Duties

Summary

The position is in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Mid-Atlantic Health Care Network VISN 6, Richmond VA Medical Center, Mental Health Service Line (MHSL), Richmond, Virginia. The VAMC is a 1A complexity. The primary duties of the position are to perform administrative and technical support work for the Mental Health Service Line (MHSL).These functions deal with sensitive issues and require strict confidentiality.
Learn more about this agency

Responsibilities

Major Duties to include but not limited to the following:

• Receive telephone calls, greets visitors, and ascertains the nature of the calls or visits
• Refers telephone calls and visitors to appropriate staff or office
• Serves as a liaison between supervisor and subordinate units
• Responsible for the receipt, control, logging, safekeeping, and necessary action on confidential materials, including typing and maintaining the confidential rating for the professional staff
• Prepare a wide variety of recurring and some nonrecurring correspondence, reports, and other documents (including MCM formatting & tracking)
• Reviews and finalizes correspondence or documents prepared by others
• Composes routine nontechnical correspondence, such as instructions on office procedures, requests for information, and letters of acknowledgment or notification
• Proofreads and edits all correspondences and documents for correct grammar, spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and format
• Maintains supervisor's calendar, coordinates meeting arrangements, and schedules meetings and/or conferences
• Arranges for conferences including matters as location, schedule, agenda list, and assembling all pertinent material for supervisor and others as required
• Takes minutes of staff meetings, compiles them into final form and assures distribution in a timely manner.
• Makes all necessary travel arrangements and accommodations, preparing itinerary, requesting appropriate leave and preparation of travel voucher upon return and maintains personal records for the Chief of the Service
• Serve as the Travel Liaison for the MHS.
• Serves TMS Administrator; PIV Sponsor (back-up); Initiator of request for Fund Control Points (back-up) and Timekeeper (primary/back-up) for MHS
• Acts as liaison secretary for MCV Department of Psychiatry and VA Mental Health Service
• Monitors and manages incoming fellows, and students including the following: Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)
• works in conjunction with the MHS Directors of Education for the Psychiatry & Psychology training programs
• Serves as the primary contact for all students, MHS fellows, or staff members inquiring about fellow/student related issues
• Ensure operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs; submitting work orders, maintaining equipment inventories; and assist with inventory audits
• Performs other related duties as assigned

Work Schedule: 7:45am-4:30pm Monday-Friday
Virtual: This is not a virtual position.
Position Description/PD#: Secretary (OA)/PD030470
Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Travel Required

Not required

Supervisory status
No

Promotion Potential
None

Requirements

Conditions of Employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• 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
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process
• Participation in the seasonal influenza and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination programs are requirements for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP)

Qualifications

To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 10/28/2021.

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-6 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-5. 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 as described below:

GS-318-06 (Full Performance Level):

To qualify for the GS-318-06 based on Specialized Experience: Qualifying specialized experience includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-05 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is defined as experience serving as a secretary or office assistant performing administrative management functions, coordinating appointments, travel, scheduling, or maintaining calendars; recording meeting minutes; reviewing correspondence for appropriate guidelines, proper grammar and punctuation; and preparing correspondence or other documents in final form. In addition, experience must demonstrate ability to utilize computer technology, as well as ability to interact collaboratively with others to provide consultation and liaison services; A working and detailed knowledge of the functions of all positions for which he or she is responsible is required of the incumbent. A thorough knowledge and understanding of VA regulations, laws, policies and procedures which relate to the operations within the unit and those which affect the operations of the other units within the Health Administration Service. Incumbent must possess basic knowledge of legal entitlement to VA benefits; medical, dental and prosthetics. Knowledge of the VISTA computer system is essential to facilitate and monitor employee work performance and standards; to develop and/or apply existing VISTA computer applications and software programs which impact the outpatient encounters and patient demographic information OR To qualify for the GS-318-06 based on Education: As a general rule, education is not creditable above GS-5 for most positions covered by this standard; however, graduate education may be credited in those few instances where the graduate education is directly related to the work of the position. For the GS-6, applicants must have successfully completed Six months of graduate education in a degree program directly related to the work of the position as a substitution for specialized experience. Qualifying graduate coursework includes: Business Management, Telecommunications, Information Technology, or comparable major of study. This education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. Transcripts (unofficial) are required at time of application. A transcript or course listing must be submitted if you are basing all or part of your qualifications on education. Applications submitted without this information will not be considered. Such education must demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. An academic year of graduate education is considered to be the number of credit hours that the school attended has determined to represent 6 months of full-time study. This determination is made based on normal course loads for a full year of study in the graduate program. If that information cannot be obtained from the school, 9 semester hours or 27 quarter hours should be considered as satisfying the 6 months year of full time study requirement. Part-time graduate education is creditable in accordance with its relationship to a year of full-time study at the school attended. When academic credit is expressed in contract months, units, or other terms that differ from conventional semester or quarter hours, it is the responsibility of the applicant to provide an interpretation of such credits from the appropriate institution in order to equate them to the semester or quarter hours specified in the standard. OR To qualify for the GS-318-06 based on combination: Applicants may also combine education and experience to qualify at these grade levels. Combinations of successfully completed post-high school education and experience may be used to meet total qualification requirements and may be computed by first determining the applicant's total qualifying experience as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level; then determining the applicant's education as a percentage of the education required for the grade level; and then adding the two percentages. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify an applicant for that grade level. When crediting education that requires specific course work, prorate the number of hours of related courses required as a proportion of the total education to be used.

You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position:

• Computer Skills
• Education and Training
• Oral communication
• Writing
• Communications

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 mostly sedentary requiring some walking, standing, bending, sitting, working at a computer terminal and carrying light items.

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

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 .

Additional information

The Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP) and Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced Federal/VA competitive service employees with selection priority over other candidates for competitive service vacancies. To be qualified you must submit appropriate documentation (a copy of the agency notice, your most recent performance rating, and your most recent SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location) and be found well-qualified for this vacancy. To be well-qualified : applicants must possess experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in most of the required competencies of the job. Information about ICTAP and CTAP eligibility is on OPM's Career Transition Resources website at http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/workforce-restructuring/employee-guide-to-career-transition/ .

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.

This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies.

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.

For more information on the "Who may apply" eligibility requirements, please refer to the OHRM Status Candidates and Other Candidate Definitions document.

If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application .

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.

Background checks and security clearance

Security clearance
Other

Drug test required
No

Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk

Trust determination process
Suitability/Fitness

Required Documents

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

• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

The following documents are accepted, and may be required if applicable to your eligibility and/or qualifications for this position. Please use this checklist to make sure you have included other documents required for your application, such as a copy of your transcript (if using education to qualify), SF-50's (current/former Federal employees), documentation to support Veterans Preference claims, or ICTAP/CTAP documentation (for displaced Federal employees). You will not be contacted for additional information.

• Cover Letter
• Other (1)
• Resume
• SF-50/ Notification of Personnel Action

SF-50, Notification of Personnel Action (if applicable for Time in Grade and/or Eligibility):

• Most recent SF-50 if you are a current or former Federal employee
• An SF-50 showing 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
• Award 50's do not provide sufficient information and will not be accepted for the purpose of verifying time-in-grade.
• Examples of 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.

If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:

Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education .

Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.