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Air Force organizations win telework awards
Posted 6/14/2011
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by Master Sgt. Amaani Lyle
Air Force Public Affairs Agency
6/14/2011 - WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Two Air Force organizations earned the 2011 Telework Exchange Tele-Vision Award for excellence in leadership and for best new initiative, respectively, officials said here June 13.
The office of the administrative assistant to the secretary of the Air Force won the award for its headquarters Air Force telework program, and the Air Force Central Adjudication Facility was recognized for best new telework initiative.
"We sought to creatively overcome traditional workplace cultural barriers in hopes of sending a clear message about the viability of telework in a headquarters environment," said Bill Davidson, the administrative assistant to the secretary of the Air Force. "Telework is a critical tool in the work-life balance, providing alternate workplace arrangement guidance and leadership to more than 6,500 Air Force civilian, military and contract employees in the national capital region."
Mr. Davidson explained several key components led to the program's success: developing a telework operating instruction, implementing a secure virtual private network infrastructure, and equipping employees with a laptop and cell phone.
Collaboration and communication tools such as a telework website and training programs helped ease the transition for workers, and SAF/AA used pilot applications to further develop the program.
Telework numbers have grown significantly over the last year, Mr. Davidson noted, with the creation of seven new telework programs within Air Force headquarters alone.
A headquarters sub-organization increased its number of teleworkers from 40 to 100, with 90 of those employees teleworking full-time, Mr. Davidson said. Another grew to 91 full-time teleworkers through the use of virtual offices and workgroups. A pilot program reduced the office footprint by 75 percent in one division, he added.
"The SAF/AA Telework Program has laid the foundation for other (headquarters) offices to develop their own telework initiatives, allowing them to create a telework-ready workforce that contributes to a continuity of operations strategy," Mr. Davidson said.
Similarly, the AFCAF telework program recognized a need to create a more telework-friendly operating environment and took steps to support remote workforce options, said Col. Laura Hickman, the AFCAF commander at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C.
The colonel explained that with a pending base realignment and closure move to Fort Meade, Md., all 155 of AFCAF's employees are equipped and trained to telework, with about 65 percent doing so on a regular basis.
"The telework program has dramatically increased productivity and is the main reason AFCAF has been able to retain 92 percent of our highly-trained security specialists during the BRAC move," Colonel Hickman said, adding that the high employee retention rate minimized training costs. "A 30 percent loss of personnel during the BRAC move would have meant approximately $260,000 in training costs to hire and train new employees."
AFCAF's state-of-the-art technology and a telework coordinator to manage the program resulted in an uptick in regular telework employees from 40 in April 2010 to 100 in March 2011, with more than 90 percent of these employees teleworking nine out of 10 days in a two-week period, Colonel Hickman said.
"New technology such as dual monitors, laptops with docking stations and collaboration tools prompted 100 percent of teleworkers to report improved communication with their supervisors," the colonel said. "Our productivity increased 55.62 percent in just one year."
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