Equal Employment Specialist

Clarification from the agency

This announcement is open to current, current permanent VA-Wide employees, current permanent Federal Employees, Career transition (CTAP/ ICTAP) , Veterans, Military Spouses, Individuals with disabilities, Land and Base Management, and Status Candidates.

Major duties include, but not limited to the following:

• Serves as consultant to employee and management officials at the facility level relevant to EEO and ADR including the development of affirmative employment plans, identification of initiatives to eliminate barriers, strategizing for resolution of discrimination complaints and other workplace disputes.
• Assists in coordinating and conducting EEO Training for employees, managers, and supervisors to include but not limited to the Prevention of Sexual Harassment, No Fear-Act, Anti-Harassment, and Reasonable Accommodation overview.
• Serves as the Alternate Local Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator and assists supervisors and management officials at all levels with processing requests for reasonable accommodation, interpreting regulations and statutes; advises employees and applicants for employment on their rights and responsibilities regarding reasonable accommodation; reviews existing policies and procedures; recommends appropriate changes in policy and procedures; and assists with securing funding for reasonable accommodations.
• Develops data into reports/recommendations for management on performance improvement for the facility EEO Program.
• Assists all levels of staff at the Office of Resolution Management (ORM), and Administrative Judges with investigations, hearings and provides assistance to ORM field office personnel (EEO Counselors, Investigators, and Intake Specialists) during both the counseling and investigative stages.
• Receive and review Civil Rights Complaints; issuing notices of receipt; conducting acceptability determinations; conducting investigations; rendering compliance to Final Agency Decisions; maintain all case files; and developing reports for submission to VISN Lead EEO Manager, VHA Central Office EEO staff and the Office of Resolution Management.
• Provides technical assistance, consultation; and guidance to national, state and/or local agencies and organizations regarding the development, extension and improvement of educational programs, systems and services for minority Veterans and develops a network relationship with state and private Veteran organizations that will. broaden the scope of outreach.
• Analyzes and evaluates the effectiveness of programs and operations within the Minority Veterans Program.
• Maintains an extensive and comprehensive information system as a centralized source of data relating to minority Veterans to identity opportunities for improvement and maintains a comprehensive control system of recurring and non-recurring reports that ensures timely submission to executive leadership.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm
Virtual/Remote Position: This is not a virtual or remote position
Position Description PD #: 044890
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• You may be required to serve a probationary period.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process.
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:
• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• Whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.
• Upon completion of your probationary period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this job announcement.

Time-In-Grade Requirement: Applicants who are current Federal employees and have held a GS grade any time in the past 52 weeks must also meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement For a GS-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS- 9. The grade may have been in any occupation, but must have been held in the Federal service. An SF-50 that shows your time-in-grade eligibility must be submitted with your application materials. If the most recent SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you possess one-year time-in-grade, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year time-in-grade. Note: Time-In-Grade requirements also apply to former Federal employees applying for reinstatement as well as current employees applying for Veterans Employment Opportunities Act of 1998 (VEOA) appointment.

You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below:

GS-11

• Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-9 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Ability to plan, develop, implement, evaluate and monitor programs, complete cycle of fact-finding, problem definition and identification, determining cause and effect relationships, making conclusions and recommending a decision or proposing action, solve complex problems, attention to detail. OR,
• Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree

or
3 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree
or
LL.M., if related OR,

• Combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at this level. You must have an combination of specialized experience and education beyond equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate level education and specialized experience as described above to meet total experience requirements.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:
Analytical Reasoning, Attention to Detail, Compliance, Customer Service, Flexibility, Influencing/Negotiating, Integrity/Honesty, Interpersonal Skills, Learning, Oral Communication, Reading Comprehension, Self-Management, Stress Tolerance, Teamwork, and Written Communication

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religions; spiritual; community; student; social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Note: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Physical Requirements: The regular and recurring work of the position is sitting, bending, carrying light items, attending meetings and conferences, etc., and the occasional attendance at career fairs and veteran related events. Occasional use of automobile and public conveyances may be required. No special physical exertion is required. The work is mostly sedentary, requiring ambulation, bending, sitting, and carrying light items.

For more information on these qualification standards, please visit the United States Office of Personnel Management's website at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

IN DESCRIBING YOUR EXPERIENCE, PLEASE BE CLEAR AND SPECIFIC. WE WILL NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS REGARDING YOUR EXPERIENCE.

Narrative responses are not required at this time. If you are referred for consideration, you may be asked to submit additional job related information, which may include, but not limited to; responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities; completion of a work sample, and/or contact for an interview. Your resume and/or supporting documentation will be verified. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating or consideration for employment.

The Department of Veterans Affairs performs pre-employment reference checks as an assessment method used in the hiring process to verify information provided by a candidate (e.g., on resume or during interview or hiring process); gain additional knowledge regarding a candidate's abilities; and assist a hiring manager with making a final selection for a position.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

Placement Policy: The posting of this announcement does not obligate management to fill a vacancy or vacancies by promotion. The position may be filled by reassignment, change to lower grade, transfer, appointment, or reinstatement. Management may use any one or any combination of these methods to fill the position.

It is the policy of the VA to not deny employment to those that have faced financial hardships or periods of unemployment.

Veterans and Transitioning Service Members: Please visit the VA for Vets site for career-search tools for Veterans seeking employment at VA, career development services for our existing Veterans, and coaching and reintegration support for military service members.

Applicants who must meet TIG must also submit the following in addition to their most recent SF-50:

• Official SF-50 that shows you hold the grade for the position you are applying for (or a higher grade), or
• Official SF-50s that show you held the next lower grade for at least one year for the position you are applying for. (Multiple SF-50s may need to be submitted to show this.)

Examples of appropriate SF-50s to include in addition to your most recent SF-50 to meet TIG requirements include:

• Within grade increases (WGI) at the highest grade held; or
• Promotions with an effective date that occurred more than one year from the closing date of the JOA; or
• SF-50s at the highest grade held with an effective date that occurred more than 1 year from the closing date of the JOA.

NOTE: Do not submit Award SF-50s, as they do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
Failure to submit any of the above required documents applicable to your submission may result in loss of consideration and a rating of ineligible due to an incomplete application package. It is the applicant's responsibility to verify that their application package (resume, supporting documents, and responses to the questionnaire) is complete, accurate, and submitted by the closing date. We will not contact applicants for additional documentation, nor will we accept late or missing documents after the close of the announcement.
Incomplete Applications. The general rule is that an application is incomplete if an applicant

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