Clarification from the agency

ALL US CITIZENS DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.201) for this occupation.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is an open continuous announcement until September 30, 2026. Qualified applicants will be considered and referred as vacancies become available. This announcement may close without advanced notice.

The Housekeeping Aid (HKA) - Environmental Services (EVS) Technicians who maintain VA facilities for Veterans and their families are essential to the patient care experience at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). A VA healthcare career as a HKA-EVS Technician means working alongside other Veterans, who make up 85 percent of the housekeeping staff.

As a HKA-EVS Technician, you will perform a full range of light and heavy cleaning duties and routine housekeeping duties. Veterans rely on the skills of these professionals to keep patient areas clean and safe by addressing spills quickly, discarding trash, installing light bulbs in halls and rooms, and vacuuming and polishing floors.

Duties include cleaning wards, patient rooms, storerooms, offices, corridors, restrooms, shower rooms, and other areas. HKA-EVS Technicians sweep, mop, scrub (machine) floors, vacuum carpets and upholstered furniture, empty waste baskets, clean light globes and Venetian blinds, wash walls, windows and ceilings by climbing small ladders, refill toilet tissue and towel dispensers and move furniture. HKA-EVS Technicians carry out assignments with minimal supervision.

Work Schedule: Full time or Part time; Work schedule will be determined upon selection
Position Description Title/PD#: Housekeeping Aid/PD99909S
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not authorized
Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not approved
Pay: Competitive salary and regular salary increases When setting pay, a higher step rate of the appropriate grade may be determined after consideration of existing pay, higher or unique qualifications, or special needs of the VA (Above Minimum Rate of the Grade).
Paid Time Off: 37-50 days of annual paid time offer per year (13-26 days of annual leave, 13 days of sick leave, 11 paid Federal holidays per year) Selected applicants may qualify for credit toward annual leave accrual, based on prior [work experience] or military service experience.
Parental Leave: After 12 months of employment, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave in connection with the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child.
Child Care Subsidy: After 60 days of employment, full time employees with a total family income below $144,000 may be eligible for a childcare subsidy up to 25% of total eligible childcare costs for eligible children up to the monthly maximum of $416.66.
Retirement: Traditional federal pension (5 years vesting) and federal 401K with up to 5% in contributions by VA.
Insurance: Federal health/vision/dental/term life/long-term care (many federal insurance programs can be carried into retirement).
Remote: This is not a remote position
Telework: Not available
Virtual: This is not a virtual position
Financial Disclosure Report: Not required
Physical Requirements: The position demands continuous walking, standing, stooping, kneeling, pulling, and pushing. The work requires the occasional use of heavy powered cleaning equipment (e.g., wall washers, industrial type buffers) weighing over 50 pounds. The duties necessitate considerable dexterity, hand, foot, and eye coordination, and concentration as well as visual acuity to see dirt, dust and debris.

Conditions of employment

• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.
• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• You may be required to serve a probationary period
• Subject to background/security investigation
• Pre-employment physical required
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• 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 announcement, 09/30/2026.

EXPERIENCE: A specific length of training and experience is not required, but you must show evidence of training or experience of sufficient scope and quality of your ability to do the work of this position. Evidence which demonstrates you possess the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform the duties of this position must be supported by detailed descriptions of such on your resume. Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Federal Wage System Qualification Standards.

SCREEN-OUT ELEMENT: Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element, which usually appears as question 1 in the on-line questionnaire. Those applicants who appear to possess at least the minimal acceptable qualification requirement are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated. The potential eligibles are then rated against the remainder of the Job Elements:

• Dexterity and Safety
• Follow Directions
• Handle Weights and Loads
• Reliability And Dependability
• Special Aptitude - Housekeeping Work
• Work Practices

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.

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.

Financial disclosure not required.

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.

To apply for this position, you must provide a complete Application Package which includes:

Resume (and/or curriculum vitae) which must include the following information for each job listed:

• Contact Information: Your name and how best to contact you, including email address and phone number.
• Job Title/Employer Name: For each relevant work experience, be sure to include the Job Title and Employer/Company name.
• Pay Plan and Grades/Step Held: (for Federal positions)
• Duties: Please be as detailed as possible. We recommend that you include information directly related to the position you are applying to.
  • Good examples of specific information can be found in the Duties and Qualifications sections of the announcement.
  • Brief descriptions of job duties should demonstrate your ability to perform the tasks at the required level as stated in the job announcement - If you have performed any of those duties or have any of that experience, we are looking for that detail on your resume.
  • • We make no assumptions about prior work experience based on job title.
    • We make no assumptions about prior work experience if you don't include the types of duties or tasks which would qualify you for the position.
  • Experience must be listed on the resume under the position in which the duties were performed.
  • For Federal applicants, this experience must be listed under the proper grade level to count towards qualifications.
• Month & year start/end dates: Include both month and year for each position start and end dates (example: June 2007 to April 2008)
• Full-time or part-time status: Include the average number of hours you worked per week (example: 40 hours per week; 32 hours per week, 20 hours per week, etc.).
• Resume Length: Maximum resume length is two (2) pages. Applicants with resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration.

(If applicable) SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action: Your most current SF-50, if you are a current or former Federal employee (VA or any other Federal Agency) must be provided. Please note the following;

• SF 50 showing your time-in-grade eligibility/length of experience/tenure 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 of specialized experience, as required by the announcement. In this instance, you must provide an additional SF-50 that clearly demonstrates one-year of specialized experience.
• Award 50's do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
• Examples of additional/appropriate SF-50's include:
  • Within grade increases at the highest grade held; or
  • Promotions with an effective date more than one year old; or
• SF-50's at the highest grade held with an effective date more than one year old.

Required Document(s) for Applying:

• Resume

Please review the above list(s) to ensure you have included all necessary documents required for your application. Not every applicant will require the same documents, therefore it is the applicants responsibility to ensure that their application package includes all necessary documents to determine qualifications and eligibility for appointment, such as a copy of your SF-50, transcript, ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees).You will not be contacted for additional information. Applicants will be deemed ineligible if supporting documentation is not submitted.

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please ensure you have included all documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), etc.

Accepted Document(s) for Applying:

• Cover Letter
• DD-214/ Statement of Service
• Disability Letter (Schedule A)
• Disability Letter (VA)
• Other (1)
• Resume
• Separation Notice (RIF)
• SF-15
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action
• Transcript

Veterans' Preference: Since the Direct-Hire Recruitment Authority is being used, traditional Veterans' Preference rules do not apply. Qualified veterans will, however, be given full consideration for this position and are encouraged to submit documentation supporting their claim.

Applications are accepted online. Applying online will allow you to review and track the status of your application.

DIRECT HIRE AUTHORITY: This position is being filled using Direct-Hire Authority (5 CFR 337.201) for this occupation.

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