This position is organizationally aligned under the Office of the Medical Center Director at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL and performs work that involves developing, administering, evaluating, or advising on the Federal Government's internal equal employment opportunity program.

Duties

The Equal Employment Specialist establishes, organizes, and directs an identifiable part of the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) program (e.g., Federal Women's Program, Hispanic Employment Program, Complaint Adjudication Program, etc.) and informs and advises management officials and employees on basic EEO requirements. Duties include: -Plans, directs, coordinates, monitors, and evaluates the local special emphasis employment programs (i.e., Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American Program, Individuals with Disabilities Program, Federal Women's Program, etc.). -Analyzes workforce statistics, availability of skills in the civilian labor force, potential for upward mobility, and employment statistics to determine and establish special emphasis employment program goals and objectives. -Provide advice and guidance to organizational employees for developing, implementing and monitoring an effective AAP and EEO program. -Provides advice and assistance to supervisors in resolving problems and achieving program goals and objectives. -Assists in managing the EEO complaints processes and the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program. -Request's assignment of investigators and complaints examiners to provide them with administrative support and arrange for documenting the record and assuring availability of witnesses. -Prepares complete reports on pre-complaint counseling activities, the status of formal complaints, and the disposition of complaints closed. -Provides EEO education and training. -Conducts training seminars, create EEO lesson plans, and write proposed team-building initiative. -Serves as a consultant to Medical Center treatment teams and committees concerning the care of the minority patients and to identify and address areas of special concern for minority patients.-Participates in Medical Center planning activities that reflect the needs of minority patients. -Monitors patient satisfaction among minority veterans, developing effective mechanisms for feedback and for implementation of improvements in services. -Maintains a working liaison with minority organizations, community groups and others involved in helping minority veterans and their families. -Prepares periodic and special written statistical and narrative reports to the Director, Center for Minority Affairs, and VA Central Office. -Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-Time; Monday - Friday 8:00am to 4:30pm Position Description Title/PD#: Equal Employment Specialist, PD #20259A Telework: VA supports the use of telework as a way to help attract and retain talented individuals in public service, increase worker productivity, and better prepare the agency to operate during emergencies. This position may be authorized for telework. Telework eligibility will be discussed during the interview process. Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, facility applicants must meet all requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. Non-facility applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/30/2023. 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-11 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-09. 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: Specialized Experience: At least one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 level. Specialized experience is defined as experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Specialized experience for this position consists of: knowledge of the laws, regulations, Executive Orders, court decisions and issues related to the Federal Equal Opportunity Program and skill in applying this knowledge to analyze facts, identify problems, report findings, make conclusions and recommend corrective actions to solve difficult problems; knowledge of the procedures for accepting, investigating and settlings complaints and the legal rights and obligations of the parties to be able to advise managers and others of the rights and obligations and assist in resolving complaints; knowledge of Federal personnel administration areas and processes such as appeals and grievances, management-employee relations, and recruitment and selection to identify systemic problems and develop recommendations; skill in the use of computer systems sufficient to be able to research information, extract data, prepare reports, presentations and correspondence; and interpersonal relation and communication skills sufficient to be able to effectively work with external contacts, managers and employees at all levels within the community and organization. OR Combination Education and Experience: Equivalent combinations of successfully completed graduate education and specialized experience directly related to the work of the Equal Employment Specialist position may be used to meet the experience requirements for this position. For example, nine (9) months of appropriate specialized experience equivalent to GS-09 (75 percent of the experience requirement for GS-11) and 2 years of successfully completed graduate level education. (50 percent of the required education, i.e., the applicant has year of graduate study beyond that required for the GS-09), would exceed the total requirement and be qualified for the GS-11 position. NOTE: Only education in excess of 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education may be used to qualify at the grade 11 level. TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Analysis and Problem SolvingCommunicationCritical ThinkingManaging Diverse Workforce 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. No special physical demands are required to perform the work. Work Environment: The work is performed in a typical office setting. Special safety precautions are not required. 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

Substitution of Education for Experience: Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree, or 3 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree, obtained in an accredited college or university, or LL.M., if related, may be substituted for specialized experience to qualify for this grade 11, Equal Employment Specialist position. Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work of the position. One year of full-time graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent one (1) year of full-time study If that number cannot be obtained from the school, 18 semester hours will be considered an academic year of graduate study. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. NOTE: TRANSCRIPTS REQUIRED.

A transcript must be submitted with your application if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education.

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education. For further information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html.

Contacts

• Address Jesse Brown Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center 820 South Damen Avenue Chicago, IL 60612 US
• Name: Woa Townsend
• Phone: 317-988-0059 X180059
• Email: [email protected]