OMB found that progress toward the goal of 50% of teleworker time spent in person varies considerably across agencies. Image: Markus Stappen/Shutterstock.com

Federal employees who telework are on-site at their agency’s facilities an average of three days a week as agencies “work toward a structure where teams eligible to telework work in person at the office on average at least half the time,” according to a White House report to Congress.

Specifically, in May, over two pay periods, 54 percent of federal employees worked full-time on-site; of the remainder, 10 percent worked remotely without being expected to be on-site on a regular basis; excluding teleworkers, 79.4 percent of regular work hours were in-person, of which 61.2 percent were teleworkers.

However, it also states that “there is significant variation across agencies in the progress made toward OMB’s 50% work-from-home goal.” The percentages of work-from-home hours for the 24 departments and largest independent agencies ranged from a low of about 36% at the Treasury, EPA, and HUD to a high of about 80% at the Departments of Agriculture and State.

At the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the rates were about 64, 68, and 74, respectively; together, that’s about two-thirds of all federal employees.

The report was mandated in a budget resolution earlier this year as Congress called for a more comprehensive account of off-site work policies and practices because worker wages remain high compared to the government’s historical standards. Bills pending in Congress would require even more reports, and several aim to reduce or even ban off-site work at certain agencies, including the largest employer, the Department of Defense.

The report reiterates a point the administration frequently makes in response to claims that federal employee work rates offsite are too high, that about half of federal employees are not authorized to work offsite because of the nature of their duties — and that they did not telework even at the height of the pandemic.

A post announcing the report’s release said the numbers showed that “the number of people working in the federal service is generally consistent with the number of people working on-site in all other sectors of the economy, according to an independent analysis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.” (The Congressional Budget Office also recently reported that telework rates are about the same in the federal and private sectors, with the rate in the federal service slightly lower when controlling for factors such as education level and type of employment.)

The report also reiterates the argument that the pandemic has permanently changed the nature of jobs and that the government must keep pace with this development.

The increased use of flexible practices such as telework is “integrated into the American work culture across all sectors and regions” and “aligns the federal government’s attitude toward industry while agencies remain competitive in the market for talent.” About a quarter of current federal employees were hired after the pandemic began and expect these changes to be reflected in work, the report said.

The report adds that while agencies have discretion in managing their workforces, OMB “monitors agency policies as well as the actions of comparable employers across the economy to set agencies appropriate goals that balance flexibility and on-site work.”

The OMB believes that the goal of 50 percent on-site work by teleworkers “enables agencies to continue to be competitive employers while making a significant investment in the organizational health of our workforce by enabling collaboration, encouraging mentoring and learning, and helping teams innovate in tackling increasingly complex problems,” it said.

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