For feds, hybrid work policies should focus on delivering results for the public 

The federal government is facing enormous pressure to determine what the future of work should look like in the post-pandemic world. 

This pressure on the nation’s largest employer is coming from some in Congress, local leaders and its own workforce, all of whom have differing and often conflicting reasons for pushing for more or less time in the office. 

As agencies assess how to adjust work policies moving forward based on newly issued Office of Management and Budget guidelines, let’s make sure the government’s decisions are for the right reasons, not the wrong ones. 

Worries about downtown office building occupancy rates and the vitality of our cities are important issues of upmost concern for local public officials and the business community, but are not the right reasons to order every federal employee back to the office. 

Political attacks that suggest federal employees are using at-home work to avoid doing their jobs also should not influence agency decisions. In any large organization, there will always be individual employees who take improper advantage of flexibilities, and our government often reacts to these stories by creating harsh rules that are more costly than the individual violations. 

And if our government pushes too hard for in-office work, agencies will lose critical talent that could result in an unintended consequence — even greater use of more costly contractors who will not be bound by in-person federal workplace rules. 

Last year’s annual government-wide survey of federal employees found that about 31 percent were working in the office full time, while 55 percent participated in some form of hybrid work and 14 percent had an approved agreement for full-time telework. In the early months of the pandemic in 2020, 59 percent of federal employees worked from home full time. 

As agencies seek to rebalance in-person and at-home work, the focus should be ensuring that the government is ready to tackle the nation’s biggest challenges, compete for and retain top talent and build a system that prioritizes performance and customer service ahead of all other considerations. 

Throughout the pandemic with large numbers of employees not in the office, our nation’s civil servants provided vital services and economic assistance to the public and the business community.  

Government leaders supported the rapid adoption of new and existing technologies, employees found smarter and better ways to overcome obstacles to serve the public, and there was an unprecedented level of collaboration among agencies, across levels of government and between the federal and private sectors. NASA employees were even able to remotely control the Mars Curiosity rover from their homes. 

While some aspects of the government’s response did not meet expectations and there have been agencies that experienced a diminution of service, what’s clear is that the future of work is already here and the government must not be left behind. 

The Biden administration should build on government’s successes, learn from the situations where it has fallen short, show flexibility to meet workforce needs and service to the public, and make adjustments as circumstances change. 

If federal leaders seize the moment, our government will have an opportunity to recruit talented individuals wherever they are and in many cases closer to the communities they serve, build a workforce that better reflects the diversity of our country, create a workplace culture more in line with today’s mobile workforce, and use new technology to build more customer‐focused services. 

This approach could help improve employee engagement and build a more effective government, which in turn could improve public trust that has been on the decline for many years.  

The administration is taking a rational approach calling on agency leaders to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work” while continuing to allow telework and remote work when it does not hurt the agency’s mission and helps with recruitment, retention and customer service.  

While incredibly challenging to find the right balance, a mixture of the various options offers our government a chance to become an employer of choice, with the flexibilities benefiting our nation’s civil servants while providing an opportunity to build a highly capable workforce that will provide first-class service to the public. 

Max Stier is the president and CEO of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.