From The Social Security Administration’s Telework Program and Its Effect on Customer Service by Social Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG):
... As of January 2017,
SSA’s [Social Security Administration's] management information showed that teleworking FOs performed slightly less as well as the non-teleworking FOs while TSC teleworking staff performed slightly better than non-teleworking staff. Finally, as the number of hearing office teleworkers increased, hearing office productivity declined in three of the four metrics ODAR monitored. SSA explained that multiple factors affect productivity, regardless of telework.
- 4,526 (16 percent) of the 27,530 FO [Field Office] employees were participating in the telework pilot at 317 (26 percent) of the 1,213 FOs;
- 831 (19 percent) of the 4,298 TSC [Teleservice Center] employees were teleworking at 17 (68 percent) of the 25 TSCs; and
- 5,541 (64 percent) of the 8,725 hearing office employees were teleworking across all 164 hearing offices, National Case Assistance Centers, and National Hearing Centers.
SSA managers and staff recognized various telework challenges, and SSA told us it was working to resolve them. SSA needs to establish a business plan that monitors telework productivity to ensure it will timely identify and correct trends that may negatively affect customer service. ...
11 comments:
With a 2 year backlog in hearings, get them all back to work in the office.
Interesting that they omitted decision writing, which I believe has gone up w telework. Case pulling had gone way down and imo case techs should lose their 3rd telework day
All these people were sitting in their offices when Management decided to create yet another backlog. They succeeded nicely but no one is getting the budget that previous administrations gave them.
All agencies must submit their plans to OPM by September as to how they plan on dealing with underperforming employees.
Running to get popcorn....this is gonna be great!
The pilot in the FOs near me was one day every 2 weeks. Not much help as far as commuting. I don't think it is a good idea for most people at SSA. If someone is disabled, it may allow them to work more days and more hours by avoiding their commute. Otherwise, I think it is best to come in and serve the public in the office. If it was just T2 claims, telework/internet could work but most folks that come in are PE or SSI.
This report notes a correlation but not causation. And the decrease in metrics it notes are related to causes other than telework in most instances. It really says nothing of use or import.
As a decision writer, my producitvity went way up when I stared TWing. Many colleagues reported the same. The Baltimore NCAC has 4 days a week of TW, and their numbers just keep getting better. They are also moving to space sharing this month.
IMO, TW should be tied directly to productivity. You should need to maintain a certain level before starting and then keep that level on TW.
@9:20
I think your comment makes the most sense. If performance increases with TW, allow TW. If productivity decreases, deny it. If performance stays the same, I see no reason not to allow TW. However...SSA is a government agency, and government agencies are not known for individual considerations. While SSA might be in a better position than most agencies to make individual considerations given the nature of the disability process, I'm not certain that infrastructure could be applied to the employee side of things.
Employees love telework initially, but they are not going to love the loss of knowledge, teamwork, and, later, opportunities that comes from never being around other employees and staying in their atomized little worlds inside their homes doing the basics of their job and only that.
I'm a millennial, but I feel like an old man when I lament the loss of camaraderie around the office due to all the dang telework most everyone is doing now. The little conversations you would have with your neighbor that aren't big enough to bother IM'ing, emailing, or calling someone about; the organic groups that form when someone or a couple people start talking through an issue and nearby folks join in, etc.; the knowledge employees gain about other jobs' duties just by seeing them in action, etc. SSA, at least in ODAR where I am, is losing a lot of little things that initially won't show up on any stat sheets, but will have wide-ranging negative effects in the long-term.
But my favorite thing is new employees that just bide their time in gleeful anticipation of getting all that telework. With the relaxed contract rules about starting telework, some of these folks are out of the office more than half the time before they even really learn their jobs. Since they seem to be allergic to coming in to the office, most of them can barely manage to gain basic competence going at it mostly alone, and before long begin incredulously whining and complaining that they can't get any promotions, details, etc. You barely knew your first job before you took yourself out of the office more than half the time. Nobody knows you, you don't know that much regarding your current job and next to nothing about anything else that goes on in SSA, and you're going to have a heck of a time learning all that institutional knowledge in your bathrobe alone at home.
AMEN, 8:58!
hooray for 1:28 pm--
One thing is certain: Not a single person commenting here seems to be support staff. Way too uppity for that.
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