Human Capital Goal 2: Talent Management

EOIR’s second human capital goal is in the area of workforce planning and deployment.  In this area, EOIR will continue to strive to create an agency that is person-centered, mission-focused, and that leverages e-Government, competitive sourcing and innovative administrative and operational policies. EOIR will foster a greater sense of mission and dedication by raising the agency’s stature as a place to work through a variety of means, including better employee engagement, greater communication, expanded recruitment strategies, more robust retention efforts, and an overall revitalization of the agency’s reputation before both internal and external stakeholders.

Key Accomplishments:

• EOIR launched its Rebranding Committee in April 2023, which continues to implement strategies for improving recruitment and retention, including: creating a dedicated New Employee onboarding page to guide new employees/staff; implementing team-building activities across EOIR; revamping EOIR’s website; and hosting sessions on how to become an immigration judge.  

• EOIR continued to enhance its workforce analysis and planning model, applied primarily to court operations, which provides consistent indicators and information for EOIR court operations.

• Developed several new initiatives that required restructuring and reformation of traditional EOIR operations (and thus Human Capital needs) to meet new mission needs. For example, EOIR expanded adjudications from five to seven days and utilized case flow management to reduce the time needed for a case to be adjudicated, thereby allowing EOIR to resolve immigration cases in a timelier manner. Additionally, EOIR published a rule on April 2, 2024, expanding the size of the BIA to 28 members and implemented several initiatives to increase the BIA’s production, including panel and attorney specialization and case flow town halls.

• Completed a series of strategic workforce planning workshops on October 13 & November 1, 2023, that were attended by select leaders and subject-matter experts responsible for workforce planning in the subordinate units.

  • Attendees at these workshops received training and practical exercise on how to engage in proactive, strategic and systematic processes which align strategic planning, human capital, and budgeting to meet organizational goals and objectives through: forecasting mission critical talent needs; identifying skills gaps; analyzing current workforce and talent supply, and developing, implementing, and evaluating strategies to address the gaps.

Initiatives: 

Workforce Planning[1]

• Continue to develop and enhance a governance structure to guide EOIR’s workforce planning efforts and hold leadership accountable for progress on workforce goals.

• Conduct surveys regarding position skills and current skills gap, incorporating DEIA to see where we can improve from a diversity standpoint and ensure the workforce is representative and inclusive.

• Conduct a supply analysis to better understand the current workforce and how it is projected to change over time, due to attrition and other trends.

• Conduct human capital capability assessment.

• Identify future mission needs and conduct future skills gap analysis. 

• Conduct a demand analysis to better understand EOIR’s current and future workforce requirements.

• Continue to build out EOIR workforce analysis tools and models to inform workforce planning.

• Update EOIR’s workforce planning tools and model with newly available data (as needed, but at least annually).

• To assess skills gaps, each component will fill out a template that provides EOIR’s Office of Administration’s (OA) Office of Human Resources (OHR) the details of each component’s workforce needs, the strategic direction for each component’s workforce planning, and assists with talent management across EOIR.

  • Provide the Chief, Strategic Workforce Management, the necessary information for strategic hiring, helping to ensure that hiring meets organizational goals and objectives.

  • Submit completed template annually to OA OHR.

  • Increased use of data analytics applied against our Mission Critical Occupations profile will allow EOIR to create a comprehensive future workforce Demand/Supply profile along with an accurate Skills Gap and Surplus analysis process to effectively manage the workforce.

  • Develop Position Descriptions for each Mission Critical Occupation, which will be reviewed as part of the skills gap analysis and then and updated to reflect the current and future needs of the agency.

• Improve Recruitment and Hiring via Workforce Planning.

  • Improve effectiveness of succession planning for key positions.

    • Develop EOIR-wide succession planning and guidance with key stakeholders.

    • Develop succession planning report for key positions.

    • Implement EOIR Executive Succession Plan to identify, recruit and develop potential leaders.

Recruitment and Outreach

• Create vacancy announcements that encourage application by qualified candidates.

  • Include language in each vacancy announcement that reflects the “team” experience, and for IJ vacancy announcements, include reference to the IJ team (the IJ and the staff that support them, including the attorney, legal assistant, and other support staff).

  • Include language in each vacancy announcement that highlights the direct and indirect impact of the positions.

  • Include reference to recruitment tools determined to be appropriate.

  • Host listening session to determine what challenges would-be candidates—or actual candidates—face in applying for and accepting positions.

  • Amplify outreach to historically underserved populations to help ensure that all qualified candidates are aware of the opportunities and their potential to apply for them.

• Update communications efforts to account for changes to the recruitment process.

  • Establish social media strategy for each job posting.

  • Redraft internal messaging to include encouragement to forward vacancy announcements to potentially interested and qualified candidates.

  • Host outreach sessions with Department affinity groups, law schools, non-governmental organizations, and Federal offices that employ potentially interested and qualified candidates.

  • Develop recruitment materials for each immigration judge vacancy announcement that includes reference to vacancy announcements for support positions to demonstrate commitment to providing recruits with proper staffing support.

• Establish a working group to transform our pre-employment process.

  • Draft and implement standard operating procedures for:

    • Ensuring security processing is as efficient as possible.

    • Streamlining administrative processing.

    • Establishing timelines for candidates and EOIR staff.

• Establish dedicated points of contact for each selectee.

  • Provide EOIR selectees with a dedicated point of contact for questions about the process from selection to entry on duty.

  • Request permission from selectees to share their contact information with a current EOIR employee and provide employee with selectees’ contact information (as permitted).

  • Provide selectees with a dedicated point of contact who will be a peer upon onboarding.

  • Task EOIR employees with outreach to all selectees between offer and onboarding.

• Identify team members who will focus on evaluation of benefit-based incentives.

  • Create a team to draft and seek approval of justifications for incentives (e.g., leave category enhancements; recruitment bonuses).

• Develop a centralized repository of Recruitment and Outreach materials for sharing best practices internally.

Employee Development

• Executive Competency Development and Sustainment

• EOIR Mentorship Program

• Supervisor Orientation and Advanced Supervisor Training Program

• Employee Training and Development (Non-attorney)

  • There is a robust training and CLE program for attorneys; however, non-attorneys make up 56% of EOIR’s workforce. In accordance with 5 C.F.R. § 412.202, EOIR will create an extensive non-attorney development program that will focus on offering employees opportunities to improve competencies and technical skills necessary to be masters of their craft, and able to function effectively in the EOIR mission environment at or beyond the full capacity of their position descriptions.

• “Developmental Skills Academy”

  • Launch EOIR’s program for high-density entry level positions such as Legal Assistants, to ensure new employees are equipped with a standardized foundation of common competencies necessary for success in their new position.

• Mentoring Program for Non-Attorneys

Leadership Development

• EOIR will create and implement a revamped Supervisor Orientation and Refresher (SOAR) to address the needs of a new supervisor in their first year of federal service.

• EOIR will also create a Senior Supervisor Development Program focusing on mentorship opportunities and competency development in accordance with the OPM Table of Proficiency Levels for Leadership Competencies to prepare supervisors for progression into roles of greater duties and responsibilities, to include Management and Executive roles.

• EOIR recently launched its Leadership, Enrichment, and Advancement Detail (LEAD) program, which will provide detail opportunities for employee professional growth and development.

  • The mission of the LEAD Program is to advance EOIR’s commitment to each employee’s professional growth while supporting the mission and strategic goals of EOIR.

  • The program provides employees with opportunities to strengthen competencies, explore career options, prepare them for leadership opportunities or to become experts in their chosen field or position, enhance performance, expand skillsets, and achieve professional objectives throughout their career.

  • LEAD offers two types of opportunities: enrichment and advancement.   

    • Enrichment opportunities help employees acquire and develop new skills; these might include cross training, shadowing opportunities, software/technology advanced training, advanced legal writing workshops, etc.

    • Advancement opportunities are similar to the traditional detail opportunity model; these opportunities are offered with the purpose of workforce planning and career development and could be detail opportunities both within and outside the employee’s component.

Retention and Readiness

• A strong onboarding process is key to a successful retention program. EOIR will expand the concept of Employee Onboarding with the creation of the Multi-Year Employee Onboarding and Integration Report (MY-EOIR program), which provides for a comprehensive embrace of employees from the pre-onboarding process through their first year of federal service through workplace sponsors, and ongoing engagement with the employee to gauge an employee’s performance, training opportunities, and job satisfaction in their new role.

• Leverage FEVS to identify and implement priority initiatives.

• Utilize entry and exit survey data to identify barriers to retention.

• Leverage telework and remote work programs to support future of work in a manner that is consistent with DOJ Policy 1200.1.

• Promote safe and inclusive workplaces.

• Advance workforce transformation for priority occupations.

  • Advance workforce transformation for front-line personnel per the OPM closing skill gaps initiative.

  • Strengthen the Senior Executive Service (SES) talent pipeline.

  • Identify and utilize tools leading to consistency and efficiency in human capital practices.

Knowledge Management

• Explore strategies to encourage desired employee behaviors, such as rewarding knowledge sharing and learning.

• Encourage networking through collaboration, such as creating communities of human capital practice and online forums.

• Share the knowledge with persons with a human capital need-to-know, such as providing access to databases and documents.

• Analyze and store gathered information, such as using data mining and analytics.

• Codify information into structured content, such as creating knowledge bases and wikis.

EOIR Accountability Measures and Milestones