As more Federal employees are going back to the office, there are efforts to understand the impact telework had. According to a recent survey, one effect was a substantial boost in productivity, as 79 percent of Federal employees found their productivity increased while teleworking during the pandemic, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) found. […]

Jason Miller, the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), said he hopes the government’s expansion of telework for Federal employees will serve as a “leapfrog moment” and help the government to better compete in the battle for talent. […]

Federal intelligence community leaders agree that as the Federal government slowly starts to return to the office for in-person work, managers and supervisors will need to help lead a “cultural shift” within agencies to normalize remote work and rethink performance management. […]

The Biden administration announced expanded telework options for Federal employees on Thursday, creating a huge cultural shift for the Federal government that will allow agencies to offer flexible work-from-home and hybrid schedules to employees. […]

Robin Carnahan, President Biden’s nominee for administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA), sailed through a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing today while offering commitments to create a more user-friendly GSA and support digital infrastructure investments. […]

While many Federal agencies are transitioning at least some employees back to physical offices, the State Department is searching for new software to enable remote work. […]

House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and several chairs of the panel’s key subcommittees today asked inspectors general (IGs) from ten Federal agencies for assessments of any cybersecurity vulnerabilities that were created or worsened by the use of telework systems during the coronavirus pandemic, and whether any such vulnerabilities have been mitigated. […]

Dave Zvenyach, director of the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) organization, shared insights today on how to become a better digital leader while working remotely, along with tools and methods he uses to do so. […]

The U.S. Army CIO has released a new policy for Internet of Things (IoT) device cybersecurity which mandates that all Army personnel who are approved to telework remove or turn off all IoT devices in their workspaces. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Federal agencies to work remotely almost immediately, but Federal CIOs and CTOs agree that this shift to teleworking has enabled agencies to undergo a transformational cultural shift within the agency and provides more opportunities for innovation. […]

Federal employees were more engaged and satisfied with their jobs in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic forcing Federal agencies to shift to majority telework, the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) 2020 OPM Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (OPM FEVS) shows. […]

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) found that Federal employees overwhelmingly support continued telework after the pandemic, and believe that their productivity has increased while teleworking over the past 14 months.  […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) inspector general (IG) said in a new report that the agency should work to update its emergency response plans to include assumptions regarding the use of telework for essential and non-essential personnel. […]

Back in December 2019, months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a draft document of its Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 guidance. […]

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) official said today that while the Federal government could require all Federal employees to have a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to offices, it might be counterproductive to do so in a very strict way given the expectation that some of the workforce won’t want to, or be able to, receive the vaccine. […]

Wanda Jones, the chief security information officer at the U.S. Air Force, said her agency has seen a high level of productivity after the switch to remote work and plans to continue to telework beyond the pandemic, while keeping security top of mind. […]

Federal leaders agreed during a Feb. 25 virtual conference organized by GovExec that the Federal government needs to change its mindset and culture to allow for more telework in the future, even after the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

It has been nearly a year since the Federal workforce had to shift to telework practically overnight. While the Federal government was already working to increase telework capabilities, COVID-19 forced agencies to modernize at warp speed. After making sure employees had the devices they need, agencies had to ensure that cybersecurity capabilities remained strong even though employees were now working on their home networks. […]

The Federal government has “won the battle” over historical cultural impediments to widescale telework, and going forward needs to reimagine the workplace as a mix of remote and in-person settings, said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., speaking on Feb. 9 at the Resiliency Colloquium event organized by MeriTalk, ACT-IAC, and the Partnership for Public Service. […]

The Office of Management and Budget told Federal agencies in a Jan. 24 memo that Federal workplaces should run at no more than 25 percent of occupancy while the coronavirus is running at high rates. […]

With 2020 nearly in the rearview mirror, we surveyed the office to find everyone’s silver linings of the pandemic. From ditching the morning commute to logging more quality time with loved ones, we’ve done our best to make lemonade out of lemons. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) issued a November 20 memo to component agencies that will allow civilian employees with kids to continue working remotely until at least June 30, 2021, extending the COVID-related telework flexibilities issued by DoD in March. […]

Now that much of the Federal government workforce has eight months of pandemic-driven telework under its belt, government officials are examining how that experience has changed the future landscape of providing service to citizens, and how to incorporate lessons learned for what may be the longer haul of remote work. […]

Sean Connelly, who heads the TIC Program Office at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said today that his office is aiming to release a remote-user use case for the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 security initiative that will build on interim TIC guidance the agency issued earlier this year to help Federal agencies migrate quickly to large-scale telework. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) is working on a “more enduring” version of the Commercial Virtual Remote (CVR) environment technology that it ramped up earlier this year to support telework for more than one million DoD personnel during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a senior Pentagon technology official. […]

A new survey finds that 82 percent of Federal IT decisionmakers expect the majority of the work week to consist of telework even after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. The survey also finds decisionmakers still face challenges in managing systems and cybersecurity. […]

The head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA’s) TIC Program Office emphasized that the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 initiative aims to create more flexible and efficient ways for Federal agencies to improve security, and said his office is considering a wide range of additional use cases to help agencies implement the framework. […]

Communication, collaboration, and coordination are being touted as the keys to success for teleworking during the coronavirus pandemic, but the best frameworks for cyber defense in these modern times may end up coming from old teachings. […]

Looking ahead to a post-pandemic future, Department of Transportation (DoT) CIO Ryan Cote said at MeriTalk’s October 7 CIO Crossroads webinar that the workplace structure will be forever changed as organizations and Federal agencies realize the value of technology implemented throughout the mass shift to remote work. […]