GSA picks its telework chief

The agency looks to William Kelly, its director of HR Services, for help in meeting its goal of having 50 percent of its workers telecommuting by 2010.

The General Services Administration has tapped William Kelly, the agency’s director of Human Resources Services, to spearhead efforts to have 50 percent of GSA employees working from home at least one day a week by 2010.This fall, GSA set a goal of having 20 percent of its employees teleworking at least once a week by the end of 2008, 40 percent by the end of 2009 and 50 percent in 2010. About 90 percent of GSA employees are eligible to telework, but only about 10 percent do so.“We’ve developed our strategy, and I am now putting the people and policies in place to make GSA the leader in federal telework and a model for our sister agencies,” said Lurita Doan, the agency’s administrator, in a statement.Doan and others tout telework as a way to reduce energy use and pollution; ease traffic; and increase worker productivity, recruitment and retention. It also provides a way for the agency to continue to operate after a disaster.