Electronic Edition -- Published by KLR Consulting Inc.

Volume 4 Number 4 -- September/October 1996

ISSN:1204-3192

Canadian Federal Government

Final Telework Evaluation Report

In the fall of 1992, the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) introduced the Telework Pilot Policy. The policy's objective is "to allow employees to work at alternative locations, thereby achieving a better balance between their work and personal lives".

This pilot has been underway for almost four years and Telework International has been watching it from the beginning (see Telework International - Spring 1993, Spring 1994). Finally, in May of this year the TBS released their final report on the pilot.

The evaluation appears to be extension having included responses from 549 teleworkers from across the country. It should, however, be noted that 62% of these came from one Federal Government Department (Revenue Canada) which may have skewed the results.

There have been many formal evaluations of teleworking reported over the past five years. The TBS study shows most of these standard benefits. Instead of listing the standard data I thought it would be more interesting to look at some of the slightly different and somewhat unique data which is recorded in this report. The following is a summary of the interesting findings:

• 56% of the teleworkers in the occupational category described as "Administrative and Foreign Service (Program Administration, Administrative Services, Computer Systems Administration, Information Services and Personnel Administration groups)
• 65% of the teleworkers work on a regular telework schedule (i.e. the same days of the week)
• only 59% of teleworkers use voice mail or answering machines, 43% use a business phone line, 40% use a modem and 26% use e-mail and/or connect to their network remotely
• on average, more than 50% of the supervisors saw no change in the teleworker's work, however, it is interesting to note that the remaining supervisors reported more of a drop in responsiveness to client requests, interaction with colleagues at work, attendance at important meetings and co-ordination between teleworkers and colleagues than those who reported an improvement in each of these areas
• the report states that "during focus groups, some participants expressed displeasure over their supervisors' still placing far too much emphasis on monitoring the employee's physical presence in the workplace and not enough on results.
• 74% of teleworkers still have personal space at the official workplace
• 65% of the teleworkers were able to start teleworking with a capital equipment cost of under $1,000 (Cdn)

The evaluation concludes with the following recommendations:

1. promote telework as a viable work arrangement to decision-makers in all departments;
2. co-ordinate the collection and dissemination of telework information and tools which could assist departments in implementing and facilitating telework;
3. encourage departments to clarify and publicize their approval criteria for telework requests;
4. clarify, in the policy, departmental latitude either to furnish equipment to teleworkers or to reimburse teleworkers for the use of their own equipment; and
5. resolve the anomaly of requiring telework arrangements to respect the "core hours of work" provision in the collective agreements.

Management in the federal government have agreed to encourage departments to make use of telework where it makes sense to do so and to proceed with the implementation of the recommendations, but only after consultation with both departments and unions, so that their reactions to the evaluation, and their own experiences during the pilot policy, can be factored into a revised policy (expected by December 31, 1996).

The evaluation is available in a two-volume set. The first is a summary and the second represents the detailed findings. Though the summary is certainly interesting reading, the details represent the best chance to truly evaluate the success of the pilot.

It is good to see that the Federal Government has now released the results of their pilot. It is, however, disappointing that such a detailed analysis of telework does not have a baseline for comparison. Since TBS did not know who was teleworking, and since the teleworkers started at different times throughout the pilot period it is very difficult to truly show the differences between before telework and after. Though those of us who are researchers find the lack of a baseline a problem it should be pointed out that the evaluation does a reasonable job of overcoming this challenge.

Those who would like a copy of the report can either contact Bob Fortier at TBS or download it directly from TBS's web site.

CONTACT:

Mr. Bob Fortier

Telework Project Leader

Labour Relations and Human Resources Management Division

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat

Phone: (613) 957-2678

e-mail: fortier.boba@tbs-sct.gc.ca

web: publiservice.tbs-sct.gc.ca

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