WASHINGTON, DC - Deputy Under-Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Margaret J.A. Peterlin testified before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in a hearing entitled "Telework: Breaking New Ground."

The USPTO has long been recognized as a pioneer in the area of telework for its innovative and flexible programs, a press release by the Office stated.

"The USPTO has demonstrated that telework is a business strategy that benefits our employees, our agency and the American economy,” Peterlin explained.

“Our experience shows telework programs result in greater employee productivity, higher levels of sustained performance, reduced traffic congestion and air pollution, and reduced real estate costs," she added.

"Our motivated, high-performing employees have shown they can perform their responsibilities regardless of physical location," Peterlin continued.

Peterlin shared that, as a performance-based organization, the USPTO communicates expectations and manages by results-requisites for any functional telework environment.

Her testimony also included lessons learned over the course of the decade since USPTO began its telework programs and insights on the many benefits telework offers the agency and its employees.

At the close of the 2007 fiscal year:

- There were 3,609 USPTO employees participating in some form of telework, a roughly 59 percent increase over FY 2006. This number equals 40.7 percent of USPTO's total workforce and 45.7 percent of total eligible employees.

- USPTO employees who telework collectively save more than 613,000 gallons of gas per year and save more than $1.8 million annually in fuel costs. Additionally, there is a combined reduction in emissions of more than 9,600 tons per year.

- The USPTO has 17 formalized telework initiatives and 3 pilot programs in process, designed to serve the specific needs of 7 different business units. Participants in these programs telework from one day a week to four days a week.

- The USPTO has a full-time telework coordinator on staff, and a dedicated Intranet Web site to provide information on telework opportunities to employees.

Of particular note are the successes of the USPTO's two largest telework programs, the Trademark Work-at-Home Program and the Patent Hoteling Program.

The Trademark Work-at-Home (TWAH) program began in 1997 as a two-year pilot program with 18 examining attorneys working from home three days a week.

Following the success of the Trademark Work-at-Home program, the USPTO expanded its telework initiative to include patent examiners. In 2006 a group of approximately 500 patent examiners participated in the Patent Hoteling Program (PHP).

In her testimony, Peterlin shared the agency's goal of achieving a national workforce model where some employees work full-time at headquarters, some telecommute one day a week, some hotel, and some live outside of the metropolitan area and rarely come to headquarters.

source: ag-IP news