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Mobile computing is becoming more common for federal employees, and many agencies are beginning to allow employees to use their own personal devices for work, according to a new survey.

The survey of 414 federal employees and IT staff by CDW Government found that more than half of federal employees use at least one mobile device at work. Nearly all (99 percent) of IT professionals have deployed mobile devices to agency employees.

In addtion, 62 percent of agencies are allowing employees to BYOD, or bring your own device, to work. Forty-four percent of federal employees using a mobile device are using their own. That strategy appears to be working, as nearly all federal employees who use a mobile device for work believe it makes them more productive, and the majority say increased mobility will improve citizen service, the survey found.

"Mobility is the 'new normal' for Federal employees," said Bob Kirby, vice president of federal government for CDW-G. "Employees increasingly expect to be able to work anywhere and at any time. Agencies responded first by deploying mobile devices, and now they are enabling use of personal devices."

Kirby added that the BYOD trend is likely to continue, particularly following the Obama administration's November 2011 executive order asking agencies to limit the number of IT devices they issue to employees to reduce costs.

Meanwhile, agencies are providing a good security baseline for mobile devices, with the majority establishing data security policies (85 percent) and requiring data security training for mobile device users (84 percent), the study found. Other areas of security could be improved, however, as fewer IT professionals said their agency protects mobile devices with multi-factor authentication (54 percent), remote lock and wipe (45 percent) and data loss prevention software (39 percent), CDW-G found.

Are you using your own personal device for work? What factors are behind this trend at your agency?

Next month marks Telework Exchange's annual Telework Week event, and many agencies are planning to use the event to test their business continuity plans.

Cindy Auten, general manager of Telework Exchange, told Wired Workplace on Friday that more than 9,000 federal employees have pledged to telework during the annual Telework Week, which runs March 5-9.

"Agencies are really getting behind this program to test their business continuity and really understand why it's important to do drills using Telework Week to get more people involved," Auten said. "And I think that this will be a good test for agencies to see how prepared they are without having the next Snowmageddon."

Last year, the Telework Week program had nearly 40,000 pledges, with more than 86 percent of those pledges coming from federal workers. Those workers collectively saved $2.7 million in commuting costs and saved employees an average two hours from their commutes for each day teleworked, according to Telework Exchange estimates.

Auten said a report on the results of this year's Telework Week would be released at the organization's town hall meeting in May. "It will be interesting to compare year over year and see how well agencies have done and how prepared they were," she said. "I think we will see some really good movement between the two years."

Still, Auten said one major challenge for agencies going forward -- particularly for those agencies that recently kicked off their telework programs as a result of the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act -- is quantifying telework's return on investment. Some agencies like the Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security departments -- which were called out in a recent letter to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry for having high numbers of positions deemed ineligible for telework - may have a difficult time beginning to track and provide accurate data, she said.

"Capturing the data is really important and not just necessarily whose teleworking and the frequency but also how telework is coming back to meet the agency mission," Auten said. "Agencies have to quantify the savings, and developing that telework ROI model is going to be very critical."

Going forward, Auten said a major trend for 2012 will be a move to enterprisewide tech solutions for both teleworkers and non-teleworkers, which is part of Federal CIO Steven Van Roekel's new mobility strategy to make agencies more agile and flexible. "The goal is for one enterprisewide solution that can enable the mobile workforce," she said. "So if you use collaborative tools for teleworkers, the people in the office are using the same tools."

Have you made your pledge for this year's Telework Week? If not, click here.

Federal employees started off this week with their first snow-related delay of the winter season, and many feds are still concerned about what winter weather will mean for their commute and their ability to perform their jobs. The good news is that many government offices have adopted teleworking policies, according to a new report by Microsoft.

The report, which is based on a survey of 250 employees, 73 percent of which worked in government, found that 67 percent of respondents work remotely at least some of the time. Surprisingly, however, only 33 percent of teleworkers indicated that their job satisfaction and productivity have increased since telework adoption.

Managers also are buying into the concept of telework, with 47 percent of respondents saying their boss was enthusiastic about telework, while 25 percent said their boss was skeptical but willing to give telework a chance.

In a time where the potential for budget cuts is forcing agencies to do more with less, respondents also indicated that telework could help achieve that goal. After streamlining the acquisition process (31 percent) and reducing travel budgets (25 percent), respondents indicated that implementing telework policies (22 percent) could help agencies save money.

Of respondents who do not telework, half reported that they would strongly consider a career move if another comparable opportunity arose that included a more robust telework policy, the survey found.

Still, many government workers face challenges in working remotely, the survey found. Approximately 30 percent of respondents said that telework gets in the way of team collaboration and that working effectively requires face time. Respondents also noted concern with not knowing how to best communicate with colleagues, difficulty accessing key work documents and difficulty in scheduling meetings.

At the same time, respondents indicated that embracing new technologies, like chat/instant messaging (27 percent), video conferencing (29 percent) and collaborative document editing (32 percent), can help to close the collaboration gap.

"Although these tools didn't unseat email and the telephone as preferred communications methods," the report states, "it's clear that there is significant demand in the government sector for collaboration capabilities that can be accessed from any location and any device."

And finally, teleworkers also indicated that they are taking advantage of another perk of working from home -- comfort. Nearly three quarters of respondents said they prefer a personal dress code of jeans and t-shirts, sweats or pajamas.

Training and investing in the IT workforce is among the top priorities for federal chief information officers in the coming year, particularly as the potential for a federal hiring freeze could prevent IT leaders from bringing on critical IT skills.

A new survey of 24 federal CIOs and deputy CIOs by Federal News Radio found that 40 percent of CIOs place IT workforce and training issues as one of their top five priorities for 2012. Cybersecurity, cloud computing and mobile computing ranked as the top priorities among CIOs for the coming year.

When asked what was their greatest concern about the impact of potential budget cuts on their agency, twenty-five percent said they were concerned that a hiring freeze would prevent them from bringing on critical IT people.

Still, most CIOs indicated they were not sure whether they would use the new tech fellows program to bring on staff. Thirty-three percent said they plan to use the tech fellows program, which appoints technology students expected to complete a master's or doctoral-level degree to two-year fellowships at federal agencies, while 50 percent said they did not know of their plans to use the program.

Telework implementation also was ranked as a priority for the coming year, though not nearly as highly as most other IT issues. Only 19.1 percent of CIOs ranked telework as one of their top five priorities for 2012.

Meanwhile, most CIOs believe they have a seat at the table for influencing mission-critical decisions at their agencies. More than two-thirds of respondents said their agency's senior decision makers value their input, while 80 percent said agency leaders understand the value of IT in meeting the mission.

Nearly half of federal IT workers are using their personal mobile devices to perform work-related functions daily, according to a new survey.

The survey of 200 federal IT workers by marketing company Bluetext found that 45 percent of respondents are using mobile devices for work on a daily basis. Thirty-six percent of respondents indicated that they do not perform any work from their mobile devices, the study found.

Sixty-six percent of respondents also indicated that their non-IT agency colleagues are using mobile devices for work on a daily basis - suggesting a dramatic shift to a mobile government workforce, the survey found.

In addition, email applications ranked the most popular for employees performing work on their mobile devices. For example, among mobile device applications, 93 percent use email apps, 36 percent use project management tools, 20 percent use social media apps and 13 percent use VoIP apps, the study found.

Among social networking websites, Facebook was the most popular among respondents. Sixty-eight percent of federal IT workers said they use Facebook on their mobile device for work purposes, while 21 percent use Twitter, 16 percent use Google+ and 11 percent use LinkedIn, Bluetext found.

Some IT managers are among the highest paid employees in the federal government, with a few making more than $200,000 per year, according to an analysis by WikiOrgCharts.com.

The analysis found that the top 1,000 federal salaries in 2011 ranged from $216,345 to $350,000, with the list topped mostly by professionals in the medical or legal fields. Only five federal IT managers made the top 1,000 list.

The highest federal earner in IT was Glenn Valcour, an IT manager at the Farm Credit Administration, who made $241,583 in 2011, earning him a spot at number 279. Three IT managers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation made the top 1,000 list, with salaries ranging from $216,680 to $238,325. Charles Boucher, an IT manager at the Securities and Exchange Commission, took the 510th spot, with a salary of $230,700 in 2011.

Topping the 2011 list of top earners was Dr. Electron Kebebew, a medical officer at the National Institutes of Health, who earned $350,000 this year. The top 50 federal earners were all in the medical field, mostly working at NIH. Other top earners included employees at the Farm Credit Administration, FDIC and SEC.

WikiOrgCharts, which is a cloud-based tool for business networking, sought the salary information through a Freedom of Information Act request and developed a crowdsourced database that contains profiles of 1.2 million federal employees.

What are your thoughts on the top earners list? Should IT managers have held more of the top spots, particularly given the high salaries and steep competition with the private sector?

Late last month, I wrote about a survey that found obtaining IT certifications can mean good news for your paycheck, career and bottom line. But a new study by IT consulting firm Foote Partners suggests otherwise, particularly thanks to the sluggish economy.

The IT Skills and Certification Pay Index report for the third quarter indicates that global instability and a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy has led to a flattening of salaries between workers who have IT certifications and those who do not, Channel Insider reports. Foote found that 13 percent of noncertified IT skills saw an increase in pay over the past year, while only 5 percent of certified skill sets saw a pay increase during that time.

Instead of specific certifications, hiring managers are now looking for the "hybrid IT business professional" who holds not only a strong IT background but also has skills in business, sales and marketing.

David Foote, co-founder of Foote Partners, told Channel Insider that less than 20 percent of all IT professionals today work within the traditional IT department, meaning many are entrenched in the workings of other business units.

"They have not been valuing certified skills as much as they have those that are without certification, where the experience and on-the-job performance of a person accounts for more juice in hiring and skills acquisition decisions than having an acronym on one's business card," Foote said.

How do your skills and certifications stack up?

Agencies are making progress in implementing a 2010 telework law, including increasing telework participation rates and notifying employees of their eligibility to work remotely.

In a webcast on Wednesday by Telework Exchange, the majority of participants (71 percent) reported that they had been notified by their agency of their telework eligibility status. Thirteen percent of participants said they had not been notified, while 6 percent said they were in the process of being notified, and the remaining 10 percent did not know one way or another.

Under the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act signed into law one year ago by President Obama, agencies are required to notify all employees of their eligibility status for telework. The law also requires each agency to designate a telework managing officer, ensure that telework is part of continuity of operations planning and establish telework policies in consultation with the Office of Personnel Management.

Participants in Wednesday's webcast also noted that the 2010 law is having an impact on telework participation rates at their agency. For example, 54 percent of participants said telework participation has increased during the past six months, with the majority of those respondents saying participation has increased between 1 percent and 9 percent. Forty-five percent of webcast attendees said they have seen no change in telework participation over the past six months.

Meanwhile, many participants (41 percent) said increased employee demand has prompted a stronger focus among agencies on telework. But there were other factors that contributed to the greater agency interest in telework, including an increased focus on business continuity plans (25 percent), recruitment and retention efforts (18 percent), and more customer/client demands (4 percent).

"Hopefully by the time we get these policies finalized, through legal and through everybody's review . . . we'll actually be able to see more and more increases [in telework] over the coming year," said Telework Exchange General Manager Cindy Auten, who moderated the webcast.

It's been one year since the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act was signed into law, and some agencies already are making notable progress on telework implementation.

In a webinar sponsored by the Telework Exchange on Wednesday, agency telework leaders said the 2010 law was a catalyst for beefing up and streamlining what had often been limited and disjointed programs at their agencies.

"Telework at this agency was characterized as a series of scope-limited pilots within the boundaries of mission areas," said Baha Akpinar, telework expansion program manager at the Library of Congress. "It was not an even-handed approach to telework."

Akpinar said his agency launched a telework expansion program with the goal of creating a standard form for telework agreements, remote support services and a new laptop core configuration to improve security and mobility features. The number of teleworkers at the Library has since increased roughly 300 percent in the past 18 months and is still on the rise, he said.

In addition, most teleworkers at the Library of Congress telework two to four days per pay period, and some teams already have reported 20 percent to 30 percent in productivity gains for telework versus office work, Akpinar said.

George Jakabcin, chief information officer at the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, said 83 percent of the agency's 826 employees nationwide now participate in a telework program, with 50 percent participating at a full (4-5 days per week) or expanded (2-3 days per week) level. The agency also has reduced its number of office locations from 86 to 71 since 2003, in large part thanks to telework, he said.

Still, telework programs are a work in progress, the panelists said, with both noting steps to improve IT services and expand collaboration tools. Akpinar also said the Library is moving toward a one-computer model where all employees are issued solely a laptop computer.

"Executive sponsorship has made a difference for the program," Akpinar said. "There are some managers who still don't embrace or support telework, but I'm proud to say these are now in the minority."

Jay Morwick, business operations manager at Cisco's Six Sigma Center of Excellence, said the focus of telework in the coming year is going to change, in large part as a result of increased managerial buy-in for telework.

"Perhaps the future discussion in 2012 and beyond will actually focus more around technology and ensuring employees have the right equipment to telework effectively versus worrying about whether productivity will drop once a worker moves from a traditional office to a home office," he said.

Younger workers increasingly are demanding a mobile work environment, including the possibility of using their own personal smartphones and computers for work use. But many organizations are not prepared for such changes, a new survey by Citrix suggests.

The survey of more than 1,100 senior executives and IT managers in the United States and across the world found that 35 percent of businesses are under greater pressure than five years ago to adopt more flexible work practices that promote better work-life balance for employees.

But overall, use of personal devices in the workplace poses a challenge for most organizations. For example, 62 percent of businesses surveyed said they have no controls in place to manage these devices, and 45 percent of IT managers said they are unaware of all the devices being used, raising questions about security and privacy, the survey found.

Still, 25 percent of companies already support the use of smartphones, tablets and other devices in the workplace. Many of those organizations are seeing productivity gains of up to 36 percent as a result of employees using both personal and business devices, Citrix found.

Earlier this year, former federal CIO Vivek Kundra spoke about a future where federal employees could forgo a work phone and laptop and do all of their work using their personal technology.

Is your agency seeing greater demands for mobile work, and do personal devices pose a challenge for your IT managers?