Since March, the possibilities for remote working has been massively expanded and the quantity of the available IT infrastructure (notebooks) has been upgraded to reduce physical contacts. For example the Province of Styria provides about 6,500 jobs. Before the crisis in mid-March 2020, approx. 1,100 employees were entitled to work via remote access to the central state data network (limited to a maximum of 200 users simultaneously) for various field service activities as well as teleworking jobs. With the acute onset of the crisis, the licensing and equipment capacity to 2,000 parallel accesses for initially around 3,200 employees was made available at short notice, whereby this was achieved by increased note-book equipment (almost 40% of employees) and also by the possibility to use privately-owned IT equipment.

Strong boost and promotion for teleworking within the Austrian public administration at all levels: federal, state, city and local government as to reduce physical contacts and maintain efficiency and performance.

The expansion of remote working aims to i. protect the public service workforce from Covid-19, by allowing them working from home; ii. ensure the continuity of public service provision.

Office of the Styrian Provincial Government, Department 1, Organisation and Information Technology