Challenge 7: Managing Human Capital

The Department’s strategic workforce planning aims to ensure that the agency effectively recruits, develops, and retains a highly skilled and diverse workforce capable of meeting its mission-critical goals. By aligning human capital strategies with organizational objectives, the Department seeks to enhance operational efficiency, foster a culture of continuous improvement, and adapt to evolving challenges. This comprehensive approach underscores the Department's commitment to upholding justice, safeguarding national security, and serving the American public.

Recruiting and Hiring Top Talent in Competition with the Private Sector

Agencies within the Department face competition from the private sector as higher salary and levels of workforce engagement make private sector positions more attractive to new and established professionals. There is a critical need to ensure the Department maintains the high-quality of its workforce so that it is capable of meeting the Department’s critical mission.

Pay disparities between the federal workforce and private sector have notably impacted the Department’s recruitment and retention efforts. A recent Congressional Budget Office report determined that federal workers with a bachelor’s degree (one-third of the workforce) earned 10 percent less, on average, than their private sector counterparts, and federal workers with a professional or doctorate degree (one-tenth of the workforce) earned 29 percent less, on average, than similar workers in the private sector.

However, when the comparison is made using the total compensation package of federal employees, including all benefits, federal employees with a bachelor’s degree averaged 5 percent more than their private sector counterparts. Compensation for professional or doctorate degree federal workers remained below that of the same group of private sector employees by 22 percent. While federal salaries may continue to lag behind those in the private sector, it is critically important that the Department recognize it can bridge the salary gap in the competition for highly qualified and diverse personnel by being attentive and responsive to work-life balance issues, such as workplace flexibilities, in formulating its human capital strategy.

Source: Congressional Budget Office

Managing Workplace Flexibilities

One of the challenges facing the Department in its effort to recruit top talent, while at the same time being attentive and responsive to work-life balance needs, is the issue of workplace flexibilities. In early 2024, the Department implemented a telework policy that requires employees to report to their office for in-person work at least 6 days per 2-week pay period. The updated telework policy allowed components to approve certain exceptions to this requirement, including to allow for remote work options. According to an Office of Management and Budget report issued in August 2024, Department employees spent 91.4 percent of regular working hours in person, and telework eligible employees spent 56.8 percent of regular working hours in person, excluding remote workers. Further, the report details the Department’s plans to maintain operational readiness while promoting physical space efficiency, a resultant challenge as long-term decisions are made on flexible workplace policies.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s annual 2023 telework report stated that “telework can lead to greater operational resilience, increased productivity, higher employee engagement, lower employee attrition, expanded recruitment pools, and cost savings for both agencies and employees,” and concluded that employees who telework reported being less likely to leave their jobs. Similarly, a Congressional Budget Office report issued in April 2024 similarly found that flexibility to work from home has a positive effect on the ability of federal agencies to recruit and retain a highly qualified workforce.

Subsequently, four DOJ employee groups wrote to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and expressed concern about the potential impact on the DOJ workforce that could result from the more limited workplace flexibilities that DOJ components could offer to employees. The letter asked that DOJ enforce its in-person work policy (policy) equitably and assess its effects on the workforce. In response, the Department’s Assistant Attorney General for Administration (AAG-A) wrote that the Department was:

1. monitoring hiring and retention data by demographics,
2. piloting an anonymous exit survey that would contain a question about in-person work,
3. working on regularly conducting a pulse survey that would include questions about the policy, and
4. with component leadership to gauge the policy’s effectiveness.

Also, according to the AAG-A, Department leadership intends to review the 2024 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) results, which contained questions about workplace flexibilities, to better understand workforce trends. The AAG-A stated that the Department would seek to understand the impact of its new in-person work policies on maximizing employee job satisfaction while maintaining efficient, effective, and economical operations.

Notwithstanding employee utilization of telework options and DOJ’s operational need to understand the impact of these policies, the use of greater workplace flexibilities can also lead to significant rent cost savings for the Department. The August 2024 Office of Management and Budget report describes the Department’s completed, in progress, and pending projects to reassess its footprint in the National Capital Region. For example:

• Over the past 5 years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has consolidated 10 leases in the National Capital Region totaling approximately 502,000 square feet and $23.6 million in annual rent savings.
• Justice Management Division projects have reduced the Department’s square footage by approximately 385,000 usable square feet and will produce an annual rent savings of approximately $25 million.
• The Office of Justice Programs will reduce its footprint by approximately 75,000 square feet this year.
• A pending consolidation proposal for the Department’s 2 Constitution Square office space, housing Justice Management Division offices, will result in a further footprint reduction of 386,000 usable square feet.

Succession Planning and Knowledge Management

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, succession planning and knowledge management are keys to building resilience in the DOJ workforce in order meet future demands. Key in doing so will be to implement strategies to attract and retain top talent, invest in training programs that equip employees with the skills and mindset to adapt to changing circumstances and maintain productivity with equitable access to secure technology in challenging environments. Current challenges the Department faces include the shifting generational make-up of the federal workforce, and how to manage a multigenerational workforce to meet the needs of Department employees without sweeping generalizations or biases.

Source: Partnership for Public Service

Succession planning allows agencies within the Department to preserve institutional knowledge and transfer experience to new employees with whom the Department has lost touch during the times of remote work. The Partnership for Public Service has not released new figures for the Department since 2022 but did identify a projected increase in attrition for 2025 of 31 percent for agency employees, and 73 percent for Senior Executive Service employees. This marked level of potential attrition of Senior Executive Service staff across the Department has the potential to degrade the management and mitigation of challenges the Department may soon face.

In 2021, the GAO published a report of their High Risk Series–Dedicated Leadership Needed to Address Limited Progress in Most High-Risk Areas. A top area identified as requiring significant attention was strategic human capital management. Key drivers of attrition are limited opportunities for advancement, professional development, and retirement. Attrition has resulted in a loss of institutional knowledge, subject matter expertise, and gaps in leadership. The GAO notes leadership as the critical element for initiating and sustaining progress as leaders provide the needed support and accountability for managing risks.

Over the past 10 years, the overall engagement and satisfaction score of the Department as reported by the Partnership for Public Service based on FEVS data has slipped from a ranking of 5 of 19 large agencies in 2013 to 16 out of 17 in 2023. Many of the Department’s components have fared far worse during that same time period, with the Federal Bureau of Prisons dropping from a ranking of 148 out of 300 in 2013, to a ranking of 459 out of 459 in 2023. Similarly, the Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review fell from a ranking of 190 out of 300 in 2013 to 427 out of 459 in 2023.

The biggest swing, however, can be seen with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which was ranked 73 out of 300 in 2013, but 412 out of 459 in 2023. The remaining large investigative agencies with the Department—Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Drug Enforcement Administration; and U.S. Marshals Service—also experienced a downward trend in rankings of overall engagement and satisfaction as reported over the past 10 years. Recognizing, being responsive to, and appropriately addressing the shortfalls noted in the responses to overall engagement and satisfaction will be key to retaining staff and drawing new talent to the DOJ workforce.

The 2023 FEVS also introduced an Employee Experience index that measured employees’ view of their workplace on factors such as feelings of accomplishment, attachment to one’s work, and feelings of contributing to the common good. On that measure, DOJ ranked 4 percent lower than the whole government with a 69 percent index score compared to the government-wide index score of 73 percent. In view of the Department’s inarguably compelling mission, such Department rankings appear to signal a need for the Department to carefully assess the reasons for these results and respond appropriately to them. Failure to do so is likely to have adverse consequences over time as those committed to public service opt to leave the Department for other agencies or the private sector and the Department seeks to recruit new personnel to replace them.

Additionally, as in previous years, the 2022-2026 DOJ Strategic Plan identified a diverse workforce as a key asset. To most effectively achieve its mission, the Department must continue to benefit from the broad and varied experiences and perspectives of its employees. To that end, the Department should continue to identify and implement best practices for recruiting, developing, and retaining highly qualified and diverse personnel. It will remain important for DOJ to continually evaluate recruitment strategies and assess trends in workplace demographic data to ensure it fully realizes the advantages that its greatest asset, the people who work at DOJ.

One of the significant challenges faced by the Department over the past decade has been the issue of harassment in the workplace. While the Office of the Inspector General continues to receive complaints from DOJ employees of sexual harassment in the workplace, as outlined in last year’s Top Management and Performance Challenges report, Department leadership has made significant efforts to address the issue.

In 2018, DOJ issued a memorandum for Heads of Department Components directing components to enforce the Department’s zero-tolerance policy. In 2021, DOJ expanded its efforts through the issuance of a memorandum for all employees that established a steering committee to review the Department’s sexual harassment policies.

Department leadership have made significant efforts to address sexual harassment in the workplace.

Source: Andrey Popov/stock.adobe.com

Furthermore, in 2023, DOJ appointed a director to oversee the Sexual Misconduct Response Unit which aims to:

1. issue a comprehensive Department-wide sexual misconduct policy, and
2. develop and implement new training across DOJ.

The work of this new unit is ongoing.

As our Office of the Inspector General reports reflect, this issue remains a challenge for the Department, and it is therefore imperative that the Department continue to support these important steps and serve as a leader in maintaining a workplace free of sexual harassment and misconduct.