ARCHIVED - Number 9: Evaluation of Telework Pilot Policy - Findings

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1. Introduction

1.1 Background

In September 1992, the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) introduced the Telework Pilot Policy which enables participating employees to work away from their official workplace (and generally in their home) for part or all of their regular work week. The policy also specified that it would be evaluated in its third year of implementation in order to permit all interested parties "to monitor the implementation and propose appropriate changes to the policy".

At the request of the Evaluation, Audit and Review Group of TBS, the Public Service Commission's Audit and Review Branch conducted this evaluation. In developing the terms of reference and the evaluation methodology, the project team consulted extensively with TBS representatives, with academic and other experts in the area of telework, and with Public Service bargaining agents.

1.2 Objective of the Evaluation

This evaluation sought to determine if the policy has provided employees a viable option for a better balance between work life and personal life, without incurring any economic or operational loss for the employer. A secondary objective was to determine if there is a continuing need to maintain a central agency policy on telework.

The evaluation inquired into the following areas:

• departmental implementation of the policy and guidelines

• the profile of teleworkers and their telework practices

• the cost of equipment and material used

• the impacts of telework on teleworkers

• the impacts for the employer

• impacts on productivity

• the extent of non-documented telework

• the incidence of employees denied the opportunity to telework

• health and safety-related aspects of telework.

1.3 Definitions

We defined some of the key terms as follows:

• telework (télétravail): involves the authorization for employees to work away from their official workplace for part or all of their regular work week. This definition excludes employees who work their regular schedule in the official workplace, but who regularly do overtime away from the official workplace
• official workplace (lieu de travail officiel): the location where the employee would normally work if there were no telework situation, i.e. the employer's premises
• teleworkplace (lieu de télétravail): the location at which the employee and the employer have mutually agreed the employee will telework (usually the employee's home)
• documented teleworkers (télétravailleurs avec entente écrite): employees who have a signed telework arrangement document, as required by the TBS policy, no matter how much of their regular work week is performed as telework
• non-documented teleworkers (télétravailleurs informels): employees without a signed telework arrangement document who telework on average at least 20% of their regular work week, according to a schedule that may be cumulative over a reasonable period, for example, teleworking four consecutive days once monthly, or teleworking a total of three full weeks in a fiscal quarter. The 20% cut-off was arbitrarily chosen as sufficient time involvement to allow an employee to have experienced personal and professional impacts of teleworking
• dependent colleagues (proches collègues): employees who, by the nature of their job, work closely with and interact regularly with the teleworker, but who are not themselves teleworking.

1.4 Methodology

The evaluation employed multiple lines of evidence, including surveys, focus groups, interviews, a review of literature and a comparison of the teleworkers to a control group to confirm the impacts of teleworking. Appendix A identifies the data collection methods, sampling considerations and other details for each of the following groups:

• documented teleworkers and their supervisors
• non-documented teleworkers and their supervisors
• dependent colleagues of teleworkers
• the control group
• former teleworkers and their supervisors
• employees denied telework
• departmental telework co-ordinators
• bargaining agents

Appendix B contains a copy of the survey questionnaires sent to documented and non-documented teleworkers, supervisors of documented teleworkers and dependent colleagues.

To situate our findings in an appropriate context, there are some points to bear in mind regarding three of the above groups.

Non-documented teleworkers: Although the general belief is that there may be several thousand of them in the Public Service, we were able with our selected methodology to involve only 35 in this study. Some possible explanations for this low participation rate include:

• problems in identifying and reaching these employees, and motivating them to participate
• employees who meet this study's definition of a non-documented teleworker may not define themselves as teleworkers – many may feel they are merely "working at home" or "taking work home"
• the vast majority of non-documented teleworkers may in fact telework only occasionally or for periods that do not constitute 20% of their work schedule.

We caution that the 35 non-documented teleworkers in this study constitute a small sample which may not be representative of the Public Service population of non-documented teleworkers.

Dependent colleagues: Our methodology proceeded from the premise that these colleagues work closely with a teleworker. Nevertheless, the majority of the 110 colleagues who participated in this study did not see their work as interdependent with the work of the teleworker. In fact only 29% of these colleagues viewed their ability to do their own work as depending at least moderately on the work of the teleworker. It is possible that up until now, supervisors are approving telework only in situations where the work of the teleworker is not mutually interdependent with that of another employee.

Control group: Since the timing and mechanisms for implementing the policy were left to the discretion of departments, there was generally no pre-telework baseline data on the teleworkers. To compensate for this, we included a control group consisting of a sample of non-teleworking matched colleagues of the teleworkers. Our purpose was to determine if any changes or impacts reported by teleworkers were due to telework, or were also being experienced by non-teleworking peers, and therefore not likely due to telework.

1.5 The Evaluation Report

We are reporting on the evaluation in two volumes:

• The first volume, entitled "Highlights", summarizes and synthesizes our principal findings, our analysis and conclusions regarding the implementation of the Telework Pilot Policy and its effectiveness in meeting its stated objective, and our recommendations for improving the practice and management of telework in the Public Service. It will interest the general reader and provide policy direction to the Treasury Board Secretariat and other stakeholders.
• This volume, entitled "Findings", is the supporting volume. It reports the full range of findings from the various surveys, interviews and focus groups conducted in this evaluation. The information is grouped by theme; for each theme, it encompasses material gathered from the relevant target groups we contacted. This information will be primarily valuable to persons involved in setting up or evaluating a telework program.

2. Portrait of Respondents

2.1 Profile of Respondents

Many groups of people participated in this evaluation. This section provides profiles of the documented teleworkers and their supervisors, the non-documented teleworkers, the dependent colleagues and the control group. We collected less demographic information from the other respondent groups and will provide this where appropriate. The table below shows the sample size of each respondent group. Not all participants answered every question.

Profile of Respondents

Respondent Group	Sample
Documented teleworkers	549
Non-documented teleworkers	35
Dependent colleagues	110
Supervisors of documented teleworkers	172
Supervisors of non-documented teleworkers	18
Control group	150
Former teleworkers	14
Supervisors of former teleworkers	8
Employees denied telework	18

2.1.1 Gender of Respondents

As shown below, women make up a slight majority of the documented teleworkers.

Figure 1
Survey Respondents by Gender

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2.1.2 Age Group of Respondents

Almost half of the respondents in the main survey groups were in the 35-44 age bracket, as shown below. Overall, the teleworkers (both documented and non-documented) tended to be slightly older than the control group and the dependent colleagues.

Age Group of Respondents

	Age (Years)
Respondent Group	34 and under	35 - 44	45 - 54	55 and over
Documented teleworkers	21%	44%	27%	7%
Non-documented teleworkers	20%	43%	34%	3%
Control group	25%	49%	18%	7%
Dependent colleagues	31%	46%	19%	4%

Note: Percentage may not add to 100% due to rounding.

2.1.3 Geographical Location of Respondents

The largest concentrations of both groups of teleworkers and their supervisors are in Ontario, the National Capital Region (NCR) and Quebec. There were smaller numbers in each of the other provinces, but none in Yukon or the Northwest Territories. Not shown in the figure below are the former teleworkers we interviewed who were mostly in P.E.I. (5/14), Ontario (4/14) and the NCR (3/14).

Figure 2
Survey Respondents by Geographical Location

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Note: Percentage may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Whereas almost one-third of the federal Public Service works in the NCR, only 26% of the documented teleworker respondents are employed in the NCR. Ontario and Quebec, which account for 17% and 14% respectively of federal public servants, were proportionately over-represented in the teleworker respondent sample. All other regions were somewhat under-represented.

Since the non-documented teleworkers were mostly solicited by e-mail, this likely a ccounts for their concentration in the NCR (i.e. in some departments, regions are not fully linked via e-mail).

2.1.4 Departmental Distribution of Respondents

Documented teleworkers: A significant portion of these employees were from Revenue Canada (62%), with the balance located in 26 other departments, including:

Departmental Distribution of Respondents

	Statistics Canada	7%
	Veterans Affairs	4%
	Transport Canada	4%
	Human Resources Development	3%
	Industry Canada	3%
	Health Canada	3%

The large number of teleworkers from Revenue Canada may be due to a combination of factors:

• a large initial population of teleworkers, due in turn to the large size of the department, a type of work well-suited to telework (tax auditing), and the department's willingness to allow telework on a pilot basis
• a methodological influence. An unforeseen delay in distributing the survey questionnaire to teleworkers through Revenue Canada's internal mail system meant that it might arrive after the specified return date. We used a follow-up phone call to each survey recipient to explain the situation and encourage them to complete and return the questionnaire. In all other departments, the questionnaire distribution went as planned, and we followed up by memo to encourage completion. The follow-up phone calls appear to have elicited a higher participation rate than did the memo.

Non-documented teleworkers were primarily from Industry Canada (37%), the Public Service Commission (14%) and Canadian Heritage (9%).

The control group showed a departmental distribution similar to that of the documented teleworkers, as expected, given that it was the documented teleworkers who identified a person to be part of the control group.

Dependent colleagues: Almost half of them (47%) were from Revenue Canada, while a small minority (7%) came from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Appendix C provides the complete departmental distribution of survey respondents. Note that the questionnaire for supervisors did not ask them to identify their department.

2.1.5 Respondent's Employment by Length, Tenure and Type

As shown in the following table, current teleworkers, the dependent colleagues we surveyed and the control group have on average held their position for at least six years.

Respondent's Employment by Length, Tenure and Type

Respondent Group	Years (average) in Public Service	Years (average) in Current Job
Documented teleworkers	14	7
Non-documented teleworkers	13	7
Control group	13	6
Dependent colleagues	--	8
Supervisors of documented teleworkers	18	10
Former teleworkers	--	5
Employees denied telework	--	8

On average, dependent colleagues had worked with the teleworker for just over three years, generally predating the start of that employee's telework arrangement. Supervisors had been supervising teleworkers for an average of 1.25 years.

Further analysis shows that in general, among the documented teleworkers, men have been in their job for slightly longer than women (8 years vs. 6.6 years), and have also worked longer in the federal government.

The vast majority of teleworkers (94% of the documented and 89% of the non-documented) work a 37.5 hour week. Among those with a different pattern, the average work week for documented teleworkers was 30 hours, and for non-documented teleworkers, 26 hours. In the group of documented teleworkers, women were more likely than men to work a shorter work week.

Over 90% of all documented and non-documented teleworkers, dependent colleagues and employees denied telework have indeterminate tenure in their position.

2.1.6 Occupational Category and Group of Respondents

Documented teleworkers: As shown below, more than half are in the Administrative and Foreign Service (A & FS) category, including the Program Administration (PM), Administrative Services (AS), Computer Systems Administration (CS), Information Services (IS), and Personnel Administration (PE) groups. A sizeable minority are in the Scientific and Professional (S & P) category, comprising mainly Auditing (AU), Economics, Sociology and Statistics (ES), Law (LA), Mathematics (MA) and Engineering and Land Survey (EN) employees.

Figure 3
Occupational Category of Respondents

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The following occupational groups account for the largest number of documented teleworkers:

	Program Administration (PM)	43%
	Auditing (AU)	21%
	Clerical and Regulatory (CR)	9%
	Administrative Services (AS)	6%
	Economics, Sociology and Statistics (ES)	3%
	Social Science Support (SI)	3%

 Non-documented teleworkers: Almost two thirds of them were in the A & FS category, with PM and AS employees being the two largest groups.

The control group distribution was similar to that of the documented teleworkers: 41% of them in the PM group and 22% in the AU group.

For the dependent colleagues, the largest concentrations were in the A & FS (47%) and the S & P (26%) categories, followed by the Administrative Support (20%) and Technical (5%) categories. The PM group (29%), the AU group (18%) and the CR group (16%) were the most numerous.

Supervisors were also concentrated in the A & FS (44%) and the S & P (36%) categories. Beyond this, 5% of them were in each of the Executive and Technical categories.

Former teleworkers: almost two-thirds of them were in the Administrative Support category, while less than a third came from the S & P category.

2.1.7 Educational Level of Respondents

The different groups share certain similarities in their educational level, as shown in the following figure. One difference to note is that the non-documented teleworkers and the supervisors we surveyed have, on average, a higher level of formal education than the other three groups.

Figure 4
Survey Respondents by Level of Education

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Note: Percentage may not add to 100% due to rounding.

When the data for documented teleworkers is broken down further, we find that:

• documented women teleworkers are more likely to have a community college or high school education, while men are more likely to be university educated
• the younger documented teleworkers tend also to be more university educated than their older counterparts.

2.1.8 Commuting Patterns

As we can see from the table below, employees in the control group have the shortest average travel time to work in comparison to the documented and non-documented teleworkers. The non-documented teleworkers have the longest average travel time – in fact, only 38% of them can reach the workplace in less than 30 minutes, compared to 60% of the documented teleworkers and 81% of the control group. Over 85% of all three groups can commute to work in an hour or less.

Commuting Patterns

	Time	Distance	Method
Respondent Group	Minutes (average) one way	Kilometers (average) one way	Drive alone	Travel with others (car pool, bus, etc.)	Other (walk, bicycle, etc.)
Documented teleworkers	34	29	63%	31%	4%
Non-documented teleworkers	42	26	48%	39%	13%
Control group	24	16	59%	35%	5%

Note: Percentage may not add to 100% due to rounding.

More than 70% of the three groups live within 30 kilometers of their workplace. People in the control group, taking less time to travel to work, also commute the shortest distance, as can be expected. Twice as many documented teleworkers travel alone than travel with others. Within the documented group, women are more likely to travel with others than are men. As we will see in section 2.2.1, commuting time and distance are important considerations in wanting to telework.

2.1.9 Disability Status of Teleworkers

7% of the documented and almost 9% of the non-documented teleworkers consider themselves disabled. To put these figures into perspective, approximately 3% of the Public Service workforce has self-identified as being disabled. Of the documented teleworkers, most who consider themselves as disabled are in the 55 years and over age group and are located in the NCR or Ontario. These employees are also more likely to live closer to their official workplace and to have been longer in their jobs than the non-disabled.

2.1.10 Union Membership of Teleworkers

94% of the documented teleworkers occupy a position included in a collective bargaining unit, while this drops to 81% for the non-documented.

2.2 Telework Decisions

2.2.1 Employees' Reasons for Teleworking

In reply to our survey question, documented and the non-documented teleworkers cited the following reasons (as shown in Figure 5) for wanting to telework (note that multiple answers were accepted):

Figure 5
Reasons for Teleworking

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The reason most often chosen is the desire to have more control over their work conditions (e.g., fewer interruptions, better ability to concentrate, etc.). A reduction in commuting time and monetary savings (e.g., on transportation, food and clothing) were the next two important reasons. Saving money is more important for the documented than non-documented respondents, most likely due to the ad-hoc telework schedule adopted by the majority of this latter group.

Although not shown in Figure 5, employees denied telework cited all of the above, plus other personal reasons for wanting to telework. Former teleworkers also agreed with these reasons and cited an additional one – "pilot project/experiment/wanted to try it".

The survey questionnaire offered a choice of seven possible reasons. Statistical analysis shows that:

• women are more likely than men to list "health problems" and "to have more control over the work environment" as important reasons
• university educated teleworkers indicate that having "more flexible work hours" is an important consideration
• older respondents are more likely than their younger counterparts to indicate that "health problems" and "more control over the work environment" influence their decision
• those respondents who answered "to reduce commuting time" tend to travel a longer distance to their workplace.

2.2.2 Reasons for Approval of Telework

As the policy stipulates that the approval of telework arrangements is left to the discretion of departments, we asked supervisors for their approval criteria.

171 respondents gave 426 responses. The most frequently cited were the following:

	the employee's ability to work independently	29%
	the employee's type of work	28%
	the employee's previous performance	20%

2.2.3 Reasons for Denial of Telework

It is interesting to note that even among the group of surveyed supervisors who had approved telework arrangements for some employees, about one-third (31%) had also denied a request to telework. The main reasons they gave were:

• the denied employee's lack of autonomy
• the impact on client service
• the type of work performed by the denied employee.

It is naturally the group of employees denied telework that we interviewed who gave the most details on telework refusals. Half had made their request orally, the other half in writing. Three of them had actually teleworked for a period in the same department, but the arrangement had ceased, and the current supervisor refused their most recent request. These "denied teleworkers" appear no different from teleworkers in terms of their tenure, group and level, functions, stated reasons for requesting telework, or the pattern of telework they were asking for. Half of their requests were denied by their immediate supervisor, and the other half by a more senior level of management. Fifteen of the 18 refusals were oral, and three in writing, in spite of the fact that nine had submitted a written request. This may indicate that management did not take the request seriously.

There appears to be no pattern to these refusals, most being justified by the supervisors on the basis that the work does not lend itself to having an employee away from the office (i.e. they would not be around in case of urgent work arriving, or the boss needed all staff at all times due to budget cutbacks). Only one refusal was due to a technological problem. Other reasons given were that:

• it was not feasible to telework, in spite of other employees doing identical work in a parallel unit who teleworked
• it would set a bad precedent if the employee was allowed to telework
• the boss needed to actually see them at their desk
• a written document was needed but was never prepared.

The denial of a telework request may not be as arbitrary as denied teleworkers and bargaining agents seem to think, however. Discussions with 14 telework co-ordinators pointed out that in their departments, there are various levels of approval authority which should lead to a more global view in these decisions and reduce subjectivity. In five departments, it is the immediate supervisor who has approval authority; in four others, it is the manager who grants approval; and in the remaining departments, authority rests at the Director level. (Note: in one of the above departments, either the manager or the director approves telework, depending on the expected number of days to be teleworked per month). As an additional measure to reduce subjectivity and promote telework, managers in one of these departments must justify their denial of telework to their Assistant Deputy Head.

In our interviews with Public Service bargaining agents, three expressed concern about a lack of criteria for accepting or denying a telework request, and the perceived lack of consistency in approving them. In addition, one bargaining agent felt that management required a high productivity level before approving any request.

2.2.4 Reasons for Ending Telework

When former teleworkers were asked why they stopped teleworking, almost one quarter said it was for personal reasons (e.g. difficult career opportunities, lack of human contact, poor technology), while the rest said it was because of a management decision (e.g., management wanted everyone back at the office, the supervisor felt it was not working out, confidential nature of the work, end of project, etc.). This proportion was similar to that reported by the eight supervisors of former teleworkers we interviewed: they said that two teleworkers had stopped for personal reasons, while the other six had stopped because of a managerial decision.

2.3 Advance Preparation for Teleworking

2.3.1 Documented Teleworkers

The majority (87%) of documented teleworkers received a copy of the TBS or departmental policy before they started teleworking, and half (51%) received some training or counselling from their department on possible impacts and practical considerations of teleworking (e.g., employee and employer responsibilities, advantages and disadvantages, the fact that participation is voluntary and the arrangement can be terminated at any time). The points least frequently covered in the counselling were the suitability of certain employees for telework and consultation with the unions.

Half of the documented teleworkers report that they were informed by their department that it was their responsibility to ensure the health and safety of their teleworkplace. 79% had been informed that the terms and conditions of their collective agreement continue to apply.

Our statistical analysis pointed out some interesting differences:

• respondents with more years of formal education were less likely to:

• receive training and counselling about the possible impacts of telework
• have had the department inform them of their responsibility for teleworkplace health and safety
• have consulted with their union prior to teleworking.
• women are more likely to indicate that they received training and counselling about telework and are more likely to have been informed about health and safety. It may be that women are more prone to seek this information out before beginning to telework.

2.3.2 Supervisors

Of the supervisors we surveyed, 92% had received a copy of the TBS or a departmental policy before implementing telework, and 67% had received advice and guidance from their department. Over half, however, had not received any information on health and safety. It should be noted that 86% of those who received information rated it as ranging from useful to extremely useful. It is also interesting to note that the more useful supervisors perceived the information they received on telework to be, the more supportive they were of telework in general, as indicated by their survey responses to these questions. Nevertheless, in their focus group, supervisors still spoke of a lack of ongoing operational support for telework and practical and timely advice.

2.3.3 Non-documented Teleworkers and their Supervisors

Generally, the non-documented teleworkers received little information before beginning to telework. Just 56% of them had received a copy of the TBS or departmental policy before they started teleworking, and only 17% received some form of training or counselling. The majority (69%) were unaware of the TBS policy requirement that teleworkers be given a document signed by their supervisor specifying the details of the telework arrangement. Only 11% had been offered such a document by their supervisor. They most frequently gave the following reasons for working without a signed arrangement document (multiple answers were accepted):

	unaware that this was a requirement	27%
	because my telework schedule is not a regular one	21%
	less paperwork for my supervisor and me	15%
	other colleagues are doing so without a signed document	9%

All but one of the non-documented teleworkers indicated they intend to continue to telework, but only four planned to get a signed document in the near future.

Of the 18 supervisors of non-documented teleworkers that we interviewed, all but two had received a copy of either the TBS or a departmental telework policy. Over half said they were aware of the requirement to provide a signed telework arrangement document. Similarly, over half were aware of health and safety aspects in telework. In spite of this knowledge on the part of managers, the non-documented teleworkers in our survey generally had access to less information than did the documented teleworkers. From this we conclude that the knowledge is not being systematically disseminated to interested employees.

2.3.4 Dependent Colleagues

Only 40% of the dependent colleagues had received any training on the possible impacts of working with a teleworker, with the most often cited topics being general information on telework and the (re)distribution of duties caused by the new situation. Those who received no training noted that they would have liked access to basic information, such as a general description of telework.

2.3.5 Departmental Co-ordinators

The telework co-ordinators in 14 departments told us they had not received any particular training other than some on-the-job training and attendance at some professional meetings. Among them, they produced various departmental guidelines, information kits for both managers and employees (three departments) and a video to promote the program (one department).

The information they provided dealt with the policy and questions that might arise on the part of managers or employees. The information kits we reviewed were generally complete, with some departments encouraging employees to discuss their telework request with their union.

2.3.6 Views of Bargaining Agents

There is general agreement among the five bargaining agents we met that members are seldom consulting unions before starting to telework. This is borne out by the statistics below from our surveys and interviews:

Views of Bargaining Agents

Respondents:	Documented teleworkers	Non-documented teleworkers	Employees denied telework
Did not consult union prior to telework request	83%	79%	78%
Did consult union before making request	13%	6%	22%
Are not in unionized position	5%	15%	--

Note: Percentage may not add to 100% due to rounding.

These findings are not surprising, given that consulting with unions was infrequently covered in the training/counselling provided to teleworkers. Bargaining agents indicate that members are more likely to consult with them after the fact, if and when a problem arises.

While unions differed on the relative importance of health and safety issues in telework, there was consensus on the need to educate members and on avoiding the use of telework to deal with health problems caused by the workplace. They are concerned with potential long-range health and safety problems which may arise from an inadequate ergonomic layout of home offices which at times reflects the employee's decision to make-do with what is presently available. Two of the unions were aware of accidents in the teleworkplace – each was settled easily. They cited this as a reason for ensuring that members have a telework document as it is useful in proving that the accident took place on the job.

As for health and safety inspection of the teleworkplace before authorising telework, one union was not in favour, while the other four were. Of these:

• two would advise their members to accept inspection for their own benefit
• one stated that a departmental inspection policy was too vague and that some of its members have problems with the privacy issue
• the remaining one felt that the inspection should be done by the department's Health and Safety Committee, not by management.

2.4 Characteristics of Telework Patterns

We examined the telework patterns of documented and non-documented teleworkers, including weekly and daily patterns, and the type of tasks performed on telework days. Subsections 2.4.1 through 2.4.5 profile our findings, and for comparison, subsection 2.4.6 provides related information about former teleworkers and subsection 2.4.7, related information from other respondent groups.

2.4.1 Teleworkers' Schedules

The figure below shows that almost two-thirds of the documented group teleworked on a "regular" schedule (e.g. the same days each week), while the remaining follow an "ad hoc" schedule (when it suits them) or a "flexible" schedule (e.g. different days each week or different weeks each month). In comparison, about half of the non-documented teleworkers follow an "ad hoc" schedule.

Figure 6
Telework Schedule of Respondents

When the data for the documented teleworkers are broken down by demographic and telework-related variables, we find that:

• women are more likely to telework on a regular schedule, while men are more apt than women to choose a flexible or ad hoc schedule
• respondents in the Scientific and Professional category are less likely than respondents in other occupational categories to telework on a regular schedule (these findings are based on small sample sizes)
• those with a university degree are the least likely to follow a regularly scheduled telework pattern, and are the most likely to telework on a flexible schedule.

2.4.2 Duration and Weekly Hours of Telework Arrangement

On average, both groups have been teleworking for a similar length of time – almost 16 months for the documented (with a range of one month to 6.5 years) and almost 14 months for the non-documented teleworkers (with a range of four months to three years).

Further statistical analysis reveals that:

• respondents who have worked in their current job for the longest time (i.e. at least eight years) are the most likely to have been teleworking for at least 18 months, while those with the least time in their current job (i.e. less than three years) are the most likely to have undertaken a teleworking arrangement within the last year.

The documented group averages 22 telework hours each week, which is almost double the non-documented teleworkers' average of 12 hours.

• Few differences are exhibited across telework patterns by the age of respondents, although older respondents (55 years or more) tend to telework more hours per week than their younger counterparts.

As seen in the table below, both groups of teleworkers show changes in terms of the amount of voluntary, unpaid overtime they worked before starting their telework arrangement and now that they are teleworking. Both the proportion of employees doing such overtime and the average number of such overtime hours have increased.

voluntary, unpaid overtime

	% Working Overtime		Overtime Hours (Ave.)
Group	Before Telework	Now	Before Telework		Now
Documented teleworkers	23%	41%	1.0		1.6
Non-documented teleworkers	37%	51%	2.8		3.4

2.4.3 Daily Telework Pattern

Reports from other jurisdictions have shown that telework can be conducive to "time-shifting" (starting the workday much earlier or finishing much later) and "time-splitting" (dividing the workday into two or more distinct segments).

A minority of the documented teleworkers and a majority of the non-documented indicated that their daily pattern of work hours has changed significantly on the days they telework. Of the documented teleworkers who had a significant change, two-thirds involved time-shifting, generally starting their telework day earlier. On average, non-documented teleworkers tended to start working later than the documented on their telework day (8:30 a.m. versus 7:30 a.m. for the documented) and finish their work day later (around 6:20 p.m. versus 5:00 p.m. for the documented).

A small number of respondents in each group reported that the span between their starting and finishing time on telework days is quite large, which would appear to indicate they are time-splitting. Of the documented teleworkers, one respondent reports starting the workday at 4:00 a.m., and several others between 6 and 7:00 a.m. Eight of them report finishing their normal workday after 6:00 p.m., with one of them routinely working until 11:00 p.m. Of the 24 documented teleworkers who appear to be time splitting, about half reported that their telework day spanned between 8.5 and 10 hours, while the other half reported a span exceeding 10 hours.

Respondents gave two main reasons for changing their pattern of working hours: because they were more productive during those hours (48% and 31% for documented and non-documented, respectively) and to balance their work and family responsibilities (30% and 45% for documented and non-documented, respectively). It is interesting to note that the percentages are about the same for both groups but reversed in order of importance. We also found that among the documented teleworkers:

• more respondents in the 45-54 age group gave "improved productivity" as a reason for changing their pattern of working hours, while more respondents in the 35-44 age group did so "to balance work and family".

2.4.4 Tasks Performed on Telework Days

Both groups of teleworkers reported doing the following most frequently: reading, writing, analysing/interpreting data. These tasks were performed by over 60% of the respondents. Supervising, managing and accounting/budgeting were the tasks least likely to be performed on telework days. This is not surprising as most of the teleworkers (92% of the documented and 80% of the non-documented) did not supervise employees. Those who did, supervise on average three to four employees.

2.4.5 Work Space in the Teleworkplace

About half of the documented teleworkers, and one third of the non-documented, work in a room designated solely for that purpose. The others use a room which serves multiple purposes. Although most made no physical changes to their homes to improve the safety of their teleworkplace, slightly more of the documented ones did (22%) compared to the non-documented (15%). This is to be expected as it is the documented teleworkers who most often telework on a regular schedule. Those who made changes mainly re-arranged rooms, bought furniture or added better lighting.

2.4.6 Comparative Data on Former Teleworkers

The majority of them (12/14) teleworked for at least six months, with a formal arrangement document, and more than half were teleworking part of the work week. Over half of them reported no major time-shifting or -splitting on their telework days, while the balance indicated that their normal telework day was either beginning much earlier or ending much later than before they started teleworking. The majority did not make any health and safety improvements to their teleworkplace.

2.4.7 Related Information from Other Respondent Groups

Control group – Almost all (96%) have an official work week of 37.5 hours; the rest average 30 hours/week. Just under one third of them work some voluntary unpaid overtime, averaging 1.3 hours/week, which is higher than the average pre-telework pattern of the documented teleworkers.

Dependent colleagues – Their survey responses confirm that the group of teleworkers with whom they work are fairly reflective of the main group of teleworkers we studied. Specifically, their colleague was teleworking an average of three days per week, with 75% of them following a regular telework schedule.

Supervisors – The average number of teleworkers that these respondents supervise is three, most of whom (64%) telework part of their work week. Most of these teleworking employees are in the PM (32%), AU (19%), CR (10%) and AS (9%) occupational groups. Only 6% of the supervisors are teleworkers themselves.

2.5 Electronic Equipment and Telework

2.5.1 Teleworkers' Use of Electronic Equipment

The vast majority of documented and non-documented teleworkers use some electronic equipment on the days they telework, as shown in the following table:

Teleworkers' Use of Electronic Equipment

Equipment	Documented Teleworkers	Non-documented Teleworkers
Computer	95%	100%
Software	88%	100%
Printer	81%	67%
Voice mail or answering machine	59%	62%
Business phone line	43%	19%
Modem	40%	77%
E-mail or network	26%	76%
Fax machine	23%	43%

For both groups of teleworkers, the patterns of equipment use are similar, the computer and software having top importance. One noteworthy difference between the two groups is in their use of modem and e-mail (used much more widely by non-documented teleworkers). These findings may seem surprising when one recalls that proportionally more of the documented group telework on a regular schedule where, one would think, these means of communication are more essential.

Breaking down the data by demographic variables reveals the following:

• women are more likely than men to use voice mail or answering machines on their telework days
• older respondents (age 55 and over) are the most likely to use voice mail or answering machine and a business phone line
• respondents in the top two age groups (45 years and up) are more likely to use e-mail than their younger counterparts
• respondents in the 45-54 age group are the most likely to use a modem compared to respondents in the other age categories
• employees teleworking more than 30 hours a week are more likely to use a business phone line, and voice mail or answering machine than those teleworking fewer hours.

2.5.2 Importance in Their Work

The equipment rated "very important" in the work of the documented teleworkers were: the computer (92% rated it very important), software (90%) and business phone line (80%) followed by printer (77%) and answering machine (75%). Rated as least important were the fax machine, modem and e-mail. For the non-documented teleworkers, the importance of electronic equipment in their work was in about the same order as their usage of it (see preceding table).

When we look at breakdowns by some demographic variables for documented teleworkers, we find that:

• although the majority of respondents, regardless of education level, feel that computers and software are very important to their work, those with high school or less placed the least importance on computers, while respondents with a community college education place more importance on software than the other education groups.

2.5.3 Supplying Electronic Equipment

The following table shows who supplied the electronic equipment used by teleworkers.

Supplying Electronic Equipment

Equipment	Document Teleworkers
	Employer supplied	class="alignCenter" Employee supplied
E-Mail/network	97%	3%
Software	89%	11%
Computer	84%	16%
Modem	82%	18%
Printer	76%	24%
Business phone line	74%	26%
Voice mail / answering machine	53%	47%
Fax machine	44%	56%

The majority (over 2/3) of documented teleworkers reported that their equipment was supplied by their employer, with the exception of fax machines and voice mail/answering machines. Although the major portion of the equipment used by non-documented and former teleworkers was employer-supplied, these two groups are more likely than the documented teleworkers to supply their own.

A majority (73% of documented and 56% of non-documented teleworkers) agreed that it was easy to obtain electronic equipment from their employer. When equipment was not easily obtained, it was mostly due to budgetary constraints, equipment shortage or lengthy delays.

Further statistical analysis of the responses of documented teleworkers shows that:

• men are more likely to have printers as well as software supplied by the employer, while women are more likely than men to supply their own computer, printer and software
• community college educated respondents are the most likely to have their computers, printers and software supplied by their employer.

2.5.4 Rating Job Performance with Equipment Used

77% of documented and 68% of non-documented teleworkers indicated that they can perform their job effectively on telework days with the electronic equipment provided by their employer. For those who cannot, their job effectiveness is reduced mostly due to the lack of equipment (60% of documented and 36% of non-documented teleworkers) rather than other factors, such as equipment failure (9% of each group) or a lack of training on use of the equipment (5% of documented and 9% of the non-documented teleworkers).

The following are some significant findings from data analysis by demographic factors:

• female documented teleworkers are less likely than their male counterparts to feel that the lack of training on the electronic equipment provided by their employer reduced their effectiveness
• respondents with high school education or less tend more to feel that they can perform their job effectively with the equipment supplied than do their counterparts with higher levels of education
• older respondents (45 years and over) are more likely than the younger respondents to attribute a reduction in their effectiveness to equipment failure, and to the lack of training on the electronic equipment provided by their employer
• those in the 35-44 age group on the other hand attribute their reduction in effectiveness to needing more equipment.

2.5.5 Level of Technology Support

A substantial minority (30% and 25% of documented and non-documented teleworkers respectively) indicated that they had not experienced problems with their electronic equipment on their telework days. Of those who did have problems, 81% of the documented, and 58% of the non-documented teleworkers rated the level of technology support to handle these problems as adequate.

From our statistics, women documented teleworkers were less likely to have experienced problems with their equipment; however, when problems did occur, they were more likely to feel that no support was available. In the focus groups, some teleworkers complained that there was no technical support at home – they had to bring their equipment into the office to be repaired.

2.5.6 Dependent Colleagues' Communications with Teleworkers

We asked dependent colleagues how they communicate with teleworkers on their days away from the office. The means of communication and colleagues' evaluation of the importance of each are shown below:

Dependent Colleagues' Communications with Teleworkers

Means of Communication	Used by % of Colleagues	Colleagues' Evaluation of Communication Means
		Very Important	Somewhat Important	Not Important
Telephone, voice mail, or answering machine	51%	class="alignCenter" 71%	25%	5%
Fax machine	15%	21%	29%	50%
E-mail	12%	21%	31%	48%
Other (e.g. written notes, home visits, etc.)	10%	22%	35%	44%

Note: Percentage may not add to 100% due to rounding.

The majority of dependent colleagues (77%) found these means of communication to be generally satisfactory; only 8% felt that they were unsatisfactory. In any case, most dependent colleagues communicate infrequently with teleworkers. Colleagues reported the following:

• 22% communicate at least daily to give instructions or feedback
• 18% communicate at least daily to receive instructions or feedback
• 18% communicate at least daily for other work-related matters.

These findings are not totally surprising, remembering that only 29% of these colleagues indicated that their ability to do their own work depends at least moderately upon the work of the teleworker they work with.

We examined the impacts of telework on stakeholders from a number of perspectives. This section will address impacts on the following areas:

• on the teleworkers' personal and professional life
• on the productivity of teleworkers, their supervisors and co-workers
• on the work unit and on the organization, apart from productivity
• on teleworkers' personal expenses, including child care.

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