This commentary is by John Sears, lean coordinator for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
Recently, the state has been debating a future telework policy with an eye toward the post-pandemic future for the approximately 9,000 employees who serve the state of Vermont.
The state is likely considering a range of options, from a full return of in-office work to some form of telework/in-office split. It is as yet unclear whether it is seriously considering a full-time telework alternative.
While it may be tempting to settle somewhere in the middle, a hybrid model with a mix of in-office and telework, that choice would negatively impact both state employees and the services they provide. Allowing employees to choose a full-time teleworking solution (when suitable to the position) is the best way to retain employees, protect the environment, and reduce costs.
To consider any solution, we must first consider the data on teleworking state employees from a statewide survey concluded in December 2020.
Two-thirds of state employees had never teleworked before being subsumed by a pandemic work environment. Now, more than 70% of state employees are teleworking full time. Of that number, only about 40% had ever teleworked before Covid-19. A quarter had positions where they were told teleworking was not allowed but are now working remotely. While a number of positions still do not allow telework for a variety of reasons (15%), the vast majority of state employees are currently teleworking in some capacity.
State employees are working remotely, but are they productive? Over 90% of teleworking staff said they are productive and can effectively communicate with their supervisor and coworkers. They have spent the last year mastering the technological and psychological hurdles to working productively in a remote environment.
Workspaces and internet capability remain hurdles for some staff and many have had to invest personal finances to furnish home offices and bear the costs of competing bandwidth needs (and noise) from spouses, roommates and children.
State workers have survived and thrived, productive in our service to Vermonters.
Speaking of children, the move to a remote environment has been a boon to those in need of increased flexibility as we manage home-based learning, lack of day care and other Covid hurdles.
State employees indicate by a more than six-to-one ratio that their work productivity and overall job satisfaction have increased since moving to a remote environment. More than three-fourths of state employees who telework say their work/life balance has improved or stayed the same. More than four in 10 state employees said they’d like to continue full-time telework, post-pandemic.
Job satisfaction and work productivity gains have been even greater for women compared to men by 10%. The increased flexibility has been a boon to women, for whom, in study after study, have been shown to pick up more child care and home responsibilities as a result of the pandemic. Forcing a return to the office, despite ongoing reduction in hours from day cares and schools, will further drive women from the workforce.
We have the great fortune to live in a state that values the environment and recognizes the threat to humanity climate change presents. A separate teleworking survey conducted by the Department of Environmental Conservation asked for the length of staff’s daily commute. On average, 300 staff contribute over 13,000 miles per day commuting to the office.
Extrapolated to 9,000 employees, nearly 400,000 miles a day are covered by state employees. This creates vast sums of carbon dioxide, pushing us further from the ambitious carbon-dioxide reduction targets the state now faces. Admittedly, teleworking comes with a carbon dioxide cost as well, but nowhere near the amount produced via the daily commute.
Every day we demand staff travel to work is a lost opportunity.
Not everyone can (or wants to) telework. Let those who want to work from the office do so! But for those who can and desire more teleworking, full-time telework will save the taxpayers millions in diminished office space requirements, reduced spread of disease, and create a happier, more productive workforce.
Things are working right now. We should ask ourselves what problem a hybrid or in-office model would solve before discarding a year’s worth of hard work preparing for our current teleworking life.
I doubt the state alone is struggling with this issue and my hope is that by sharing this data we can all make better teleworking decisions.
