Eighty-two percent of federal employees spend work time outside of the office each month, the telework advocacy group found in its latest survey, published Wednesday. Among those, 42% telework at least part time and 20% spend at least a portion of two days per week outside of the office. In addition, 80% of mobile employees say they spend at least 20% more time working outside of the office -- or traveling for business -- today than they did a year ago. ( about the bare facts of teleworking.)

Among the most productive of these mobile employees are those who use a for work purposes. Smartphone-carrying mobile employees reported an average time savings/productivity gain of 54 minutes per day. But despite the productivity advantage, 66% of federal employees who report some mobility do not currently have a smartphone, the Telework Exchange found.

So how might the government benefit from giving smartphones to more federal employees? Telework Exchange extrapolated the data it collected: If the estimated 1.4 million federal employees who spend work time outside the office without a smartphone had one, the federal government could achieve an estimated US$37 million in additional productivity per day (based on a $29 average hourly wage).

Federal employees would welcome the chance to carry a smartphone, it seems. Just 16% of federal employees give their agency an "A" for equipping employees with the right tools for mobile communication and remote access. The top reasons employees want smartphones are to stay organized and responsive (cited by 69% of respondents) and to remain connected on the job (21%), the study found.

From the agency standpoint, those agencies that have issued smartphones to mobile employees justify the expense by citing continuity of operations (61%), increased productivity (59%) and support for telework initiatives (23%).