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Human Resources Specialist

Department of Homeland Security
Transportation Security Administration
This job announcement has closed

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Summary

Securing Travel, Protecting People - At the Transportation Security Administration, you will serve in a high-stakes environment to safeguard the American way of life.  In cities across the country, you would secure airports, seaports, railroads, highways, and/or public transit systems, thus protecting America's transportation infrastructure and ensuring freedom of movement for people and commerce. For additional information about our agency please: Click Here

Overview

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Reviewing applications
Open & closing dates
01/07/2021 to 01/19/2021
Salary
$80,049 to - $124,144 per year
Pay scale & grade
SV I
Location
1 vacancy in the following location:
Minneapolis, MN
1 vacancy
Telework eligible
No
Travel Required
Occasional travel - A minimum of one (1) week of travel in a full-time duty status will be required within 90-days of entry on duty to complete TSA’s in residence New Hire Training. This training will occur away from the employee’s duty station of record. Employees will be paid for compensable hours and reimbursed for authorized travel expenses per TSA Travel Policy.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time - Full Time
Service
Excepted
Promotion potential
I
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Announcement number
MSP-20-800607
Control number
588802700

Duties

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If you are selected for this position, you will serve as a Human Resources (HR) Specialist for Security Operations (SO), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS). You will provide program staff and management with advice while performing human capital core functions in compliance with Office of Human Capital (OHC) directives, policies, guidance, procedures, and requirements. Generally serving as a lead HR Specialist, you will guide and direct the activities of lower level specialists. Additionally, you will serve as an agent of the AA/OHC for the purpose of ensuring that the organizational element complies with OHC directives, policies, guidance, procedures, and requirements and that human capital decisions and activities in the organizational element are consistent with merit system principles.
Duties include but are not limited to:

  • Applying employee relations principles, practices, legal and regulatory requirements, and analytical skills sufficient to advise management about appropriate disciplinary or other corrective techniques that are responsive to a range of conduct and performance problems.
  • Providing advice and assistance to management regarding appropriate disciplinary and adverse actions.
  • Identifying and seeking guidance on fitness for duty and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) issues.
  • Applying knowledge of guidance, policies, principles, and practices related to employee conduct, performance, and dispute resolution.
  • Analyzing a variety of employee conduct and performance-based problems.
  • Providing ongoing HR services to managers and employees including initiating, tracking, and following up on cases and actions to ensure timely completion and regulatory compliance, and resolving recurring case specific problems or issues independently when applicable guidelines are available.
  • Serving as the resident HR consultant by providing guidance on HR matters; responding to routine HR inquiry actions; ensuring compliance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies, and consistency with merit system principles; communicating changes to HR procedures and policies.
  • Undertaking extensive research and analysis and coordinating with OHC senior specialist to ensure the most recent guidance is applied when making technical decisions or advising managers, staff, and employees.
  • Providing guidance to junior staff as appropriate to accomplish work.
  • Identifying and proposing technically sound and administratively compliant solutions to a range of recurring issues that require considerable judgment to ensure that recommendations and approaches that best meet operational needs.

Depending on needs and circumstances of the organization to which you are assigned, you may perform disciplinary and adverse action duties, workers compensation duties, HR consulting duties and benefits administration duties.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • You must possess U.S. Citizenship or be a U.S. National.
  • You must complete a favorable Background Investigation (BI).
  • Selective Service registration is required.

You must meet the qualification requirements for this position no later than the closing date of the vacancy announcement.

Qualifications

To qualify for the SV-I Pay Band (equivalent to GS-13), you must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the SV-H Pay Band or the GS-12 in the Federal Service or equivalent in the private sector. Specialized Experience is defined as experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position, and is typically in or related to human resources work. Such experience includes providing services in at least three of the following human resources disciplines: worker's compensation, employee relations, position classification, and performance management.

National Service Experience (i.e., volunteer experience): 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). 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: Credit for experience is given based on a 40-hour workweek. Part-time experience is credited on a part-time ratio, i.e., working 20 hours per week for two months equals one month of experience. No additional credit is given for overtime.

Additional information

Eligibility to apply for other Federal positions: TSA is an Excepted Service agency exempt from most of Title 5 United States Code, including regulations which apply to displaced Federal employees (CTAP/ICTAP) of other agencies, and employment with TSA does not confer "Competitive Status" that generally results from selection and service in Competitive Service agencies.  The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has established an Interchange Agreement, which allows most permanent TSA employees to apply and be considered for vacancies in Competitive Service agencies.  Information from OPM on this or other Interchange Agreements is available at: http://www.opm.gov .

To ensure the accomplishment of our mission, DHS requires every employee to be reliable and trustworthy.  To meet those standards, all selected applicants must undergo and successfully pass a background investigation as a condition of placement into this position.  

DHS uses E-Verify, an Internet-based system, to confirm the eligibility of all newly hired employees to work in the United States. Learn more about E-Verify including your rights and responsibilities.

TSA employees who are absent for the purpose of performing military duty may apply for any vacancies announced in their absence.

It is the policy of the Government not to deny employment simply because an individual has been unemployed or has had financial difficulties that have arisen through no fault of the individual.  Information about an individual’s employment experience will be used only to determine the person’s qualifications and to assess his or her relative level of knowledge, skills, and abilities.  Although an individual’s personal conduct may be relevant in any employment decision, including conduct during periods of unemployment or evidence of dishonesty in handling financial matters, financial difficulty that has arisen through no fault of the individual will generally not itself be the basis of an unfavorable suitability or fitness determination. For more information, click here .

Payment of relocation expenses (Permanent Change of Station) is not authorized.

Qualified non-competitive eligible candidates may be referred for consideration on a separate, unranked list.

If you are entering TSA employment on an appointment without time limitations, you must serve a basic trial period unless you have already met the requirement.

More than one position may be filled from this announcement.

This position is within the Professional category of TSA's Core Compensation Plan.

TSA policy requires verification of Selective Service registration for male applicants born after 12/31/59. For more information click here .

View common definitions of terms found in this announcement.

Veterans
and persons with disabilities possess a wealth of unique talents, experiences, and competencies that can be invaluable to the DHS mission. If you are a member of one of these groups, you may not have to compete with the public for federal jobs. To determine your eligibility for non-competitive appointment and to understand the documentation that is required, click on the links above or contact the Servicing Human Resources Office listed at the bottom of this announcement.

How you will be evaluated

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

You will be evaluated based on a comparison of the position requirements against the quality and extent of the experience and/or related education as reflected in your resume and supporting documentation.  You are encouraged to ensure work experiences clearly show possession of the competencies required for this position.  We will compare your resume and supporting documentation to your responses on the assessment questionnaire. If, after reviewing your resume and any supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have rated yourself higher than is supported by your application materials, your category placement may be adjusted and/or you may be excluded from consideration for this job.

When completing the assessment questionnaire for this position, you will be prompted to elect if you wish for your application to be considered as External (where Veterans’ Preference applies), as Status (current or former Federal Employees), and/or Internal to TSA as a current permanent or competitive temporary employee.  At that time, please select the answer(s) that apply to you and your application to this position.

Candidates will be rated and ranked using Category Grouping procedures.  Under Category Grouping, candidates will be rated and ranked into one of three categories:

Best-Qualified: Applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position and demonstrate high proficiency in all of the critical competencies, including all Selective Placement Factors (SPF) and appropriate Desirable (Quality Ranking) Factors as determined by the job analysis.

Well-Qualified: Applicants possessing experience that exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position and demonstrates acceptable proficiency in all of the critical competencies, including all SPFs as determined by the job analysis.

Qualified: Applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position and demonstrate basic proficiency in most of the critical competencies, including all SPFs as determined by the job analysis.

Veterans: Qualified veterans who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10% are listed in the best-qualified category, except when the position being filled is scientific or professional at the GS-09 grade level, or higher. (This position is not considered scientific/professional.) Other 10-point preference eligibles and veterans with 5-point preference who meet the eligibility and qualification requirements are placed above non-preference eligibles within the category in which they qualify. View information on veterans’ preference .


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