies to make telework policies that would determine eligibility for all employees (Lee & Kim, 2017,). To ensure success of telework in the federal government, the effective use of technology continues to be a vital factor that will oversee the success of telework (Weinbaum, Triezenberg, Meza, & Luckey, 2018). Telework leverages innovative technologies that allows employees in government agencies to work from various locations.

This definition also refers to it as remote work but excludes work done during official travel or mobile work. Other similar and confusing terms are flexible workplace and telecommuting that are often used in reference to telework (Lee & Kim, 2017,). Mobile and telework work are used as synonyms yet they differ in practice from telework. To ensure consistency, OPM recommends that all agencies used the term telework for reporting purposes and all other activities related to legislation and policy as defined in the Act. For over a decade now federal agencies have been on constant experiments with telework. Although minimal improvement will surface, a real effect will be achieved by focusing of the fundamentals of teamwork. Since 2004, the federal government has not utilized the legislation of teleworks and are still experiencing failures in several agencies (Weinbaum, Triezenberg, Meza, & Luckey, 2018).

Early on, the agencies focused primarily on technology and not the process of a telework program. Research suggests that only three factors need to be considered vital in the quest for telework success, they include; culture, coordination and communication. After the three principles are achieved then technology can be addressed. Reduced focus on technology and policy will assist in this new approach that will oversee the success of teleworks. New Findings In the past decade, the federal government has made new finding regarding the success of teleworks and how agencies can ensure office environments are incorporated at telework centers and homes. In recent research, telework success is ensured through the implementation and adoption of these three core principles; Culture, coordination and communication.

Culture is a shared set of beliefs and customs that foster engagement and trust, communication can be broadly defined as the ability to exchange knowledge and information and coordination is the ability of different people to work towards achieving a common goal. For telework to succeed, federal government agencies and other organizations should establish distinct and definite process that will uphold all the above principles. The use of a medium is also advised as it assist to avoid misinterpretation and miscues. When communication require emotional and a level of physical contact, video conferencing is used. Regular communication also plays a major role through provision of updates, response to queries and even request for availability when called upon to reduce the possibility of roadblocks and establishes the potential of trust between employees and their employer.

Even though communication occurs at individual levels, policies and strategies can be developed that train employees on telework communication. Coordination Working with teleworkers has often been compared to choreographing a group of blindfolded and coordinated swimmers. Culture This principle has been found to be a vital approach in the implementation of teleworks in federal government agencies. Workers that work remotely often work individually and in rare instances meet with their co-workers and teammates, therefore concentrating and completing tasks is often a challenge. Coordination and communication can work for a while but to attain full engagement and effective and efficient performance in the long run, these workers need to develop a sense of culture. Ensuring this concept is achieved, trust needs to be developed.

Communication and coordination develops cognitive trust that is often based on reliability and competence. Also, engagement and retaining of qualified employees will be assured. Private organizations like Yahoo! Might discourage telework implementation due to their own failures however, there is need for re-evaluation of their misfortune by using the new approach of telework implementation that assures success. The telework programs facilitate flexibility and to this extent attracts and ensure the organization retains highly talented and skilled employees. The human resource policy should be aligned specifically with its actions and objectives so as to be in a position to develop company’s common beliefs and values. For instance, the company should be in a position to implement and execute a career plan that focuses on teleworkers and encourage the whole idea through promoting home-based workers to leadership and management levels.

Federal government agencies have lead in the adoption of innovative workplace flexibilities one of which was telework. In a bid to retain engaged, productive and talented workforce, these government agencies recognized the importance of family and begun the telework program to offer a balance between family and work responsibilities. However recent finding have determined that technology alone is not sufficient to oversee the success of telework programs. In the past decade, the federal government has made new finding regarding the success of teleworks and how agencies can ensure office environments are incorporated at telework centers and homes. In recent research, telework success is ensured through the implementation and adoption of these three core principles; Culture, coordination and communication. com/articles/work/wor00589 Caillier, J.