WORKFORCE
Virtual Work Option Meeting on April 20, along with human resource representatives from all across the Army, to explore all those potential factors. Te meeting “was a think tank for vari- ous Army commands at various levels. What they were looking at was the reentry plan and how telework was going to play a perma- nent role in that,” she said. Te Army won’t implement any new telework policies before DOD provides guidance in accordance with the Office of Personnel Management, she explained, but the existing policies cover most of the current needs.
“Right now, Army’s telework policies mirror what DOD’s tele- work policy says, and it’s very loose fitted, for the purpose of allowing various commands and departments to take it, tailor it down, and make it fit according to what their mission is really going to entail,” Compton said. Tat means that organizational directors or commanders can implement telework guidance at their discretion and tailor it to their mission needs—particularly during a return to the office transition period.
DEVIL IN THE DETAILS Under current policies, there are two major categories of tele- work: regular, reccurring telework, which occurs as part of a regular schedule, and situational telework, which isn’t scheduled and is approved on a case-by-case basis, Compton explained. All other types of telework are subcategories of the former. Te nuances within these subcategories are what people will need to be aware of as organizations decide what the office reentry plan will look like, Compton said. It’s important to remember: “You’re paid according to where you work, not where you live,” she said.
For example, many people are interested in the idea of remote telework—a flexible work arrangement in which an employee works most or all of the time from a different geographic area than the duty location. In remote telework, the policy states that an employee should go into the office two times a pay period, Compton explained. Because of that, the employee is still eligi- ble for the locality pay at that duty location. If the employee is not required to come into the office twice a pay period, but is still required to report to an alternate designated duty location within the locality region—like the National Capital Region— the employee is still eligible for locality pay within that region.
While not as likely, if the employee’s work agreement does not require them to report to the office or other alternate sites within the duty station’s locality region twice a pay period, he or she is no longer eligible for locality pay in that region. If this situation is approved, the duty station and the worksite become one and the employee is eligible for locality pay in the applicable region.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
Don Monk, a project management specialist with Huntsville Center's Medical Outfitting and Transition Division, is delivering the program from his home office in Birmingham, Alabama. Monk has been teleworking regularly for years and has a set routine. (Photo by William Farrow, U.S. Army Engineering Support Center, Huntsville)
Required trips to the main worksite are considered official busi- ness and the employee can receive travel reimbursement. In other words, if your duty location is on Fort Belvoir, Virginia, but you’ve moved, with supervisory approval, to Atlanta, and don’t plan to come into the office twice a pay period, you will receive locality pay for the Atlanta region as well as be reimbursed for travel if you are required to come to Fort Belvoir once a quarter.
BIG PICTURE Currently, about 97 percent of the Army’s civilian workforce is teleworking, and “there are some cost savings that [the Army] is celebrating,” Compton said. Te Army is saving money on the lights being off, on water bills from lack of use, on heating and cooling offices—all kinds of things. If telework is incor- porated permanently into a return-to-the-office plan, the Army can continue these savings through personnel “hoteling”—many people sharing one desk space on a rotation. Using office space this way will also allow for proper social distancing until COVID- 19 restrictions ease.
“Te Army is also looking at this initiative as an excellent way of retaining highly skilled professionals,” Compton said. A large part of the workforce is eligible for retirement, and there is a concern
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