OPM Releases Status of Telework Report for FY 2019

In March 2021, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released its “Status of Telework in the Federal Government Report to Congress,” which showed the extent of federal telework in FY2019 (October 1, 2018-September 30, 2019). The report is the last governmentwide data collection on telework before the COVID-19 pandemic.

OPM Acting Director Kathleen McGettigan said in her introductory message, “This report provides an overview of Federal telework programs for fiscal year 2019, and it shows that agencies continue to make progress in their use of telework to deliver mission outcomes, provide excellent customer service, and demonstrate efficient stewardship of our taxpayer dollars.”

Key findings from the report on telework in 2019 are: employee eligibility to participate in telework decreased, telework participation has increased, agencies sustain progress in setting and achieving telework goals, and challenges persist as agencies look to assess cost savings achieved through telework.

OPM reported that 22 percent of all federal employees teleworked in 2019, the same percentage as in FY 2018. However, 56 percent of eligible employees took advantage of telework in 2019 – up 5 percent from FY 2018. The Department of Defense (DoD) made at least 24,000 employees eligible for telework for the first time in 2019, marking a 20 percent increase from previous years.

As this report does not include information on teleworking during the pandemic, OPM plans to release a “before and after” the COVID-19 pandemic report on telework as the year progresses.

OPM Acting Director McGettigan explained, “The pandemic led the Federal government to expand telework to the maximum extent possible to protect the health and safety of the Federal workforce and the American people. This report documents the last Government wide telework data collection effort prior to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, it does not address the impact of the transition to expanded telework necessitated by the pandemic.”

Some agencies were able to report cost savings from telework. The Treasury Department and the Department of Homeland Security each said they saved $4.3 million and $7.3 million, respectively, on real estate costs in 2019.

Additionally, the report showed that at the Social Security Administration (SSA), 44 percent of the workforce was eligible for telework in 2019. While majority of employees at the Department of Energy were eligible for telework back in 2019, only 60 percent of them took advantage of it.

The next report on telework eligibility is likely to look different as it will encompass telework data from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many agencies are claiming that telework is making their employees even more effective.