C&L: Why telecommuting programs are a must today

If recent history has taught us anything, it's that businesses have to be as prepared as possible for disaster events. The ability to keep systems, business operations, security and services up and running when an office site is hit by either a natural disaster or a terrorism incident is vital to every organization, both in the public and private sector. That's why there is such a push on to provide telecommuting capabilities--providing workers and IT staff the ability to do their jobs away from the brick-and-mortar building space is a critical factor and even Uncle Sam has acknowledged it and mandated that every federal agency shore up telecommuting capabilities.

Yet, like in the public sector, the mandate has fallen off the radar. A report commissioned by the General Services Administration and conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton illustrate that telecommuting is nowhere near reaching reality or its potential on the federal agency front. The review of 20 agencies and 8,000 teleworkers, managers and telework program coordinators, shows a very bleak picture indeed. Not only are most efforts ad-hoc, but there also aren't too many agencies actively working or planning move ahead on fostering telecommuting. The thing is, there is no wiggle room on the need for a telecommuting structure given the instability of the world today. If businesses want to stay in business, and if Uncle Sam wants to keep its operations up and running, it's got to grab the horns and get strong, cost-effective and well-planned telework systems in place.

Does your organization have telecommuting--have you shored up this aspect given the past events in the decade? Do you see it as a vital aspect of business operations today? Write and tell me and I'll share in a future editor's note.

In the meantime, here are some recent career announcements about colleagues taking on new leadership roles:

Donagh Herlihy, CIO at Wrigley, is now also in charge of the company's employee training and development projects.

The new acting CIO at the IRS is Art Gonzalez.

Seacoast National Bank CIO Richard Yanke was recently named an executive VP as well.

Winterthur U.S. Holdings has tapped Peter Logothetis as CIO.