Virginia: Leading by Example

Telework is not just a flexible work arrangement, but a performance management strategy that can facilitate a new kind of outcomes-based government. So noted Aneesh Chopra, Secretary of Technology for the Commonwealth of Virginia, during his keynote address at the October 15 Telework Exchange Town Hall Meeting. Chopra explained that the Commonwealth's telework program is enabling state agencies to improve productivity significantly, slash turnover rates and excessive leave time, and save money.

"This is not just because of the good deeds of doing right by the environment or addressing our congestion issues - both of which are obvious priorities - this is good business sense," Chopra stated, adding that telework is something his state increasingly is turning to, even as the state faces an unexpected $2.5 billion budget shortfall in the wake of the recent economic slowdown.

Under Governor Tim Kaine's leadership, Virginia has taken a more progressive and highly-successful approach to government operations by putting the emphasis on results rather than traditional measures, such as the amount of time spent on a project. That strategy, not surprisingly, includes a strong emphasis on telework, which, Chopra says, came up early and frequently when the new administration took office in 2005.

"Governor Kaine immediately acknowledged that when it comes to managing by outcomes, the very natural question is: ‘Why do we care where you work?'" Chopra recalled, noting that one of the Governor's very first actions was to create an office to promote telework, managed by Karen Jackson, and he set an ambitious goal of enabling 20 percent of the Commonwealth's workforce to telework on a regular basis by 2010. "Telework became a very natural priority for us as we thought about outcomes-based government."

As part of its performance management approach, the new administration first required that all 95 state agencies sit down and document the key outcomes they needed to achieve during the next five to ten years. These objectives and related productivity measures were published on a public Web site, to "change the lexicon of our discussion," Chopra explained.

"Now when we have a budget discussion, we talk about it in terms of: ‘How much will an incremental investment in "X" yield in terms of outcome improvement?'" he explained. "So we have an outcome goal that we hold ourselves accountable for and we have a portfolio of programs and initiatives that we now can use to measure success against those goals."

When it came to telework, Governor Kaine took a multi-pronged approach to implementing a telework culture across the Commonwealth. Chopra and his team codified the definition of telework as working at least one day per week (or 32 hours per month) out of the office; changed the eligibility standard from an opt-in to an opt-out approach; established a cross-agency technology group to develop and post information on telework best practices and guidelines, including a telework roadmap; and encouraged private sector adoption by getting pledges from some of the largest employers in the state to match the Governor's telework goals.

Strategies also included leading by example and showing - not telling - agencies how effective telework is at improving government operations.

Kaine, for example, made it a policy for his Cabinet secretaries and their staffs to telework on a regular basis and required that Chopra and other executives provide details of all telework activity in their weekly priorities report to the Governor.

"This has rocked our culture," Chopra stated. "Prior to this, the attitude was, ‘Yeah, telework is important for the agencies because those people process paper, but we're really important people in the Cabinet. It's going to be hard for us to telework.' Gov. Kaine said, ‘Not in my administration.' Now, I must report weekly who teleworked and how many days, by name. That's leading by example."

The Tax Department, meanwhile, volunteered to conduct a telework pilot program, and the effort effectively illustrated telework's benefits - but with a few surprises, Chopra noted. Teleworkers who do mail processing achieved an 80 percent improvement in productivity when compared to the standard by which they're supposed to perform, while data-entry workers at home showed efficiency rates of 110 percent above the standard. In addition, employee turnover is considerably lower among full-time teleworkers at the Tax Department, just eight percent versus the overall agency average of 58 percent. This retention rate, coupled with productivity gains, translates into $141,000 in measurable decreases in retraining and job vacancy costs.

Today, the Virginia Tax Department's top executive teleworks, as do 62 percent of its eligible workers. All of this shows, Chopra told his audience, that telework "is not a nice-to-have but a need-to-have - especially in this budgetary environment. It's why more and more agencies are looking to telework as a strategy to meet the tough goals."

To view Aneesh Chopra's October 15 keynote presentation at the Fall 2008 Town Hall Meeting, please visit www.teleworkexchange.com.