Employee Suitability and Selecting Employees

One of the major challenges for supervisors is determining who is a candidate for telework. As a starting point, you, the supervisor, should view all positions and employees as eligible for telework. As a supervisor, it is important that you make good decisions about which employees have potential as teleworkers. Sometimes it is difficult to discuss this with an employee. You may anticipate that an interested employee is not really a good candidate for a telework situation. You may be concerned that if you let one person telework, all of your employees will want to telework. You may worry about control of the workforce and workload. These are legitimate concerns. Remember that you decide whether a position and an employee are appropriate for telework. To assist you in your decision, we suggest you use an employee screening tool such as the telework assessment tool in Appendix G. Employees who telework must be very well organized and have effective communication skills.

The Decision Process

The decision process may be made easier by using a screening tool that both employee and supervisor complete and then use as a basis for discussion. The value of a screening tool for the employee is that it can help the employee understand why he or she may not be a suitable candidate in a particular job for telework. Screening tools also provide a common source of information that can be used to generate a positive discussion between employees and their supervisors. The tool provided in Appendix G allows you to rate an employee on characteristics that lead to success in telework and then discuss the results with them. The ability for the employee to be flexible, be a self-starter, and enjoy the solitude of working at home should be discussed.

If you determine that an employee can adjust to a telework situation, approval should be given. If you have concerns, they need to be clearly articulated. If they are significant enough that you cannot approve the employee's request to telework, develop a plan with goals the employee must meet in order to be considered for a telework arrangement at a later time.

As a supervisor, your decision process will be driven by your agency's policy and the stipulations it makes for employees considered appropriate for telework, as well as your own assessment. It is important to be consistent in making your decisions.

Position Suitability

Initially, a particular position may not appear to be compatible with a telework arrangement; however, if the position is broken down into individual tasks, you may be able to identify tasks that could be accomplished in a telework setting. Work suitability depends on job content, rather than job title, type of appointment, or work schedule.

Telework is feasible for (1) work that requires thinking and writing, such as data analysis, reviewing grants or cases, and writing regulations, decisions, or reports; (2) telephone-intensive tasks, such as setting up a conference, obtaining information, and contacting customers; and (3) computer-oriented tasks, such as programming, data entry, and word processing. Positions included in a Government-wide project on telework conducted in 1990 included writer/editor, scientist, investigator, psychologist, environmental engineer, budget analyst, tax examiner, and computer scientist.

Some work may not be suitable for teleworking. This is the case for jobs that require the employee's physical presence on the job. It is also true for jobs in which the employees need to have extensive face-to-face contact with their supervisor, other employees, clients, or the public. Positions that require access to material that cannot be moved from the regular office may not be suitable for telework. Also, there may be security issues that prevent the work from being accomplished at an alternative worksite.

Your challenge as a supervisor is to consider each position thoroughly and determine whether there is any potential to create a telework opportunity. The telework frequently might be for one day a week, or one day every two weeks. What is critical is that any position is not automatically ruled out as telework-suitable.

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