Clarification from the agency

US Citizens - Restricted to Preference Eligibles (if available) - See IMPORTANT NOTICE

The housekeeping aides who maintain VA facilities for Veterans and their families are essential to the patient care experience at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). A VA healthcare career as a housekeeping aide means working alongside other Veterans, who make up 85 percent of the housekeeping staff.

As a Housekeeping Aid, you will perform a full range of light and heavy cleaning duties and routine housekeeping duties. Duties include cleaning wards, patient rooms, storerooms, offices, corridors, restrooms, shower rooms, and other areas. Housekeeping Aids sweep, mop, scrub (machine) floors, vacuum carpets and upholstered furniture, empty waste baskets, clean light globes and Venetian blinds, wash walls, windows and ceilings by climbing small ladders, refill toilet tissue and towel dispensers and move furniture. Housekeeping Aids carry out assignments with minimal supervision.

Work Schedule: Various shifts:7:00am - 3:30pm; 3:30pm - 12:00am; 12:00am - 8:30am possible weekends and some Holidays
Recruitment & Relocation Incentive: Not authorized

Conditions of employment

• Must be a U.S. citizen
• Subject to a background/security investigation
• Designated and/or random drug testing may be required
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959
• May be required to serve a probationary period
• Pre-employment physical may be required
• Selected applicants may be required to complete an online onboarding process

Qualifications

PHYSICAL EFFORT: The position demands continuous walking, standing, stooping, kneeling, pulling and pushing. The work requires the occasional use of heavy powered cleaning equipment (e.g. wall washers, industrial type buffers, etc.) weighing over 50 pounds. The duties necessitate considerable dexterity, hand, foot, and eye coordination, and concentration as well as, visual acuity to see dirt, dust and debris.

WORKING CONDITIONS: Work is normally performed indoors with adequate heat, light, and ventilation. Some work may be performed outdoors where there may be exposure to varying degrees of heat and cold as well as, inclement weather. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) may be required in some circumstances as exposure to possible contagious disease, blood and bloody secretion are inherent to the position. Care is required to avoid serious injuries when working on ladders or when using 30-100 pound powered equipment or handling hazardous materials.

Applicants will be rated in accordance with the OPM Qualification Standard Handbook X-118C (www.opm.gov/qualifications/x-118c). For this position, the job element method is used to match what you, the applicant, can do against what the work calls for. Your knowledge, skills and abilities will be compared to the knowledge, skills and abilities (called job elements) needed for success. Your qualifications will first be evaluated against the prescribed screen out element (WG-2 and higher only; screen-outs are not applicable to WG-1). Applicants who appear to meet the screen out element are considered for further rating; those who do not are rated ineligible and are eliminated from consideration. The potential eligibles are rated against the remainder of the job elements. While a specific length of training and experience is not required, your responses to the questionnaire must be supported by detailed descriptions of your experience on your resume.

You will be rated on the following Job Elements as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position:

• Dexterity and Safety
• Follow Directions
• Handle Weights and Loads
• Reliability And Dependability
• Special Aptitude - Housekeeping Work
• Work Practices

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. If your resume does not support your questionnaire answers, we will not allow credit for your response(s).

Your responses to the assessment questionnaire will be reviewed along with the information provided in your resume and supporting documentation to determine if you are qualified for the position. If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating may be lowered and/or you may lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your eligibility.

Candidates who apply under All U.S. Citizens announcements will be rated and ranked using Category Rating procedures. Qualified candidates will be assigned to a quality category. The categories are defined as follows:

• Best qualified - applicants possessing experience that substantially exceeds the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are highly proficient in all requirements of the job and can perform effectively in the position;
• Well qualified - applicants possessing experience that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors, and who are proficient in some, but not all, of the requirements of the job; and
• Qualified - applicants possessing experience and/or education that meets the minimum qualifications of the position including all selective factors.

Application of Veterans' Preference: Category rating and selection procedures place those with veteran's preference above non-preference eligibles within each category. Preference eligible applicants that meet the eligibility and qualification requirements and who have a compensable service-connected disability of at least 10 percent are listed in the highest quality category.

IMPORTANT: A full year of work is considered to be 35-40 hours of work per week. All experience listed on your resume must include the month and year start/end dates. 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.

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.