Travis County wrestles with equity in last phase of its hybrid work pilot

At its meeting Tuesday, Aug. 6, the Travis County Commissioners Court heard an update on one of its most successful initiatives of the last few years: the countywide teleworking policy. After the pandemic forced workers home, Travis County won a National Association of Counties award for its ambitious target of keeping 75 percent of its eligible workers remote, which has cut commute-related emissions, boosted county recruitment, and made workers happier overall. Aside from the employee experience, the program saves the county money. NACo noted in 2023 that lower in-person staffing meant “without having to power and cool their offices, the county saw a $1.3 million decrease in costs between 2020-2021.”

Last year, the county initiated the second phase of the remote work pilot project with Deloitte Consulting, with the goal of measuring how remote work affected employee satisfaction while still delivering the same quality of county services. Sam Renaud, who surveyed workers with the same questions used in this July 12’s survey, told commissioners Tuesday that last year, “we saw consensus during a lot of our conversations with the workforce around a lack of trust, strained cultures, feelings of inequity. So I was surprised really to see how many employees actually responded well to the survey (this year).” 

The policy has boosted the county’s recruitment by 7,000 applications a year since 2019, before the program started. Commissioner Brigid Shea added that “we hear anecdotally that there is extremely high satisfaction, with people having this ability to work remotely and not have to be stuck in traffic, driving to and from work every single day.” Cynthia McDonald, county executive for Transportation and Natural Resources, said the survey data bears this out, that employees reported “overwhelmingly positive” satisfaction. “So much so that we were concerned that in phase two we wouldn’t be able to improve it.” 

Most agree it’s a good policy – but can everyone benefit from it equally? Eligibility for the program is also a question of equity, Shea stressed during the meeting. Some workers have to be in-person – for example, medical examiners and county jail staff. “In most cases, those are people who are in the lower end of the pay scale, and they don’t get the benefits of being able to work remotely and save that gas money,” said Shea. 

Deloitte has offered some recommendations for addressing this, such as staggering start and stop times of their work days to allow people to avoid heavier commuting times, and circumventing some of the slower processes of checking in for work. The consultant also mentioned that most people surveyed report that “they don’t feel that their managers understood the work they did on a day-to-day basis and wanted more open feedback,” and a better work culture overall. Commissioner Shea stressed that the next phase of the project should look at implementing those equity recommendations specifically: “I think this is crucial. It can’t be a potential.” 

Aside from work culture, the county’s Economic and Strategic Planning Division is looking at how the program could change the physical workspaces of the county. In 2021, staff prepared a real estate assessment which outlined recommendations that would allow the county to integrate its telework practices with its building portfolio more efficiently. Amy McWhorter, managing director for ESPD, explained that again, it’s a question of eligibility: “Typically, space is allocated based on the telework eligibility of a position. So positions with high eligibility will be allocated a certain amount of individual and collaborative space, and positions with low telework eligibility will likely be allocated one dedicated space when they come to the office. Other levels could be assigned a workstation or touchdown station.”

The project’s contract ends in May of 2025, so the next year will be dedicated to proving the sustainability of this popular policy. “This was born out of the desire to become innovative and ahead of your peers as a county, in how you respond to the pandemic,” McDonald told commissioners. “That box was checked – now the key is to build in infrastructure to empower it, to enable it, to make sure that the workforce understands what it is they’re doing.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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