Deployment of Telework in European Public Administrations

Part Three: Comparisons and Conclusions
home-teleworking
telecentres, telecottage
mobile teleworking
work on remote office sites
17
4
3
8
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
home-teleworking
telecentres, telecottage
mobile teleworking
work on remote office sites
home-
teleworking
telecentres,
telecottage
mobile
teleworking
work on
remote
office sites
others
17
4
3
8
1
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
home-
teleworking
telecentres,
telecottage
mobile
teleworking
work on
remote
office sites
others
69
As we have not asked explicitly about unions` participation, but more generally about modes of decision-making
including staff the actual involvement of a further union might not have been presented in one or the other interview.

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One of the analysed national ministries provides an example for an exceptionally low time of
absence from the headquarters. One telework day per week indicates that telework serves as the
flexible periphery of a traditional work scheme (‘additional telework’). In six cases work is
performed between one and at maximum two days per week at a distance. The majority of ten
cases deals with an absence between two and three days per week. Both options together show a
clear preference for alternating telework. Two of the three organisations where teleworkers show
up in the main office less often than once per week practise telework from remote office sites.
Pict. 4: 
Distance work in days per week
In two of our cases the establishment of a telework-scheme has not been the original objective,
but one that emerged later to serve as a tool within overall structural change. In both cases the
number of office sites became reduced, in one of the cases a reduction of managerial positions is
also documented. The remaining office sites ICT linked with the main office were occupied
according to the organisational needs and employees' preferences regarding their living
environment.
One third of the administrations expected and experienced shifts towards enhanced team and goal
oriented work as well as a decrease of interruptions at work. Changes of the interface with the
public are not necessarily foreseen. A change or extension of services provided, increased
transparency or a better response rate do not tend to be part of the rationale. In single cases
telework eases the work performance of disabled colleagues. In general our interviewees say that
the administrations do not intend to change their relationship to the labour market, neither do the
majority of them think that telework opens them a geographically larger market for the
recruitment of personnel, nor is outsourcing or reduction of staff intended. Here, the declared
intentions should be interpreted cautiously. To begin with, the majority of our interviewees are IT-
project managers, hence, not in charge of the administration's employment strategies. Further,
telework is only one element in a general trend towards re-engineering of work processes and
rationalisation in the public sector (see 1.1., 1.2., 3.10 and cases). Rather than an isolated
phenomenon with ‘original’ impact on employment, telework is an organisational tool to serve
goals as primarily set up within a wider organisational and economic frame. Therefore, from our
field work we can only conclude that changes of recruitment and employment configurations have
not been articulated in conjunction with telework schemes.