Virtualization
Businesses often provide teleworkers access to corporate in-house applications, accessible by a remote device such as a tablet or laptop. These devices are gaining popularity in the workforce but come with different underlying operating systems and therefore a variety compatibility issues. However, with the use of desktop virtualization any legacy application or operating system can be accessed from a mobile device, as this device is primary used as a display unit while the processing is performed on the company's internal server.
U.S. Federal government
If all Federal employees who are eligible to telework full-time were to do so, the Federal Government could realize $13.9 billion savings in commuting costs annually and eliminate 21.5 billion pounds of pollutants from the environment each year.
Recent events have pushed telework to the forefront as a critical measurement for the U.S. federal government. Telework relates to continuity of operations (COOP) and national pandemic preparedness planning, reducing dependence on foreign oil and the burden of rising gas prices, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC), and a focus on recruitment and retention.
During a keynote address at the September 12, 2007 Telework Exchange Town Hall Meeting, Lurita Doan, at that time the Administrator for the General Services Administration, announced an aggressive commitment goal to increase agency telework participation. Her challenge would enable 50 percent of eligible agency employees to telework one or more days per week by 2010. As of 2007, 10 percent of eligible GSA employees telework, compared to 4.2 percent for the overall Federal workforce. Her goals were to increase participation to 20 percent by the end of 2008, 40 percent by the end of 2009, and finally 50 percent by 2010.
A 2007 study of National Science Foundation employees indicated that approximately one-third participated in telework regularly, characterized staff satisfaction with the program, and noted savings in employee time and greenhouse-gas emissions as a result of telework.
Rep. Sarbanes (D-MD) introduced the Telework Improvements Act of 2009 in March 2009. Co-sponsors of the bill included Reps. Connolly (D-VA), Wolf (R-VA), and Capito (R-WV). The bill requires each executive agency to establish a policy under which employees may be authorized to telework to the maximum extent possible without diminishing employee performance or agency operations. At the same time in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Akaka (D-HI) introduced the companion bill, along with Sens. Landrieu (D-LA) and Voinovich (R-OH).
On May 24, 2010, the Senate passed the Telework Enhancement Act (S. 707) sponsored by Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio). The bill grants Federal employees eligibility to telework and requires Federal agencies to establish telework policies and identify telework managers.
On July 14, 2010, the House passed the Telework Improvements Act of 2010 (H.R. 1722) with a vote of 290-131. The U.S. Senate passed the final version of the legislation by unanimous consent on September 29, 2010 and the House passed it with a bipartisan vote of 254-152 on November 18, 2010. On December 9, 2010 President Obama signed H.R. 1722, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, into law. The Telework Enhancement Act of 2012 provided a framework for U.S. agencies to offer teleworking as a viable option to employees. By increasing the number of employees who telework, the Telework Enhancement Act has three main objectives. (1) Improve continuity of operations, (2) Promote management Effectiveness and (3) Enhance work-life balance.
The 2012 Status Telework in the Federal Government features teleworking highlights from the past 18 months as well as goals for improving teleworking in the future. Reports finding that all 87 agencies participating in the Data Cell had established telework policies and 73 percent of the policies met the Telework Act Requirements. More than 684,000 federal employees were deemed eligible to telework, this represents approximately 32 percent of all federal employees. More than 144,000 federal employees had written teleworking agreements with their agencies. 27 percent of teleworkers worked remotely three or more days per week.
In addition to the findings, the reports examine teleworking at the Department of Defense. According to the report, there are more than 793,000 employees in the DoD and of those employees, 134,477 were deemed eligible for teleworking. Overall, the federal government seems to have embraced teleworking and is attempting to create more remote working opportunities for employees. In closing, the report listed several ways that the government could make more jobs available through telework. Suggestions include using telework as a tool to retain employees at or near retirement age and using telework to expand hiring of highly trained disabled veterans.
Telework centers
Telework centers are offices that are generally set up close to a majority of people who might otherwise drive or take public transit. They usually feature the full complement of office equipment and a high-speed Internet connection for maximum productivity. Some feature support staff, including receptionists or administrators. For example, a number of telework centers have been set up around the Washington Metropolitan Area: 7 in Maryland, 8 in Virginia, 3 in Washington, D.C. and 1 in West Virginia.
Telework centers allow people to reduce their commute yet still work in a traditional office setting. Some Telework Centers are set up by individual companies while others are established by independent organizations for use by many organizations. Telework centers are attractive to people who do not have the space or inclination to work from home. They offer employers the ability to maintain a more formal structure for their workforce.
These work arrangements are likely to become more popular with current trends towards greater customization of services and virtual organizing. Distributed work offers great potential for firms to reduce costs, enhance competitive advantage and agility, access a greater variety of scarce talents, and improve employee flexibility, effectiveness and productivity. It has gained in popularity in the West, particularly in Europe. While increasing in importance, distributed work has not yet gained widespread acceptance in Asia.
Remote office centers
Remote office centers (ROCs) are distributed centers for leasing offices to individuals from multiple companies. A remote office center provides professional grade network access, phone system, security system, mail stop and optional services for additional costs. ROCs are generally located in areas near to where people live throughout population centers, so that workers do not have to commute more than a couple of miles. The telecommuter works in a real office but accesses the company network across the internet using a VPN just as in traditional telecommuting.
This type of arrangement does not share fully in the benefits of home-based telecommuting, but can address the needs of employees who are unable or unwilling to work from home.
Related terms and concepts
Office hoteling
Some companies, particularly those where employees spend a great deal of time on the road and at remote locations, offer a hotdesking or office hoteling arrangement where employees can reserve the use of a traditional office at the company headquarters, a remote office center, or other shared office facility.
Coworking
Coworking is a social gathering of a group of people who are still working independently, but who share a common working area as well as the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space. Coworking facilities can range from shared space in formal offices to social areas such as a coffee shop.
Distributed work
Distributed work entails the conduct of organizational tasks in places that extend beyond the confines of traditional offices. It can refer to organizational arrangements that permit or require workers to perform work more effectively at any appropriate location—such as their homes or customers' sites—through the application of information and communication technology. An example is financial planners who meet clients during lunchtime with access to various financial planning tools and offerings on their mobile computers, or publishing executives who recommend and place orders for the latest book offerings to libraries and university professors. If this type of distributed work replaces the worker's commute, it would be considered telecommuting. If not, it would be telework .
Jellies
A Jelly is "a casual work event where everyone's invited. It's for anyone who'd like to work alongside other creative people." Some telecommuters and teleworkers form local groups that gather at coffee shops and other locations to socialize, collaborate, or just reduce the isolation of working on their own. The project was covered by Wired,The Today Show, and other media outlets.
Source: Wikipedia