Commandant Instruction 5330.11 establishes the Coast Guard’s remote work policy for eligible civilian employees and military members. Current and newly hired civilian employees in eligible positions may be authorized to work remotely, in or outside the local commuting area of their respective work unit, on a temporary or a long-term basis. As provided in COMDTINST 5330.11, remote work may be temporary (up to one year) or long-term. The Instruction provides the Coast Guard workforce with the general program requirements that will allow both employee and supervisors to better understand the differences between telework and remote work, eligibility requirements, training, roles and responsibilities, remote work agreements, performance and conduct requirements, information technology, security requirements and many other attributes of remote work which will allow both employees and supervisors to make case-by-case decisions on remote work arrangements.
Military members may be eligible for remote work in certain circumstances when approved by the first Flag Officer or Senior Executive Service (SES) member in the chain of command.
When applied strategically, remote work can provide the Coast Guard with a competitive advantage in recruiting new talent and help prevent the loss of valued employees who live in a location distant from the agency worksite for personal reasons.
Remote work is a human capital tool that can serve to promote effective mission delivery and help attract, recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Remote work arrangements should be used when they support Coast Guard operations and must not adversely affect organizational missions and functions (e.g., result in a decrease in performance and/or productivity, higher costs, etc.).
Remote work offers the Coast Guard and its employees potential benefits such as:
- Retention of highly talented employees who reside outside of their unit’s geographic location.
- Recruitment of employees outside the work unit’s geographic location who possess specialized skills.
- Agency cost savings related to transit subsidy benefits, locality pay, real estate, and other facility expenses, paired with employee cost savings related to commuting and local cost of living expenses.
- Increased employee productivity and engagement, and greater ability to support continuity of operations.
- More attractive job opportunities for individuals with mobility-related or other qualifying disabilities.
Participation in remote work is solely at the discretion of management and not an employment entitlement or right. COMDTINST 5330.11 outlines Command, supervisory and employee/member considerations for participating in remote work.
Civilian employees and military members who participate in remote work must complete a remote work agreement. The remote work agreement must be retained by the employee/member and their supervisor. The remote work agreement form CG-12630, and supplemental forms can be found at the links to the left.
In order to participate in remote work, civilian employees and military members, and their supervisors are required to complete telework training prior to entering into a remote work agreement. The training courses, Telework for Government Employees (502807) and Telework Fundamentals - Manager Training (502808) are available in CG-OWL in the Human Resources catalog at the following link: Coast Guard Online World of Learning (uscg.mil). Supervisors must also review the remote work training slides, provided here. Additional training resources are available on the Percipio learning platform: https://uscg.percipio.com/, search "remote work".
Questions regarding the Coast Guard Remote Work program may be directed to SMB-COMDT-USCG-RemoteWork@uscg.mil.