Supervisory Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor

Job Title

Supervisory Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor

Duties

The primary duties of this position include but are not limited to:

• Serves as first-line supervisor for professional VR&E counseling and other VR&E staff, as assigned and based in the Nashville RO VR&E jurisdictional area. Serve as an alternate to the division AVREO in their absence.
• Manages and assesses professional employee and other staff performance, as assigned.
• Makes decisions on inquiries or issues presented by subordinate VR&E professional and other employees, consults, and advises the division level management (DVL) staff, and assesses the impact on the VR&E program.
• Assists the DVL in the process of understanding, implementing, and monitoring a management system of work measurement, program evaluation, accountability, and a management information reporting system as it applies to VR&E.
• Interviews candidates for employment and internal merit promotion, keeping meticulous records of scoring on records review, the written portion of interviews, oral interviews, etc. in compliance with federal and VA Human Resource policies.
• Recommends performance, special contribution, and other awards for subordinate employees, providing full justification in the package.
• Takes appropriate disciplinary action when warranted, carefully adhering to agency, local procedure, and legal requirement for doing so, consulting with senior management and Human Resources/Labor Management Relations, and Union national and local agreements (for bargaining unit employees), as applicable.
• Responsible for handling employee and Veteran, Service Member, or dependent complaints, inquiries, and grievances and brings them to successful resolution. Only those which cannot be resolved within the authority of the Supervisory VRC are referred to the AVREO.
• Serves as a VR&E leave approving official for Nashville RO VR&E professional and other staff as assigned/delegated.
• Makes recommendations to the DVL in planning and implementing the VR&E professional and other staff development training program for Nashville RO VR&E division.
• Serves as the master subject matter expert in the areas of VR&E case management and processes for the VR&E professional staff and administrative staff.
• Provides general guidance to employees on work-related matters in accordance with established regulations, policies, procedures, and practices. Assists with the staffing of difficult cases with the Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors (VRCs) and other staff.
• Identifies problems with work, adjusting as needed to keep the cases moving and ensure accurate, successful rehabilitation scenarios.
• Ensures that caseloads and workloads are appropriately balanced among the professional staff and other subordinate staff, as assigned.
• Provides extensive training to incoming and current VRCs and staff assigned to Nashville RO VR&E. Evaluates training needs of all existing professional staff and conducts refresher training, training on new technology/processes, and makes decisions on mission related training scenarios for individual employees.
• Reviews VR&E program participant physical and electronic records to ensure compliance with regulations and procedures, and to promote among staff members high quality of performance in entitlement determinations, evaluation, planning, case management, and rehabilitation and placement services.
• Responsible for carrying out quality assurance reviews and training for assigned VR&E professional and other staff on a regular and recurring basis and for conducting other reviews as needed. In addition, they will help to support the quality assurance integrity of the division.
• Responsible to the VR&E division for supporting and conducting systematic analysis of operations in area of program review. Is responsible for identifying and correcting deficiencies recognized through systematic analysis and for using the information to make improvements and streamline processes.
• As directed by the Director's Office or DVL as assigned, conducts formal fact-finding inquiries/investigations surrounding employee issues and questionable work scenarios. Provides written narrative reports on investigative findings that are used by RO and/or DVL, to make decisions on these issues.
• Takes measures, within Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) guidelines, to mitigate negative impact on the mission, with concurrence of DVL.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday 7:30 am - 4:00 pm Compressed/Flexible Schedule: Not Available Telework: This position is eligible for situational (ad hoc) telework only. The selectee is required to report to the official duty station each scheduled workday. Telework may be approved only on a case-by-case basis with supervisory approval. Routine or recurring telework is not authorized for this position. Virtual: This is not a virtual position Position Description Title/PD#: Supervisory Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor; 39814A Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Required

Bargaining Unit: No