IS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ENTERING THE HOMESHORING ARENA?

In December of 2009 President Obama hosted the Jobs and Economic Growth forum on the grounds of the White House. This forum was attended by about 130 small business owners from all different areas of the job sector. The focus was a discussion on job creation and expanding the economy. During the session the President recognized the CEO of Arise Virtual Solutions, Angie Seldon. Her company has been the trail blazer of the Homeshoring Industry, and is the world’s leading provider of virtual agent business services. Here is a synopsis of Angie’s contribution to the forum:

“Facing the steepest revenue growth challenges in three generations, the Fortune 500 companies are seeking to boost their margins by expanding their outsourced workforce. As companies learn about the unique mix of cost savings and high quality service that the homeshoring model delivers, they see that lowering expenses and hiring Americans are no longer mutually exclusive goals. It was an honor to participate in the forum, and I’d like to thank President Obama and Chief Technology Officer Chopra for bringing homeshoring into the national conversation.”

Angie credited her company for creating thousands of call and sales jobs, bringing jobs back to the United States that have gone overseas in the last several years. She also stated that she had some very specific ideas about how we could foster more of this reverse job migration. The President promised to take a look at the homeshoring model.

Since the job forum two legislation, (one in the House and one in the Senate) were proposed in support of Homeshoring or as the government prefer to call it teleworking. The House Bill proposal would give Federal Workers the option to work from home. Last month however, the bill was defeated in the House….It fell short by 9 votes.

The argument opposing the bill is that it will cost the government 30 million dollars to implement. Advocates of the bill however made arguments that over time homeshoring will save tax payers over 30 million dollars. Here are some of the points that were cited in the support of the homeshoring bill:

- Reduced carbon emissions

- Improve Traffic emissions

- Maintain government operation when the downtown area is under grid lock

- Bolstering the Federal Workforce

Similar legislation awaits a vote in the Senate.

The proposal requires federal agencies to appoint telework managing officers to oversee new policies developed by each agency and the Office of Personnel Management. If employees’ jobs do not impact agency operations then they would be allowed to telework. The bills also prohibit workers who handle secure or classified materials or information or who perform tasks that cannot be performed remotely from teleworking.

According to the OPM of the 61 percent of federal workers who are eligible to telework only 5 percent do so regularly. John M. Berry, the agency's director, has devoted most of his tenure to convincing lawmakers and other skeptics that in order to retain and recruit potential federal hires telework options may be the answer.

There are plans in progress to reintroduce the homeshoring bill in the house in the near future.

Do you think the Federal Government should take this path? What are your thoughts? If you are interested in learning more about Legitimate Homeshoring jobs the eBook an inside job is a valuable information guide.  You can check it out here!