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Swine Flu: Is Government Ready to Telework?

April 28, 2009 By Matt Williams

Should the current swine flu outbreak worsen, it could present a huge test of government's ability to work remotely.

Although the current outbreak remains far from a pandemic, thousands of suspected and confirmed swine flu cases -- most of them concentrated in North America -- had been reported worldwide as of Tuesday. In a worst-case scenario, government agencies in the U.S. could be forced to enact emergency business continuity plans that include telework for government employees.

But a big unknown is if governments, including technology-focused departments, are truly ready to let workers telecommute, as a means of slowing the influenza's spread. According to a December 2008 report from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 60 percent of federal agencies had included telework in their continuity of operations/emergency plans in 2007; only 42 percent of them did so in 2006.

Furthermore, some states' emergency plans for pandemics include teleworking as a strategy, while others don't, said Cindy Auten, general manager of the Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership that promotes teleworking in the federal government. The situation varies widely state to state, she said.

"One of the issues we found, in particular with the federal government, is that only about 7 percent of these eligible employees are regular and recurring [telecommuters]," Auten said Tuesday. "One of the key strategies in having a business continuity plan and incorporating telework into it, is ensuring that you're testing it often and you build telework as a part of your standard operating procedure -- so it's not a frantic, mad rush to the door to actually start your telework program at the last minute."

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California Issues Telework Policy to Curb Cyber-Security Risks

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