What’s Not to Like?

-by James A. Bacon
Improved morale, higher productivity and dramatic savings in real estate costs... TIGTA is executing a telework/hoteling strategy that shows how government agencies can save millions. Ken Carlson was delighted when his employer, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), implemented a telework program. As a senior auditor checking on the Internal Revenue Service, he had spent most of his time poring over electronic documents on his PC or traveling to far-flung cities to review files on-site. A physical presence at his office in Atlanta was not necessary to do either.

Settling into the new telework routine, he found himself visiting the office no more than three or four days per month for face-to-face meetings. Eliminating the daily commute, he figures, saves him 45 minutes in the morning and a half hour in the evening. That means grabbing some extra sleep – no more rising at 6 a.m. to beat Atlanta’s brutal rush hour – and more time to spend with his wife and toddler. “It’s a really nice benefit,” he says. Speaking for his colleagues, he adds, “We all love it.”

Improving morale was an early benefit of the TIGTA telework initiative which proclaimed a goal of equipping employees to “work anytime, anywhere.” The federal bureau equipped auditors and investigators with laptops that could plug into a high-bandwidth, Virtual Private Network that allowed them to access all their files from the office, at home or on the road.

TIGTA is delighted with the arrangement, too. Fears that efficiency might plunge if employees worked at home have proved unfounded. “Our employees are spending less time commuting,” says Chief Information Officer Joe Hungate. “They also have fewer distractions.”

But it wasn’t until the federal agency took the vital step of bolting a “hoteling” component onto its telework initiative that TIGTA achieved the kind of hard savings that impress the bean counters. At locations that have put the program into place, one third of the agency’s employees are participating. “The company has achieved a significant reduction in lease payments at three offices,” says Hungate who is seeking opportunities to find comparable savings in other facilities.

TIGTA’s great achievement was combining the old telework and hoteling concepts of the 1990s to create something far more powerful, observes John Vivadelli, CEO of AgilQuest, the company that implemented the hoteling solution. “By making hoteling an integral part of its telework program TIGTA reaped savings that telework pioneers did not. Likewise, by working hard to obtain employee buy-in, the bureau ensured that its new flexible workplace produced higher employee satisfaction and productivity than the old-style hoteling. TIGTA got the best of both worlds--improved productivity and real estate savings."

TIGTA took great pains to prepare employees and supervisors alike for the transition. “People like outfitting their work spaces with family pictures and other personal items,” notes Jennifer Donnan, the program manager in charge of implementing technical aspects of the program. To make sure no one feels deprived, TIGTA gives everyone a filing cabinet in a communal area where they can store their belongings. Also, the bureau reimburses employees portions of the cost of their high-speed Internet access, which is a requirement for working at home more than two days a week.

The new workplace management system provides employees the freedom to choose and reserve workplaces—a flexibility they have come to appreciate. The AgilQuest workplace reservation system ensures that work teams do not converge on an office without first making certain that space will be available. Now, out-of-towners schedule office and conference room space ahead of time just like local employees.

To ensure productivity, TIGTA did two smart things. First, it developed a manual for working in a remote environment, covering everything from network security to the appropriate use of time at home. “Our policy specifically prohibits using telework for child care. You can’t be home looking after your kids,” says Hungate.

Secondly, TIGTA trained supervisors how to manage employees working remotely. “Managers like to see people working at their desks,” says Hungate. “We gave them explicit training on how to manage outcomes, not behavior. Don’t worry if employees are sitting in their pajamas with pink, fuzzy slippers. Worry about how they get their work done, and if they’re meeting their deadlines.”

AgilQuest’s Vivadelli praises TIGTA for strong execution of its telework-hoteling initiative. If other agencies emulated its success, the federal government could save $1 billion a year or more in office space. “A billion here, a billion there,” he says. “Soon it adds up to real money... and as a taxpayer, what`s not to like about that?"