BYO3: The tools of telework expand with the mobile workforce

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

Telework Week gets tens of thousands of feds to try working from home, and they're not all using an agency-issued laptop.

It’s Telework Week, so maybe many of you are reading this from your home office. According to the Mobile Work Exchange, over 110,000 people who don’t normally telecommute pledged to do so this week. And 90 percent of them are federal employees, with 80 percent of the new telecommuters based in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

Many federal employees are learning the value of telecommuting this week for the first time. Here are a some fun number facts about Telework Week 2013.

110,000 - The total number of people who have pledged to telecommute this week.

90 - Percentage of people participating in the program who are federal employees.

80 – Percentage of people participating in the program from the DC Metro area.

3.5 – Average number of hours saved by each employee not telecommuting to work this week.

93 – Percentage of people using a laptop to telecommute this week.

12 – Percentage of people who plan to use a virtual desktop tied back into their office.

75 – Number of dollars, on average, personally saved by each teleworker this week.

489,000 – Number of gallons of gas that would have been burnt this week by workers if they had gone into the office instead of telecommuting.

270 – How many trips around the world telecommuting workers could have made if their normal journeys to work and back this week were set down end to end.

60 – Percentage of people using a VPN as part of their telecommuting plan.

8 – Percentage of people who plan to videoconference while telecommuting.

4 – Percentage of people in the program using a tablet exclusively to telecommute.

6,700,000 – How many tons of extra pollution won’t be choking the atmosphere this week because telecommuting employees are working from home. Breathe easy, indeed.

With a big snowstorm barreling down on the region as of this writing, having more than 100,000 people off the roads and safely doing their jobs at home is just icing on the cake this year.

The high number of federal employees participating in Telework Week doesn’t surprise Tom Simmons, area vice president of public sector for Citrix Systems. It’s his job to help get the technology for successful telecommuting into the hands of the federal workforce. He’s seen a rise in government telework ever since the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 became law. And he’s seen how an increasingly mobile workforce has influenced the tools of teleworking.

“The prototypical setup for most government agencies is to issue the employee a government laptop, load it up with all the specific apps that the employee needs, and then support them as needed,” Simmons said. But as mobile computing grows, the options for teleworking also are expanding.

Simmons, for example, demonstrates Citrix Receiver, a program the GCN reviewed last August. The best feature of Receiver is that it enables all telecommuting employees to access their work files and government documents regardless of what platform they want to use. They can open up Microsoft Word files on an Apple iPad, a smart phone, a notebook or desktop, and the program looks and acts exactly the same on each one. Even on the back end, there is no difference to an administrator managing many teleworkers using multiple platforms.

And Simmons said he’s seen a substantial increase in the number of government agencies looking to move their employees to smart phones and tablets instead of just notebooks. “There’s been a lot of talk about BYOD [bring your own device] in government, but what we are seeing now is BYO3,” because employees have more than one or two devices, he said. “Most people at least have a smart phone.”

Simmons admits that security for government telecommuters is an important issue — in fact, it’s the paramount issue for a lot of agencies he works with.

Virtual private network connections are a key step, secured with Secure Sockets Layer encryption, so that any hacker who is able to break into the stream gets nothing but unintelligible data. But wireless access points, especially those being used by the Defense Department, also need to be secured with something more than just a user name and password. For that, most agencies use Common Access Cards and PIN numbers, Simmons said.

This makes for a secure solution, although bolting a reader onto the side of a phone or buying an expensive reader/case, which can run around $350, isn’t always practical. He said he hopes that manufacturers in the future will make devices with other ways to help authenticate secure network access, perhaps with internal chips or biometrics. But he stressed that government telecommuting is secure today, if a touch unwieldy in some circumstances.

Simmons said that the overwhelming majority of agencies he works with report a big increase in productivity when employees telecommute, with workers freed of the distractions of the office and armed with better tools than they likely have at their desks.

“When you couple that with the ability to always stay connected, most people find that they end up working more, and are happier at the same time,” he added. “And it lets employees get evaluated based on what they actually produce, not just the old way of looking at time and attendance.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.