The Battle Creek VA Medical Center is recruiting for an Executive Secretary vacancy. The incumbent will serve as an administrative assistant to the the Associate Director, Patient Care services (ADPCS) for the Battle Creek VA Medical Center (BCVAMC), which serves over 44,000 Veterans across 23 counties in 5 sites of care across southwest Michigan.

Duties

Incumbents will exercises excellent customer service, resourcefulness, initiative and sound judgment in carrying out the following duties and responsibilities: Ensures practices and procedures used by the secretaries in subordinate administrative offices and throughout the Battle Creek VAMC are consistent with those of VA national directives and policies. Exercises exclusive control over appointments with complete authority for commitments of time. Screens all calls and visitors, answering questions, and completing business involving established policy of routine matters independently. Exercises independent decision-making in routing and assigning actions and suspense dates on all correspondence coming in the office on a daily basis. Maintains a log for all action items (reports, responses to VA and outside source correspondence) to monitor the timely completion and submission of responses. Develops and maintains a suspense system which is reviewed at least daily to flag pending issues and ensure due dates are met. A log is also maintained for recurring reports. Receives and reviews all correspondence and replies to mail. Screens all correspondence prepared for signature for clarity, completeness of reply, grammatical, and procedural correctness. Establishes meetings at the Battle Creek VAMC as well as other sites in VISN 10. This includes creating agendas, notifying participants, and arranging support items (lunch, tours, special equipment, etc.). Attends, records, and distributes minutes of meetings. Checks to ensure commitments made at these meetings are met. Works independently in gathering background information and preparing agendas for meetings. Attends meetings, prepares minutes, and ensures their timely distribution. If scheduling priorities arise and rescheduling is needed, independently notifies committee members of the changes via electronic mail. Prepares written documents, charts and graphs. Many of these documents are original forms or reports which require extensive experimentation to determine proper layout and format. Provides clerical support and assists with selected community relations activities. Specifically, incumbent organizes materials for use in public speaking, develops background information, and prepares outlines for speeches. Makes and maintains copies of all outgoing correspondence signed so that as questions arise, the referenced correspondence will be available as a source of information. Prepares travel orders and makes travel and accommodation reservations as requested. Prepares travel vouchers in a timely manner after each trip has been completed and checks to ensure any reimbursement due is received. Uses a variety of methods and techniques in achieving communication with many diverse groups. He/she determines internal and external communications and contact needs, and develops programs, publications, or materials in support of staff, patients, volunteers, and others who contribute to Battle Creek VAMC's effectiveness and responsiveness. Communicates any special requests or instructions received from higher authorities and actions to be taken as a result of inquiries. Maintains a good working knowledge of the day-to-day activities and the organizational and functional structure of the Medical Center. Work Schedule: Monday thru Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm. Hours may be rotated or extended based on the needs of the Medical Center and our Veterans. 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. Position Description/PD#: Secretary (OA)/PD91376-O Financial Disclosure Report: Not required

Requirements

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 02/05/2024. 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-8 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-7. 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. Proficiency Requirement; Office Automation (OA) Clerk applicants must show possession of a typing speed of at least 40 words per minute. Applicants may meet these requirements by passing the appropriate performance test, presenting a certificate of proficiency from a school or other organization authorized to issue such certificates by the Office of Personnel Management local office, or by self-certifying their proficiency. SELECTIVE PLACEMENT FACTOR: This position includes a Selective Placement Factor (SPF) which is a prerequisite to appointment and represents minimum requirements for a position. Applicants who do not meet the SPF are ineligible for further consideration. The SPF for this position is: 40Words Per Minute typing speed. [Your typing speed is required]. If you do not submit your typing speed, your application will not be reviewed. 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-7 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: maintenance of appointments and calendars, experience using computer software programs to include word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software to develop reports; arrange conferences, meetings, and travel arrangements for the executives; maintain files including but not limited to directives, policies and accreditation standards. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to DetailCommunicationsManages and Organizes InformationPlanning and EvaluatingProblem SolvingSelf-Management 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 incumbent's work is mostly sedentary; however, some walking, standing, bending, and carrying of light to medium weight items is 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

There is no educational substitution at this grade level.

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: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Contacts

• Address Battle Creek VA Medical Center 5500 Armstrong Road Battle Creek, MI 49037 US
• Name: Jamie Cole
• Phone: (269) 832-1641
• Email: [email protected]