The Secretary provides administrative support to the Office of the Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff (COS) and the assigned Administrative Officer at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, Temple Texas. The position serves as principle clerical and administrative support to the COS and carries out and coordinates all clerical and day-to-day administrative support activities which are typically require to accomplish work and objectives of the office.

Duties

The incumbent will perform a variety of duties, including but not limited to, the following: Receives visitors & telephone calls to the office, determines the nature of requests & directs callers to appropriate staff. Briefs or provides information to callers or visitors from outside the facility based on the knowledge of the supervisor & opinion on current issues. Manages the schedule & Outlook appointment calendar of the Chief of Staff & the Executive Assistant. Makes appointments based on personal knowledge of the schedule & commitments of the Office of the Chief of Staff, including the Executive Assistant. Reschedules & rearranges appointments independently needed. Briefing the Chief of Staff on commitments made, as necessary, ensuring all pertinent information and backup material is readily available for the appointment. Responds to routine & non-technical requests for information such as status of reports, suspense dates for matters requiring compliance & similar information readily available from files. Reviews correspondence prepared for the Chief of Staff & Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff, checking for spelling, typographical errors, proper routing with correct signature blocks, & conformance to established VA & CTVHCS formats & procedural requirements. Schedules appointments & makes arrangements for time, participants, & location of meetings in accordance with instructions. Coordinating regular and unscheduled site visits to CTVHCS from VISN, VACO, and other governing and accrediting bodies. Maintaining a current knowledge of medical center, VISN, and VACO policies, procedures, and directives, to answer questions from clerical and administrative support staff, and provides practiced advice on administrative matters based upon VA and local policies and procedures Makes necessary arrangements for travel, schedules of visits, reservations, notifying organizations & officials to be visited, & submitting travel vouchers & reports. Takes & transcribes minutes of meetings the Chief of Staff/Deputy Chief of Staff chairs or leads. Follows established medical center policy regarding formats for minutes. Ensures timely preparation, composition, & distribution of minutes & agenda so information is disseminated in an effective & efficient manner. In the absence of administrative staff assigned to the Office of the Director, provides administrative support & coverage as needed. Maintains strict confidentiality in all correspondence & communication, coming in & out of the Chief of Staff Office. Maintaining confidentiality & privacy are compliance issues with Joint Commission, CARF, VHA, & other regulatory agencies & policies. Serves as a resource for other services' secretarial staff regarding appropriate formats for reports, correspondence, etc. Establishes & maintains effective working relationships with co-workers, other services, & other secretarial staff through effective listening & interpersonal skills (written, verbal, & non-verbal). Operates personal computers to access VA software applications as well as various types of software (Excel, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint, etc.). Performs data entry, develops & designs PowerPoint presentations, databases, spreadsheets, etc., as required by the Office of Chief of Staff. Incumbent demonstrates self-control, tact, & ethical behavior in contacts with all visitors & hospital personnel & attempts in all contacts to develop a relationship of confidence & respect. Incumbent takes timely initiative in resolving consumer problems expeditiously by referring un-resolvable problems to the immediate supervisor with proposed alternative solutions. Performs timekeeper duties for the Office of the Chief of Staff & Director's Office as needed. Serves as an administrator & coordinator for the tracking of education & mandatory training utilizing VA's Learning Management System, other software & databases which contain & track employee educational activities. Representing the Deputy Director on administrative matters and request for non-technical information by daily interaction with all levels of Medical Center personnel, officials from other VA and governmental agencies, affiliated medical schools and health care systems, civic groups, Veterans, and their family members. Serving as the liaison between the Chief of Staff Office and other VA agencies (i.e., VISN, VACO, etc.) on administrative issues, assigning and tracking suspense actions to ensure mandated timelines are met. Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Secretary/674-6393-0 Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 09/08/2023 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-08 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-07. 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. In addition to meeting the Time-In-Grade requirement above, you may qualify based on your experience as described below: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-07 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Performs a variety of administrative support duties, such distribute and control mail, refer phone calls and visitors, and provide general, non-technical information; knowledge of correspondence requirements to check for proper grammar, spelling and punctuation and to review document for conformance with formats and procedural requirements; knowledge of office procedures, filing systems and various references and handbooks commonly used in staff in order to classify, search for and dispose of materials; knowledge of substantive programs of the Office of the Chief of Staff and Director, provide authorized information from files and records, provide advise on established procedures, assemble information for use in reports, follow up on commitments made in meetings and referral of non-routine requests; knowledge of the duties, policies, commitments and goals of the Chief of Staff in order to effectively organize and manage the work of the office, i.e., scheduling appointments, reviewing mail to determine which items should be brought to the attention of the supervisor and which should be sent directly to other appropriate personnel for action; Ability to use DHCP, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, calculators, V-tel, overhead projectors, laptops and fax machines is essential. In addition to meeting experience requirements, applicants for these positions must show possession of the following skills, as appropriate: Typing 40 words per minute (WPM). You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Administrative and Management Applies Technology to Task Customer Service Flexibility Writing 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 work is sedentary. Some work may require movement between offices, hospitals, warehouses, and similar areas for meetings and to conduct work. Work may also require walking/standing, in conjunctions with travel to and attendance at meetings and/or conferences away from the work site. Incumbent may carry and lift light items weighing less than 15 pounds. 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/.

Education

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

Contacts

• Address VA Central Texas Health Care System 1901 Veterans Memorial Drive Temple, TX 76504 US
• Name: VISN 17 SSU USAS Group
• Email: [email protected]