Section 110.171, Florida Statutes (F.S.), requires state agencies to “review all established positions and designate those positions that the agency deems eligible for telework. The agency shall ensure that this information is current and available to its employees and managers.”
Many Office positions contain job tasks that may be suitable for telework. Tasks that can be successfully managed in telework programs include those where a position currently handles information, including writing, reading, analysis, computer work and data entry. Use these guidelines to evaluate whether the job duties of the positions in your work unit are suitable for telework.
• Knowledge required
Can all or some of the duties of the position be performed at a remote location, or does the position need continual supervision or input from others that is only available at the official worksite?
• Public and Department contacts
What portion of the job is dedicated to face-to-face contact with other staff or the public? Can communication take place by telephone or Zoom/Teams meetings? Can required contacts be grouped into non-telework days for those who report to the official worksite on scheduled days or can other options be created to provide contact requirements while teleworking? Section 110.171, F.S., doesn’t allow employees to conduct face-to-face business at the employee’s home site.
• Training requirements
Are there training requirements that require the position to report to the official worksite for a particular time period? Can job training be done remotely through software programs?
• Access to resources
What portion of the job depends on the use of reference materials or resources located in the official worksite? Can these resources be mobile for a day or two without interfering with the job performance of coworkers? Can these resources be copied for long-term use? Are these resources available through other means such as a computer library service or a community or university library? Can the material be accessed remotely through the Department of Educations’s Virtual Private Network (VPN)?
• Special equipment
What portion of the job depends on access to specialized equipment, like photocopiers, fax machines, or others? If an employee teleworks on scheduled days of the week and reports to the official worksite on the other days, can the special equipment needs be met on non-telework days? If job functions allow telework while performing all duties without a need to report to the official worksite, can special equipment requirements be met by a facility near the employee’s alternative worksite? Do job functions require the ability to conduct conference calls from the home office? Do job functions require making long-distance phone calls? If so, can the employee utilize Teams chat as needed?
• Use of computers
Do job functions require access to files stored on network servers? Can files be accessed
remotely to complete critical job functions? Can some job functions be completed without network access?
• Information security
What portion of the job accesses, stores, or processes confidential information? Can the integrity of confidential information be upheld if that data is used or accessed off site? Can job duties that involve non-secure information be grouped together and performed at an alternative worksite?
• Tasks scheduling
If all of the job duties for a position cannot be performed away from the official worksite, can those tasks which can be completed away from the official worksite be grouped and scheduled for telework days? Can staff meetings be grouped and scheduled for non-telework days?
• Travel
Does the job involve travel? Can trips begin or end at the employee’s alternative
worksite rather than at the official worksite? Can paperwork be done away from the official worksite?
• Performance management
Can the duties be evaluated by quantitative (the number of work products) or qualitative (the quality of work products) measures even if the duties are performed remotely? Are the duties results-oriented? Can the position description, critical job tasks and performance measures be improved to be evaluated objectively? What deliverables might be produced by performing the job functions remotely?