A Context For Clerical Reengineering

A Context For Clerical Reengineering

Creating A Foundation For Success

Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers

October 30, 2014

Ray Wahl, Utah Deputy State Court Administrator

The Problem We Sought to Address in 2008

• high degree of turnover among less tenured employees

• inefficient and inconsistent training

• no system of competency based advancement

• lack of career mobility

Committee Composition

• Representatives of court levels, districts and rural/urban

• Subcommittees used to “flesh out” ideas• All levels of staff represented:

–AOC–Clerks of Court–Line Clerks–District Management–HR

Committee

• Vision–Structure clerical operations to attract and retain a

highly skilled workforce to meet the needs of the court when transitioning to an electronic environment

– Judicial teams–Generalist v. specialists–Benefits– Implementation

Deputy Court Clerk

Lead Deputy Court Clerk

Chief Deputy Court Clerk

Clerk of Court

Assistant Clerk of Court

Judicial Services Representative 1

Judicial Services Representative 2

Judicial Services Representative 3

Judicial Services Manager

Judicial Team Manager

Judicial Case Manager

Judicial Assistant 3

Judicial Assistant 2

Judicial Assistant 1

Clerk of Court

The Big Picture

Professionalize the clerical operations to provide a motivating work environment for staff and to align operations with the changing nature of work in an

increasingly electronic environment.

Not only would the nature of the work be changing, but also the knowledge and skills an employee must have to

be successful.

Shifting the Workforce

Primary focus on designing a system that meets both employee and organizational needs:

Employees - fair, predictable, attainable, self directed

Organization - consistency, team oriented, cross trained

Identifying Competencies

Reengineering clerical operations needed to be more than simply shifting to a new hierarchy -- it needed to be a new way of doing business and delivering services to the public.

This means the KSA’s required for success would be different at each level of the new structure.

Competencies for a Restructured Clerical Operationfor Service Reps, Judicial Assistants and Managers

Last Update:

5/26/2009

Training Program Class/Unit Competencies AddressedDistCt

JuvCt

App Ct Category

SR1

SR2

SR3

SM

JA1

JA2

JA3

CM TM

Ref MatAvail

CQR/DCCT

R

Train MatAvail

?

Train Res. Iden

Fundamentals of Judicial Services

New Employee OrientationMorning

(All employees may attend)

Overview of Court System and Resources;Demonstrate critical role of staff in administration of justice;Identify and explain professional demeanor in the courts;Demonstrate how communication can inhibit or enhance quality service; Demonstrate positive listening skills and methods to use them under pressure; Identify and demonstrate professional skills to work with court personnel, attorneys, pro se litigants, allied agencies, security staff, colleagues, and phone customers.

Fundamentals X X

New Employee OrientationAfternoon

Ethics and Confidentiality

(All employees may attend)

Demonstrate knowledge of responsibilities, including knowledge or protocol for confidential information under the Code of Professional Conduct, the Code of Judicial Conduct, and the Utah Ethics Act. Fundamentals X X

New Employee OrientationSecond day

Diversity Consciousness in the Courts

(All employees may attend)

Demonstrate skills to ensure fair administration of justice by identifying cultures of all social identities, discussing fear of cultural issues, exploring relationship between deep and surface culture issues, comparing values and perspectives of different cultures, recognizing individual bias and the influence of stereotypes; review strategies to increase understanding of other cultures.

Fundamentals X X

Customer Service IIMorning

(All employees may attend)

Develop skills to manage different or difficult customer situations; Demonstrate understanding of legal rules and constraints; Identify responsibilities of team and individuals to provide customer serviceIdentify responsibilities of team and individuals to each other; Examine strategies to overcome barriers to effective teams; Create an individual team action plan.

Customer Service IIAfternoon

(All employees may attend)

Develop and demonstrate strategies and skills to monitor behavior for unconscious bias; Develop and identify skills that demonstrate respect and cultural understanding to all court customers.

Effectively Using Web Resources Resources to Assist the PublicResources for Court Employees

Competencies for JSR Training, By Subject

Class Title / Segments Competencies Addressed

Ref MatAvail

CQR/DCCTR

Train MatAvail?

Train Res. Iden

Basic CORIS 1 Understanding what CORIS is; what it does;

Using the wildcard function to find a case;

How to use select case screen to find a case;

How hot keys work;

How to use the CORIS print index; X X

How access rights work;

Basic CORIS 2 Understanding the difference between the criminal and civil case filing screens; X X X

Understanding how and when to use find violations; Uniform Fine Bail Schedule; the shared offense table; X X X

Beginning CORIS: SR

What the CORIS Data Entry Standards are and why they must be followed; X X

Why OTNs are important;

How to file cases; X X X

Adding and using common parties; X X

How to enter documents; X X X

How and when to use batch processing; X X X

Attaching attorneys to cases; X X X

Basic CORIS 3 Calendaring/scheduling court events; X X X

Basic CORIS 4 How to perform as a cashier; finding balance due X X

Basic CORIS 5 Orientation to e-filing; finding documents X

Basic CORIS 6 Using XChange X

General Case Management for SR Common Requests and How to Handle Them

X

X

Beginning CORIS: SROverview: Document and case security classifications;

Beginning CORIS: SR Online Court Assistance Program (OCAP) documents: How they work; tips in processing them

Mediation X X

Certified/Exemplified Copies; X X

Conformed copies

Signature stamp usage by rule

Processing Foreign Subpoenas; X X X

Processing Out of State Depositions X

Introduction to filing fees X

Understanding time-pay screens

General knowledge of e-filing

Researching old records/microfilm

Mail processing X

Safeguarding assets

Introduction to assisting self-represented litigants/customer service/legal advice

Ex parte communication : What it is; how to avoid it

Competency Based Advancement

• Identifying the KSA’s necessary at each level

• Determining those in which mastery must be demonstrated prior to advancement

• Confirming not only successful completion of training, which included testing, but also demonstration of the skills in the course of completing duties

Developing a Professional Workforce

• The value of a Bachelor’s degree

– develops more refined analytical, communication, and decision making skills

– tendency to adapt more quickly to environment

• Recruiting for a reengineered operation

–96 employees, past 2 years• 59% Bachelors Degree• 17% Associates Degree• 6% Some college education• 18% High School diploma

Why Develop an Online Training Program?

• Value of “just in time” training for new staff

• Establish consistent practices statewide

• Learning is self paced and monitored by the immediate supervisor

• Greatly reduces the training burden on colleagues and supervisors

• Eliminates travel• Flexibility in scheduling• Maximizes efficiency in training• Serves as reference in rural districts

• Research• Script creation and review• Production

–Adobe Captivate• Module review• Revisions if necessary• LearningLink

Content Development

Moving people through the restructuring

• Required job specific training• Competency• Apply for promotions• Computer changes• Cross training• Judge’s adjustment• Morale

What was happening in 2008?

• THE RECESSION

• Clerical Restructuring was just part of the story

3 Solutions to be recession proof

• Clerical Restructuring

• Electronic Record

• Discovery Reform

E-Everything Required

• Programming changes• Support of stakeholders• Shifting Internal Resources• Projecting Impact• “Staying the Course”• 85% THERE• Retirements

This chart displays the average age of actively pending cases at four reporting periods since 2010. The age of active pending cases is used to identify areas in which backlog may exist. Cases are considered actively pending if the court case can proceed.

0 - 30 days

31 - 60 days

61 - 90 days

91- 180 days

181 - 365 days

366 - 730 days

over 730 days

1000

3000

5000

7000

9000

11000

13000

15000

District Court Active Pending Cases All Cases Statewide

FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14

CA

SE

S

Lessons Learned

• Leadership• Sharing the Vision• Communication• Decisions informed by users• Deadlines produce results• Don’t underestimate human difficulties• Give skeptics a voice• Use staff to sell other staff• Challenging financial times are a good time to

introduce change

Advice

• Don’t wait for unanimity or you will never accomplish anything

• Use judge’s team to train judges• Make difficult decisions to advance a major

change• Regular training and support to everyone• Define a future – What we want to be• Electronic record must be defined to include

judge’s work – if not it reduces not improves judicial efficiency