House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., introduced legislation on Jan. 11 that would roll back Federal agency telework policies to their year-end 2019 levels, and require agencies to justify any future changes in telework policies through reporting to Congress. […]
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The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a July 20 memo to agencies that instructs them to consider telework and remote work, as well as the status of online collaboration tools when submitting their office workspace plans. […]
Reps. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and John Sarbanes, D-Md. – both of whom represent districts with large Federal employee populations – have reintroduced legislation that the members of Congress said will “strengthen and expand the federal government’s telework programs by capitalizing on lessons learned” during the coronavirus pandemic when many Federal agencies had most employees working from remote locations. […]
The General Services Administration’s five-year strategic plan published on March 31 weaves the developing issues of telework, cybersecurity, IT-driven citizen service improvements, and adoption of further acquisition technologies throughout much of the agency’s wide-ranging work plans for fiscal years 2022 through 2026. […]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reached an agreement with the union representing agency employees for policies governing the return of employees to traditional offices in what amounts to a larger hybrid work-location approach. […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, the Department of Defense (DoD) Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks issued guidance on the reentry of DoD employees to their normal workplaces, stating that telework is here to stay. […]
Federal employees can expect a broader embrace of telework and an increase in remote workers going forward, according to Rob Shriver, associate director of employee services at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). […]
Edging into what everyone hopes will be a post-pandemic environment, Federal agencies have learned a lot about remote work. But as employees continue to work from remote environments, agency tech leaders will need to continue to rethink policies, IT modernization, security, and training practices to ensure an integrated workplace environment, several Federal CIOs chief said during ATARC’s CIO Virtual Summit Jan. 25. […]
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja emphasized in a recent report summing up the Federal government’s experience with telework during Fiscal Year 2020 that the practice will remain important to the government going forward particularly in creating further resiliency of agency operations and in helping workforce recruiting efforts. […]
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., expressed “serious concerns” regarding wide-scale government telework in a Dec. 8 letter to leadership at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Office of Personnel Management, and the General Services Administration. […]
Federal agencies continue to confront the challenge of enabling and expanding telework as the need to protect against the spread of COVID-19 affects employees in a variety of roles nationwide. Last year, through technology and ingenuity, agencies rose to the challenge, deploying telework for many functions that previously did not seem suited to it. 2020 created a laboratory for experimenting with technical solutions, personnel management techniques, and security practices—and 2021 is pushing those same limits. […]
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued an expanded plan for telework and remote work through a new FAQ page on its website, allowing eight days of telework per pay period. […]
The Subcommittee on Government Operations of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing today in which members of Congress explored how to build a stronger Federal workforce. […]
While the Social Security Administration (SSA), like much of the rest of the Federal government has been largely operating in a work from home setting since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency is preparing to return to office through a phased re-entry plan, the agency confirmed to MeriTalk. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released a new guide to telework and remote work for Federal agencies on November 12, in response to increased agency interest in working from home. […]
A sampling of Federal agencies’ efforts to provide remote access for telework during the COVID-19 pandemic shows that each of the agencies was able to put the right technologies in place to accomplish that goal, but that several had not fully addressed relevant guidance for securing remote access systems, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found. […]
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, along with other natural disasters, forced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shift to remote work. In a new report, the agency’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said that the EPA was able to effectively plan a long-term solution to address remote access concerns while also transitioning to the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. […]
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested “proactively and preemptively” in technology, so that when the coronavirus pandemic hit NIH it was able to seamlessly transition to a telework environment, according to the NIH CIO and Director of the Center for Information Technology, Andrea Norris. […]
As the COVID-19 pandemic forced Federal agencies to quickly move to a remote environment, Federal and private sector leaders say the shift to telework provided valuable benefits, such as increased leadership and employee engagement, as well as digital savviness among employees. […]
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued new guidance on Friday evening to assist agencies in their office reentry plans and policies, offering answers to frequently asked questions surrounding telework and reentry personnel policies. […]
The U.S. Coast Guard expanded its telework capabilities to protect employees during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the service branch needs to ensure it is auditing data derived from Coast Guard staff self-reporting telework use and health statuses. […]
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) successfully adapted to a flexible telework schedule for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic and plans to retain hybrid training and development opportunities for employees beyond the public health crisis, according to a DHS official. […]
As Federal agencies deliberate how to reopen traditional offices and the policies they will need to keep employees safe, one thing is clear: gone are the days when the cubicle was the only option for government workers. The pandemic has forced Federal agencies to rethink telework policies, remote work, and even in-office setups. […]
As more Federal employees are going back to the office, there are efforts to understand the impact telework had. According to a recent survey, one effect was a substantial boost in productivity, as 79 percent of Federal employees found their productivity increased while teleworking during the pandemic, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) found. […]
Jason Miller, the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said he hopes the government’s expansion of telework for Federal employees will serve as a “leapfrog moment” and help the government to better compete in the battle for talent. […]
Federal intelligence community leaders agree that as the Federal government slowly starts to return to the office for in-person work, managers and supervisors will need to help lead a “cultural shift” within agencies to normalize remote work and rethink performance management. […]
The Biden administration announced expanded telework options for Federal employees on Thursday, creating a huge cultural shift for the Federal government that will allow agencies to offer flexible work-from-home and hybrid schedules to employees. […]
Robin Carnahan, President Biden’s nominee for administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), sailed through a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing today while offering commitments to create a more user-friendly GSA and support digital infrastructure investments. […]
While many Federal agencies are transitioning at least some employees back to physical offices, the State Department is searching for new software to enable remote work. […]
House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and several chairs of the panel’s key subcommittees today asked inspectors general (IGs) from ten Federal agencies for assessments of any cybersecurity vulnerabilities that were created or worsened by the use of telework systems during the coronavirus pandemic, and whether any such vulnerabilities have been mitigated. […]