HJR 144: Telework Opportunities
September 19, 2007
The Joint Subcommittee Studying Telework Opportunities
for State and Private Sector Employees met on September 19, 2007, in Richmond
with Delegate Timothy D. Hugo as chair.
Presentations
Chuck
Wilsker, President and CEO, Telework Coalition
The Telework Coalition is a nonprofit organization founded six years ago
to promote telework. Mr. Wilsker discussed the three main current drivers
of telework, which are the need for work continuity in the event of a
disaster, increased gasoline prices, and environmental concerns. He emphasized
that because of these drivers, the adoption of telework is a question
of "when" not "if" and to get employers and employees
to invest in the need for telework, they need to be encouraged to try
it. One driver for businesses may be requirements of built-in resilience
in the supply chain. For example, in order to be on an entity's supplier
list, a business could be required to have resiliency built into its operations,
such as maintaining a telework program to ensure continuity in the event
of a disaster or disruption at the primary work site.
Kay LyBrand,
Telework Program Overview
Ms. LyBrand provided an overview of the award-winning telework program
that she coordinated at her previous place of employment and offered suggestions
on how to successfully develop a program. The program she implemented
included telework agreements, work checklists, training, and a 360 degree
feedback evaluation system. She stated that building trust between managers
and employees is also key. Ms. LyBrand recommended that a telework program
should identify metrics of success in order to measure progress. Her company,
for example, was able to identify and measure that teleworking employees
saved 193,000 miles on the road and that each employee saved about $800
a year on commuting costs. Ms. LyBrand's complete presentation is available
on the study website.
Steve
Waltz, Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy
Mr. Waltz provided a brief update on the recently released state energy
plan. He said that transportation is a key focus of the plan and that
telework needs to be included in discussions in order to reduce the number
of miles traveled by consumers. Mr. Waltz noted that transportation is
responsible for large end-use energy consumption.
Work Plan
The joint subcommittee
reviewed a list of possible legislation compiled by the staff, and the
chairman directed the members to review the list in order that final recommendations
could be discussed in detail at the next meeting.
The chairman also
requested that a representative of the Department of Human Resource Management
be present at the next meeting to provide updated statistics on the number
of state employees that participate in a telework program.
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the joint subcommittee is scheduled
for Tuesday, November 13, 2007, in Richmond.
Chairman:
The Hon. Timothy
D. Hugo
For information,
contact:
Lisa Wallmeyer,
Patrick Cushing, Amigo Wade, DLS Staff
Website:
http://dls.state.va.us/telework.htm
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