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Another minor snowstorm is expected to hit the Washington, D.C., area this evening. The Office of Personnel Management has authorized feds to take unscheduled leave or unscheduled telework in order to get off the roads early and avoid potential traffic delays.

This adds to the conversation about federal telework and whether agencies are better prepared this year to enable continuity of operations through weather disruptions thanks to the 2010 Telework Enhancement Act. I wrote last week that while many agencies are embracing telework as a result of the 2010 law, some are having difficulty determining what roles and jobs can be completed while working remotely, while other agencies are challenged by quantifying telework's return on investment.

Tom Simmons, vice president for federal systems at Citrix, told Wired Workplace that while agencies are certainly making progress, many are challenged by the fact that the 2010 mandate came with no funding. "One of the big challenges for agencies to implement telework is 'how do I pay for it?' " he said. "How do I support the infrastructure for remote work in time of planned telework? Or how do I support unplanned telework?"

The cultural issues are still there as well, though not the same degree as they used to be, Simmons added. "As folks are being asked to do more away from the office, those kinds of things are being refined," he said. "There's a new generation of workers coming into the government workforce who are brought up working from anywhere, and they're demanding that kind of work style in their work environment. All of that has a positive impact on the adoption of telework."

What are your plans for today? Must you take unscheduled leave to get an early start against the traffic, or do you have the option to telework? Has the 2010 telework law made this possible?

Federal employees with professional or doctorate degrees earn about 23 percent less than those with the same degrees in the private sector, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office.

The report, released Monday, found that overall, federal employees are paid an average of 16 percent more in pay and benefits than their private sector counterparts. Federal employees with a high school diploma, for example, earned 21 percent more than private sector employees with similar education levels, while federal workers with a bachelors degree earned about the same as those in the private sector. Federal workers in those two groups also enjoyed better benefits than those in the private sector, with benefits 72 percent higher for federal employees with a high school diploma and 46 percent higher for federal employees with a bachelor's degree.

But federal workers with professional, masters or doctorate-level degrees earned an average of about 23 percent less than their private sector counterparts, the study found. Average benefits for professional and doctorate-level employees were about the same in the two sectors.

CBO used data for 2005 through 2010 reported by a sample of households and employers to estimate differences between the cost of wages and benefits for federal employees and the cost of wages and benefits for similar private-sector employees.

CBO's study also noted that studies of federal pay like one by the American Enterprise Institute, which claimed that federal workers earn 61 percent more in pay, benefits and extra job security than their private counterparts, "overstates the differences between the cost of employing federal workers and similar private sector workers because the dispersion of wages (the range from low to high wages) differs between those two groups."

Meanwhile, the most common occupations within the Defense Department and the government at large were information technology workers as well as program analysts, program administrators and criminal investigators.

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, agreed with the conclusion that highly-educated workers earn significantly less than their private counterparts, but cautioned against accepting other segments of the CBO report. "CBO is clearly the expert on Congressional budget scoring, but pay comparisons are not its principal expertise; that is the expertise of the Bureau of Labor Statistics," she said, noting that BLS data have shown a consistent pay gap of 26 percent in favor of the private sector when comparing similar public and private sector jobs.

Kelley also questioned the other segments of the study, and whether Congress would want to cut the salaries of the lowest paid workers by the amounts the report claims are overpaid. "That would mean cutting the salary of a clerk earning $20,000 a year by 20 percent down to $16,000 while increasing the salary of a highly-paid manager making $200,000 by 20 percent to $240,000," she said.

What are your thoughts on the study, as it compares to other studies on federal pay, including BLS data and the report by the American Enterprise Institute?

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.

Are you eager to share your thoughts about your boss, your pay and benefits, telework or the use of technology and collaboration tools, with your agency leadership?

Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry announced Friday that the 2012 Federal Employee Viewpoint survey will, for the first time, be open to all permanent, full and part-time employees. This means more than 1.8 million federal employees will be invited to give their opinions, more than triple the number of employees surveyed in 2011.

"While a governmentwide census will not be conducted every year, having large numbers of respondents will allow agencies the opportunity to analyze results and develop action plans at lower levels in the organization this year."

The annual survey assesses governmentwide worker satisfaction and includes results based on individual agencies, demographics and private sector comparisons. The data also are analyzed by the Partnership for Public Services in their "Best Places to Work in the Federal Government" report.

Administration of the next employee survey is scheduled to begin in April, and Berry encouraged agency chief human capital officers to champion the 2012 survey to "ensure that your employees feel their voices are heard and their opinions will drive continuing improvement in the culture in their agency."

Salaries for government IT workers were slightly below the national average in 2011, giving agencies less of a competitive edge when it comes to recruiting top notch IT skills, according to a new survey by Dice.

Dice's 2011-2012 salary survey found that salaries for government tech workers averaged $79,605 in 2011, slightly below the average salary for tech workers in all industries, which came in at $81,327.

Government and private sector IT professionals in the aerospace and defense industries, however, fared far better than average when it came to pay in 2011. Those workers earned an average of $88,232 in 2011, the survey found.

"Defense spending is down from where it's been in previous years, but it's still enormous," said Tom Silver, senior vice president of Dice, on Wednesday. "But there may be a perceived risk of working in a government position that perhaps wasn't there before."

Meanwhile, tech jobs in all sectors in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore metro area are also down significantly, Silver said. For example, jobs in the area were up 50 percent in 2010, but in 2011, jobs were actually down by 17 percent, he said. But the area still is the second biggest tech job market in the nation with more than 7,500 jobs posted last year, Silver added.

With government IT salaries below the national average, Silver stressed that government must focus on career development in order to recruit and retain critical IT skills going forward. "I think the government has to position itself in a place that provides an environment for tech workers to grow, develop and evolve their skills around the latest and greatest technology," he said. "Tech workers today are concerned about any job they take, not only about what they will be working on today, but what will keep their skills up to date going forward."

Despite tight budgets, Silver argued that federal IT workers, particularly those with in-demand skills, have a bright future. "Although there are things that are changing from what a government job used to be, as a skilled tech worker, you're still in a pretty good spot," Silver said. "Budgets are still enormous, even if they're down from where they've been, and I think that's what tech workers should focus on."

Technology professionals on average earned salary increases of more than 2 percent in 2011, their largest annual salary growth since 2008, according to a new survey by Dice.com.

Dice's 2011-2012 annual salary survey of more than 18,000 IT professionals found that after two years of wages remaining nearly flat, tech professionals finally saw average increases of more than 2 percent, boosting their average annual salary to $81,327 from $79,384 in 2010.

Tech professionals in the private sector also saw a considerable jump in the size of average bonuses, which were up eight percent to $8,769 in 2011. The number of tech professionals receiving bonuses last year also increased to 32 percent, compared with 29 percent in 2010 and 24 percent in 2009. The industries most likely to pay out bonuses were telecom, hardware, banking, utilities/energy and software, the survey found.

These increases come as all federal workers are under a two-year freeze on across-the-board pay increases. The two-year pay freeze does not apply to performance awards and bonuses, promotions, within-grade increases, quality step increases and other forms of incentive pay for federal workers.

Still, despite the average rise in overall pay, entry-level salaries continue to push downward, Dice found. Professionals who generally saw their wages increase were those with 11 or more years of experience in their field.

Technology professionals in Silicon Valley continue to be the most well-paid, with annual salaries topping six figures for the first time since Dice began the survey a decade ago. Tech workers in Silicon Valley brought home an average annual salary of $104,195 in 2011, up 5 percent over last year. Thirty-eight percent of tech professionals in the valley also received bonuses averaging $12,450.

Average salaries in the Washington D.C./Baltimore area also increased 6 percent in 2011, to $94,317. Other areas seeing growth in tech salaries were Austin ($89,419), Portland ($82,055) and Houston ($89,307).

"Conventional wisdom says that as Silicon Valley goes, so goes the tech world," said Tom Silver, "Nationally, we're seeing stiffer competition and higher salaries for tech pros with the right skill sets and the right experience level."

How do your skills, salary and other incentives stack up? Do the survey results make you more satisfied with your government IT job, or do they make you want to jump ship for the private sector?

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.

The Office of Personnel Management has sent to Congress a new strategic plan for improving retirement services and reducing the retirement backlog, a large part of which focuses on hiring new staff and upgrading technology.

The plan, unveiled Wednesday, involves a multifaceted approach that includes hiring 56 new legal administrative specialists and 20 new customer service specialists, expanding workers' hours and the use of overtime through employee incentives and upgrading technology.

The technology piece of the plan focuses on pursing a long-term data flow strategy, exploring a short-term strategy to leverage work agencies do now and reviewing and upgrading systems used by the legal administrative team.

OPM said the goal of the plan is to eliminate the claims backlog, which was 48,478 claims as of Dec. 31, within 18 months and process 90 percent of all new claims within 60 days of receipt from the agencies. Currently, the average time to process a new retirement claim is 156 days, according to the plan.

OPM's Retirement Systems Modernization project failed in 2008, and after struggling to address the claims backlog, OPM Director John Berry terminated the program in spring 2011.

"Prior efforts to improve the administration of retirement programs over the past 20 years have focused almost exclusively on automation and IT improvements," the plan states. "While IT remains a component of the long-term solution, it cannot be the only the strategy."

A cybersecurity education nonprofit is expanding a program designed to help aspiring professionals to prepare for careers in cybersecurity and obtain special cyber certifications.

(ISC)2 announced Thursday the expansion of its Associate of (ISC)2 program, which allows aspiring information security professionals to sit for a credential exam to assess their knowledge and build a professional network while they're gaining the work experience required to become certified. The hope is to use the program to beef up the pipeline of qualified cyber professionals.

As a result of the expansion, the program now includes the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP) and Certified Authorization Professional (CAP) credentials. Already available under the program is the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and the Systems Security Certified Practitioner credentials, (ISC)2 said.

Professionals in cybersecurity must have a certain number of years of experience in order to qualify for certification. The CSSLP, for example, requires four years of professional experience in the software lifecycle, while the CAP -- designed for professionals responsible for formalizing processes used to assess risk and establishing security requirements and documentation -- requires two years of specialized work experience.

The Associate program is available to all interested candidates, but it is also being touted for use by universities looking to support graduates transitioning into professional life. The program also is mapped with the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education, or NICE, framework currently being established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other federal agencies.

"Our Cybersecurity Workforce Framework document lays a foundation for the various competences that comprise cybersecurity and provides certification companies and academic institutions a common starting point to map course work and certifications to a recognized set of cybersecurity skills," said NICE National Leader Dr. Ernest McDuffie.

"We appreciate the support that (ISC)2 and the certification community has demonstrated in terms of open dialog and several ongoing efforts where certifications and courses are being mapped to the NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework."

Federal pay in 2011 grew at its slowest pace in one decade, in part due to a partial pay freeze. But overall, federal IT workers are still faring better than their counterparts in the private sector, most of whom have seen flat salaries over the past two years.

A recent analysis by USA Today found that federal pay rose an average of 1.3 percent for fiscal 2011, according to newly released federal data. The wages of private sector workers rose 1.2 percent during that period, the same rate as state and local government pay growth, the analysis found.

The federal pay numbers are the first full budget-year results since President Obama froze across-the-board automatic pay increases for federal workers in 2011 and 2012. Federal employees are still eligible for other pay increases, however, such as those for longevity, performance and promotions.

Average pay for federal IT workers rose more than the overall average for federal workers, USA Today found. For example, computer engineers saw an increase of 3.7 percent in fiscal 2011, with the average pay rate coming in at $102,912. Computer clerks and assistants saw an average increase of 1.7 percent, with average salaries coming in at $39,173, the analysis found.

USA Today also found that federal workers made an average of $75,296 last year, plus $28,323 in medical, pension and other benefits. That figure is about 60 percent more than the average private sector wage, though many experts argue that the difference is a result of higher levels of education and professional jobs in the federal workforce.

Still, even comparing USA Today's analysis of federal IT workers with the most recent IT salary survey by Dice.com, federal IT pros still come out on top. For example, Dice's 2010-2011 annual salary survey found that private sector technology salaries increased by an average of only 0.7 percent, to $79,384 last year.