While riding in a cab in downtown Sacramento this week — the
daily commute destination of thousands of State of California employees — the usual
topics of weather and traffic came up. The
driver offered his solution to traffic congestion: rather than commute to work,
state employees should stay off the roads and work remotely from home offices. After all, the cabbie pointed out, the
technology allowing them to do so has been in place for many years. They can get their work done on a computer
from home just as easily as their office.
So why aren’t more state employees teleworking, he asked?
The explanation appears in a
January
2008 white paper prepared by a group of state employees, the Statewide Work
Anywhere Team (SWAT). The paper notes use
of information technology “is uniquely positioned to further the state’s ‘Green
initiatives’ by contributing solutions for larger issues facing California:
traffic congestion, dependence on oil, air pollution, and quality of life to
name a few. It is possible to perform work from virtually anywhere. We can do
business better. Work Anywhere provides one viable option that we should fully
explore.” It adds, “[w]orking from
anywhere and using virtual teams are integral to the success of today’s
workforce” and recommends “the State of California initiate a statewide
standard for expanding the concept into its work environment.”
So why hasn’t the state more widely adopted telework four
years after the paper was issued? Despite
the bulk of the work being white collar, information and knowledge work, a blue
collar shop floor management by observation culture dominates. The paper explains:
Many program area managers and executives are hesitant to
implement Work Anywhere strategies/policies due to concerns regarding
monitoring staff productivity and the staff’s ability to perform their duties
effectively from a remote site (usually their home) without immediate access to
other workers. Additionally, there is concern on monitoring staff that
under-perform. The main challenges mentioned by all contacted in the study were
the importance of determining the types of duties that are easily measurable
and candidate selection requirements for performing tasks that could be part of
a Work Anywhere plan. The most often stated concern was how to quickly manage
employees that are out of sight. Some of the examples of telecommuting
floundered because they lacked executive sponsorship, clear performance
measurements or procedures for implementation of the policies. Additionally,
some of the managers indicated an interest in receiving additional training for
developing skills to better manage employees who work away from the main
office.
That remains the case today.
In September 2011, the then head of the
Telework Advisory Group of California’s
Department
of General Services,
Geoff McLennan, reported only about five percent out of a
state workforce of about 240,000 telework. More recent data would put the number even lower. As older state workers retire in large
numbers and as the economy slowly recovers, younger workers accustomed to being connected
to the Internet from anywhere aren’t likely going to find state
employment and its pre-Internet, 1980s office culture an attractive option.