Clarification from the agency

See "Who May Apply" in the "Qualifications" section for more information on who is eligible to apply for this position.

• Implementing the total range of employee relations and leave administration for the Headquarters (HQ) and acts with full authority over the work of the HQ, Management Employee Relations (MER) program
• Responsibilities include drug testing program, work-life programs, telework programs, incentive awards, adverse actions, discipline, performance management, and leave administration
• Reviews program actions for conformance with law, Government­wide regulations, and overall DoD and DoDEA policy.
• Interpreting laws and regulations and issues policies, procedures, and guidance on controversial issues pertaining to employee relations and human resource development programs.
• Assisting in the development of management proposals regarding management employee relations.
• Serving as a representative or key witness in complex third-party proceedings before various third parties, including arbitrators and agents of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).
• Preparing operating guidance for subordinate specialists and managers in the area to ensure that they are aware of new procedures, case decisions, and legislative and regulatory changes.
• Provides specific advice in oral and written form in response to inquiries from superiors, HQ and field managers, employees, and support staff.
• Providing advice and guidance to region-wide managers on dealing with employees in the performance and productivity program areas.
• Conducts independent, in-depth research into complex questions of program operations and produces reports and studies on performance.
• Planning work to be accomplished by subordinates, set and adjust short-term priorities, and prepare schedules for completion of work.
• Assign work to subordinates based on priorities, selective consideration of the difficulty and requirements of assignments, and the capabilities of employees.

Conditions of employment

• Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must complete a Pre-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Requirement.
• Proof of U.S. Citizenship required.
• Direct deposit of pay is required.
• One year trial or probationary period may be required.
• Appointment subject to a suitability/fitness determination, as determined by a background investigation.
• One year supervisory probation period may be required.
• This position requires a Tier 3 (T3) investigation.
• This position requires the incumbent to obtain and maintain a secret security clearance.

Qualifications

Who May Apply: Only applicants who meet one of the employment authority categories below are eligible to apply for this job. You will be asked to identify which category or categories you meet, and to provide documents which prove you meet the category or categories you selected. See Proof of Eligibility for an extensive list of document requirements for all employment authorities.

• Current Competitive Service Civilian DoWEA Employee within the Commuting Area

In order to qualify, you must meet the experience requirements described below. 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; religious; spiritual; community; student; social). You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. Your resume must clearly describe your relevant experience; if qualifying based on education, your transcripts will be required as part of your application.

Specialized Experience: One year of specialized which includes: Assisting with managing an employee relations program, including areas such as drug testing, work-life and telework programs, incentive awards, adverse actions, discipline, performance management, and leave administration. Interpreting and applying Federal case law and providing relevant Management and Employee Relations guidance to staff and other HR specialists. Assisting with the development and issuing of policies, procedures, and operating guidance for managers and other HR specialists in response to new case decisions and legislative changes. The definition of specialized experience is typical of work performed at the next lower grade/level position in the federal service (GS-13).

Time in Grade Requirement: Applicants who have held a General Schedule (GS) position within the last 52 weeks must have 52 weeks of Federal service at the next lower grade or equivalent (GS-13).

All candidates must be currently employed by the DoWEA Management & Employee Relations Branch and must reside within the local commuting area where the position is located. Local commuting area is defined as the geographic area surrounding a work site that encompasses the localities where people live and reasonably can be expected to travel back and forth daily to work based on the generally held expectations of the local community. (5 CFR 575.203)

How you will be evaluated

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

This recruitment is using a Structured Resume Review assessment process. Subject matter experts (SMEs) will review your resume to determine your technical qualifications for this position based on the required specialized experience. SMEs will review your resume, starting at your work experience. SMEs will not review additional information beyond your resume (e.g., cover letter, links embedded in your resume). Applicants passing the structured resume review will move on to the next phase of the assessment process.

If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and/or experience, you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully when applying, errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

The documents you are required to submit vary based on the authority you are using to apply (i.e., applying as a veteran, applying as a current permanent Federal employee, applying as a reinstatement, etc). Please review the following links to see which documents you need to provide to prove your eligibility to apply: Applicant Checklist for Internal/Merit Promotion Announcements.

As described above, your complete application includes your resume, your responses to the online questionnaire, and documents which prove your eligibility to apply. If you fail to provide these documents, you will be marked as having an incomplete application package and you will not be considered any further.

1. Your resume:

• Your resume must be two pages or less and must support the specialized experience described in this announcement. Resumes exceeding two pages will be removed from consideration.
• For each relevant work experience, make sure you include the employer's name, job title, start and end dates (include month and year), for qualifications purposes, the number of hours worked per week, and a brief description that show you can perform the tasks at the required level listed in the job announcement. If your resume does not contain this information, your application may be marked as incomplete, and you may not receive consideration for this position.
• Use plain language. Avoid using acronyms and terms that are not easily understood. The hiring agency will not make assumptions about what's in your resume.
• If your resume includes a photograph or other inappropriate material or content, it will not be used to make eligibility and qualification determinations, and you may not be considered for this vacancy.

For additional information, to include formatting tips, see: What to include in your resume.

2. Other supporting documents:

• Cover Letter, optional
• Most recent Performance Appraisal, if applicable
• Proof of Eligibility to Apply: Your application must include the documents which prove you are eligible to apply for the vacancy. The Proof of Eligibility document describes authorities commonly used in merit promotion recruitment and what document(s) are required to prove you meet the requirements of the authority. You must meet the requirements of at least one of the authorities listed in the Who May Apply section above to receive further consideration.
• Time-in-grade documentation: If you are applying for a higher grade and your SF-50 has an effective date within the past year, it may not clearly demonstrate you meet the one year time-in-grade requirement so you will need to provide an SF-50 which clearly demonstrates you meet the time-in-grade requirements (examples of appropriate SF-50s include Promotions, Within-grade Grade/Range Increases, and SF-50s with an effective date more than one year old).
• License or Certification: If this position requires a job-related licensure or certification, you MUST submit a copy of your license or certification with your application package or you will be rated ineligible. To determine if this position requires a job-related licensure or certification, please review the Qualifications section listed above.

NOTE: Documents submitted as part of the application package, to include supplemental documents, may be shared beyond the Human Resources Office. Some supplemental documents such as military orders and marriage certificates may contain personal information for someone other than you. You may sanitize these documents to remove another person's personal information before you submit your application. You may be asked to provide an un-sanitized version of the documents if you are selected to confirm your eligibility.

Next steps