Jobs for People with MS: National MS Society

Summary This position is located in the VISN 12 Great Lakes Finance Service (GLFS) at the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, 5000 S 5th Ave, Hines, IL. The position serves as the Lead Civilian Payroll Technician for the Hospital, leading Civilian Payroll Technicians. This position is telework eligible. You will be required to work some days onsite. This position is not remote. Responsibilities This position performs the full range of payroll duties under a centrally processed automated payroll system (PAID), e-payroll services through the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) and is responsible for the accuracy of the pay and leave accounts for the VA Hospital employees. Major Duties include, but not limited to: Distributing and balances the workload among CPTs in accordance with established workflow or job specialization, assure timely accomplishment of the assigned workload, and assure that each employee has enough work to keep busy. Staying abreast of the status and progress of work and make day-to-day adjustments in accordance with established priorities, obtaining assistance from the Supervisory CPT on problems that may arise, such as backlogs which cannot be completed promptly. Instructing CPTs in specific tasks and job techniques for the more complex or non-routine assignments as necessary and assist in development of available written instructions, reference materials and receipt of supplies. Developing customer service surveys, in-take systems and example responses to common questions/inquiries as needed. Developing written procedures when there are no well-established procedures. Working with the supervisor to regularly pull payroll reports to review/monitor, interpret/isolate errors and identify systemic issues/trends or areas where CPTs, HR staff or overall systems and/or guidelines need to improve. Communicating errors to the Supervisory CPT or as delegated, HR leadership to ensure training and future errors are reduced, further guidance developed/updated and improvement of the integrity of the overall Payroll program. Working with CPTs on, and independently conduct, various audits on all employees' type of pay and leave accounts to identify areas to improve. Independently researching, resolving and responding to complex and/or non-routine verbal and written pay and leave inquiries from employees, supervisors, FSC, HR, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) and VA Central Office (VACO) staff. Working with the Supervisory CPT in development of resolutions and/or solutions to unique or regular and recurring payroll errors based on recommendations from CPTs and/or review of reports or other pay related documents and/or issues that commonly arise. Resolving the most complex and sensitive payroll issues to include: court cases; Congressional inquiries/complaints; direct Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue (IRS), Department of Labor (DOL) or other federal agency (outside of VA) related requests/actions. Along with the Supervisory CPT, tracing errors involving correction of pay covering long periods of time, requiring extensive research to identify and resolve pay issues. Determining proper application of pay and leave regulations, laws, rules and agency policies, guidelines, coding, etc. for each separate pay plan involved and appropriate leave system impacted. Interpreting and applying regulations and policies regarding appointment entitlements, leave earnings, charges of leave, leave without pay, advance sick leave and compensatory time. Using knowledge of varying premium pay and benefit entitlements for employee specific pay plans when implementing tours of duty regulations/policies to include 24-hour coverage, irregular tours, compressed tours, flex tours, etc. Completing retroactive actions, to include timecard corrections that routinely occur every pay period and actions which are known to impact areas of an employee record in a predictable way. Pulling daily reports and regularly monitor reports generated in multiple systems; review reports to ensure consistency and ensure any errors found are resolved based on well established procedures. Auditing all employee type of pay and leave accounts to identify and correct delinquent and/or erroneous personnel actions or time-keeping errors. Performs other related duties as assigned. Work Schedule: Full-time; Monday through Friday; 8:00am to 4:30pm 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. Remote/Virtual: This position is not a remote/virtual position. Position Description/PD#: Lead Civilian Payroll Technician/PD14302A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required Requirements Conditions of Employment You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job 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 vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP) Participation in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination program is a requirement for all Veterans Health Administration Health Care Personnel (HCP) - See "Additional Information" below for details. Qualifications To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 07/05/2024. 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-07 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-06. 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. To qualify for this position at the GS-7 level, you must meet the following: Specialized Experience: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the next lower grade GS-6 in the normal line of progression for the occupation in the organization. Examples of specialized experience would typically include, but are not limited to: Knowledge of extensive and diverse financial regulations, operations, and procedures relating to civilian pay and/or time and leave matters. Ability to serve as the customer service liaison with the data processing center on payroll situations involving a broad range of payroll transactions. Explain and provide training on payroll requirements, request or verify information, and resolve complicated pay problems and discrepancies in master records. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Attention to Detail Technical Competence 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 employee performs sedentary work. However, there may be some walking, standing, bending or carrying of 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 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: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html. Additional Information Receiving Service Credit or Earning Annual (Vacation) Leave: Federal Employees earn annual leave at a rate (4, 6 or 8 hours per pay period) which is based on the number of years they have served as a Federal employee. VA may offer newly-appointed Federal employee's credit for their job-related non-federal experience or active duty uniformed military service. This credited service can be used in determining the rate at which they earn annual leave. Such credit must be requested and approved prior to the appointment date and is not guaranteed. Special Employment Consideration: VA encourages persons with disabilities to apply, including those eligible for hiring under 5 CFR 213.3102(u), Schedule A, Appointment of persons with disabilities [i.e., intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities], and/or Disabled veterans with a compensable service-connected disability of 30% or more. Contact the Agency Contact for information on how to apply under this appointment authority via the Selective Placement Coordinator. The Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) provide eligible displaced 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/. During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions. This job opportunity announcement may be used to fill additional vacancies. To ensure compliance with an applicable preliminary nationwide injunction, which may be supplemented, modified, or vacated, depending on the course of ongoing litigation, the Federal Government will take no action to implement or enforce the COVID-19 vaccination requirement pursuant to Executive Order 14043 on Requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination for Federal Employees. Therefore, to the extent a VA job announcement includes language requiring applicants to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 pursuant to Executive Order 14043, that requirement does not currently apply to this Job Announcement. VA may request information regarding your vaccination status, if selected, for the purposes of implementing other workplace safety protocols, such as masking, physical distancing, testing, travel, and quarantine. 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.