Priority 4: Maintaining an Exemplary Judiciary Workforce and Workplace

Priority Description 

To retain public trust and confidence and meet workload demands, the judiciary must be comprised of highly competent judges, employees, and CJA attorneys. To attract and retain the most capable people from all parts of society, the branch must maintain a workplace in which all are treated with dignity, civility, and respect and are valued for their contributions regardless of race, sex, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, disability status, or political affiliation.

The judiciary attracts highly qualified judges, employees, and CJA attorneys with meaningful work, job stability, and career development opportunities. Recruiting and retaining highly capable candidates not only requires fair and competitive compensation and benefit packages, but also the assurance of an exemplary workplace. To that end, the judiciary must abide by and enhance, where appropriate, its standards and procedures to assure proper workplace conduct, and must also develop new methods of performing work while addressing continued volatility in workloads.

• 4.1:   Recruit, develop, and retain a talented and dedicated workforce from the diversity of the nation — with differing individual experiences, skills, knowledge, and backgrounds — while addressing the judiciary’s future workforce requirements.
• 4.2:   Support a lifetime of service for federal judges.
• 4.3:   Ensure an exemplary workplace in which all are treated with dignity, civility, and respect, which is free from discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and abusive conduct, and in which diverse viewpoints and backgrounds are valued.

Strategy 4.1 

Recruit, develop, and retain a talented and dedicated workforce from the diversity of the nation — with differing individual experiences, skills, knowledge, and backgrounds — while addressing the judiciary’s future workforce requirements.

Background and Commentary

Public trust and confidence are enhanced when the judiciary’s workforce is highly competent and dedicated to the cause of justice. The judiciary can and should strive to recruit and retain the best and the brightest from all backgrounds and life experiences. This includes bankruptcy judges, magistrate judges, federal defenders, CJA panel attorneys, probation and pretrial officers, and court reporters, all of whom occupy positions highly visible to the public. The judiciary must continue to pursue initiatives that are designed to secure a broad pool of applicants for every position. In casting a broad net for applicants, the judiciary should reach out to individuals of all manner of backgrounds and perspectives, including those who have overcome hardships, challenges, and other disadvantages. In making hiring and promotion decisions, the judiciary should not discriminate based on race, sex, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, disability status, or political affiliation. 

The judiciary must also continue to pursue initiatives to maintain its position as an employer of choice. To remain competitive with private and other public sector organizations, especially with hard-to-fill occupations and in geographic areas where employees have many other opportunities, the judiciary must maintain a strong program to attract, recruit, develop, and retain a highly qualified workforce. Through enhanced strategic workforce planning efforts, the judiciary will be positioned to recognize workforce gaps and identify recruitment, development, and retention strategies to ensure that the judiciary’s future workforce has the needed skills, competencies, and talent to carry on the judiciary’s mission.

Ongoing changes that the judiciary must address include shifting career and work-life expectations, meeting ever-advancing IT enhancements, and the unique challenges faced by IT services, probation and pretrial services, court reporters, and other groups in recruiting, retaining, and training. The judiciary must ensure the physical and mental well-being of all employees. Changes in how employees communicate and interact, and in how and where work is performed, are related to Strategy 3.1, as certain types of changes provide opportunities for the judiciary to reduce its space footprint and rental costs while creating a better and more efficient work environment. The judiciary must continue to invest in technology and explore changes to policy and procedures that allow for an effective mobile workforce. Further, the judiciary must focus on developing the skillsets of the current workforce and nimbly adapting to changes as they occur.

In addition, the judiciary must develop and engage in succession planning for all positions, including the next generation of executives. The management model in federal courts provides individual court executives with a high degree of decentralized authority over a wide range of administrative matters. The judiciary must maintain a meaningful leadership and executive development training program and create executive relocation programs to ensure a wide pool of qualified internal applicants, while also conducting outreach efforts to attain the most talented field of candidates, including from diverse backgrounds and life experiences that bring different perspectives.

Implementation Goals

4.1.a:   Maintain and expand outreach efforts and procedures to make individuals from all backgrounds and life experiences aware of employment opportunities in the judiciary, including as judicial officers.

4.1.b:   Continue to expand and modernize recruitment and outreach to cast a broad net for applicants, one that reaches out to individuals of all manner of backgrounds and perspectives, including those who have overcome hardships, challenges, and other disadvantages, without discriminating based on race, sex, age, ethnicity, religion, national origin, color, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, disability status, or political affiliation.

4.1.c:   Identify current and future workforce challenges and develop and evaluate human capital strategies to enhance the judiciary’s standing as an employer of choice while enabling employees to reach their full potential.

4.1.d:   Deliver leadership, management, and human resources programs and services to help judges, executives, and supervisors develop, assess, and lead employees.

4.1.e:   Provide training, mentoring, and career advancement opportunities to all employees.

4.1.f:   Provide resources and develop health and wellness committees to examine and implement policy, practices, and programs that provide judiciary employees a safe, supportive, and healthy work environment.

Strategy 4.2

Support a lifetime of service for federal judges.

Background and commentary

It is critical that judges are supported throughout their careers, as new judges, active judges, chief judges, senior judges, judges recalled to service, and retired judges. Education, training, and orientation programs offered by the Federal Judicial Center and the Administrative Office continue to evolve and adapt. Training and education programs, and other services that enhance the well-being of judges, need to be accessible in a variety of formats, and on an as-needed basis.

Implementation Goals

4.2.a:   Strengthen policies that encourage senior Article III judges to continue handling cases so long as they are willing and able to do so. Judges who were appointed to fixed terms and are recalled to serve after retirement must be provided the support necessary to fully discharge their work-related duties.

4.2.b:   Seek the views of judges on practices that support their development, retention, and morale, and adapt education, training, and orientation programs to meet the needs of judges.

4.2.c:   Encourage circuits to develop circuit-wide health and wellness committees to promote health and wellness programs, policies, and practices that provide judges with a supportive environment for the maintenance or restoration of health and wellness in support of a lifetime of service for judges.

Strategy 4.3

Ensure an exemplary workplace in which all are treated with dignity, civility, and respect, which is free from discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and abusive conduct, and in which diverse viewpoints and backgrounds are valued.

Background and Commentary

Public trust and confidence, as well as workforce morale and productivity, are enhanced when the judiciary provides an exemplary workplace for everyone. There are five keys to achieving an exemplary workplace: committed and engaged leadership; consistent and demonstrated accountability; strong and comprehensive policies; trusted and accessible complaint procedures; and regular interactive training. The judiciary must continue diligently to ensure that it provides an exemplary workplace for all its employees.

Implementation Goals

4.3.a:   Educate all judges and employees on standards of appropriate and inappropriate conduct, with continuing education on a regular basis, including the codes of conduct, Employment Dispute Resolution (EDR) Plans, and judicial conduct and disability procedures.

4.3.b:   Educate all judges and employees about the obligation to take appropriate action when they have reliable information about misconduct by a judge or wrongful conduct by non-judges, the available resources for guidance regarding reporting misconduct, and the mechanisms to report misconduct.

4.3.c:   Provide initial and continuing education for chief judges, executives, supervisors, and managers on listening, communication, building trust, effectively responding to both inappropriate workplace behavior and allegations of wrongful conduct, and fostering a respectful and high-performance workplace that welcomes a variety of viewpoints and backgrounds.

4.3.d:   Enhance accountability and effective redress, where appropriate, through universal adoption and conscientious application of the Model Employment Dispute Resolution Plan. Be transparent regarding judicial conduct and disability proceedings and other workplace conduct procedures in furtherance of and consistent with the law, related judiciary policy, and legitimate privacy interests.

4.3.e:   Maintain a national Office of Judicial Integrity to reinforce efforts at the circuit and local levels to ensure an exemplary workplace; ensure policies are developed and enforced consistently throughout the judiciary; and provide training, independent investigative assistance and related support, and advice to chief judges, unit judges, unit executives, and employees. Maintain a director of workplace relations in each circuit, to whom employees within the circuit can report wrongful conduct concerns, and who provides circuit-wide assistance to judges, managers, and employees on workplace conduct issues including training, conflict resolution, and workplace investigations. Ensure that all court EDR coordinators are properly trained and certified.

4.3.f:   Conduct periodic reviews to identify systemic issues related to workplace conduct at the national, circuit, and district levels, when appropriate, and evaluate whether guidance and procedures designed to foster an exemplary workplace are effective and whether additional action may be needed.