What are the responsibilities and job description for the Telephone Operator position at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs?
Summary
The Telephone Operator position is located within the VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS) - Tacoma - Washington - and provides centralized continuous point of contact for Veterans and clinical providers in all areas of patient care.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position at the GS-4 level - you must meet one of the following: EXPERIENCE: At least one (1) year of general experience that has equipped you with the knowledge - skills - and abilities necessary to perform the duties of a Telephone Operator GS-4. General experience is defined as progressively responsible clerical - office - or other work that indicates your ability to perform the duties of this position. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title; duties; month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. ~OR~ EDUCATION: Two (2) years of education above the high school level for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. This education must have been obtained at an accredited business - secretarial or technical school - junior college - college or university. One year of full-time academic study is defined as 30 semester hours - 45 quarter hours - or the equivalent in a college or university - or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business - secretarial - or technical school. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ COMBINATION: Equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education and general experience - as described above - which meet the total qualification requirements for this grade level. NOTE: Your experience must be documented in your resume and transcripts are required. Quality Ranking Factor has been requested by the facility to help determine which of the basically qualified applicants are likely to be better qualified for a position. The quality ranking factor for this position is: Experience as a telephone switchboard operator - an emergency fire or police dispatcher. Quality Ranking Factors are skills - knowledge - abilities - or other worker characteristics which could be expected to result in superior performance on the job. Quality ranking factors will not be used for screening but may be used as ranking criteria. Applicants with higher proficiency levels may rank above those with lower proficiency levels on a quality ranking factor. You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: Clerical Communications Customer Service Decision Making Quality Ranking Factor Telecommunications 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. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary with reaching - dialing numbers on the console - keyboarding - carrying of light supplies required. Because calls received are emergent and so varied - the position can be emotionally taxing. 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/.
Duties
The Telephone Operator position is located within the VA Puget Sound Health Care System (VAPSHCS) - Tacoma - Washington - and provides centralized continuous point of contact for Veterans and clinical providers in all areas of patient care.
Qualifications
To qualify for this position at the GS-4 level - you must meet one of the following: EXPERIENCE: At least one (1) year of general experience that has equipped you with the knowledge - skills - and abilities necessary to perform the duties of a Telephone Operator GS-4. General experience is defined as progressively responsible clerical - office - or other work that indicates your ability to perform the duties of this position. NOTE: Experience must be fully documented on your resume and must include job title; duties; month and year start/end dates AND hours worked per week. ~OR~ EDUCATION: Two (2) years of education above the high school level for which high school graduation or the equivalent is the normal prerequisite. This education must have been obtained at an accredited business - secretarial or technical school - junior college - college or university. One year of full-time academic study is defined as 30 semester hours - 45 quarter hours - or the equivalent in a college or university - or at least 20 hours of classroom instruction per week for approximately 36 weeks in a business - secretarial - or technical school. NOTE: Transcripts must be submitted with your application materials. Education cannot be credited without documentation. ~OR~ COMBINATION: Equivalent combination of successfully completed post-high school education and general experience - as described above - which meet the total qualification requirements for this grade level. NOTE: Your experience must be documented in your resume and transcripts are required. Quality Ranking Factor has been requested by the facility to help determine which of the basically qualified applicants are likely to be better qualified for a position. The quality ranking factor for this position is: Experience as a telephone switchboard operator - an emergency fire or police dispatcher. Quality Ranking Factors are skills - knowledge - abilities - or other worker characteristics which could be expected to result in superior performance on the job. Quality ranking factors will not be used for screening but may be used as ranking criteria. Applicants with higher proficiency levels may rank above those with lower proficiency levels on a quality ranking factor. You will be rated on the following Competencies as part of the assessment questionnaire for this position: Clerical Communications Customer Service Decision Making Quality Ranking Factor Telecommunications 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. Physical Requirements: The work is primarily sedentary with reaching - dialing numbers on the console - keyboarding - carrying of light supplies required. Because calls received are emergent and so varied - the position can be emotionally taxing. 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/.
Duties
- ***THIS IS NOT A VIRTUAL POSITION - YOU MUST LIVE WITHIN OR BE WILLING TO RELOCATE WITHIN A COMMUTABLE DISTANCE OF THE DUTY LOCATION*** Major duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to: Serves as patient information resource for staff and Veterans
- Operates the voice and digital paging system - long distance pagers - and hospital wide overhead voice paging system (includes calling the emergency code pagers in the event of an emergency and also testing the voice paging system)
- Receives external and internal calls to the medical center on the multiline consoles
- Functions as the emergency 911 Operator for the medical center and determines the need and urgency of each call
- Organizes - prepares - and prints computerized on-call schedules - quick reference guides - and other organizational telephone and reference lists utilizing Microsoft office programs
- Provides verification of clinician names - pager numbers - and home phone numbers for use with the on-call schedule
- Provides excellent customer service via the telephone and face to face simultaneously
- Insures functional operation of the telecommunications equipment to include each multiline console - emergency 911 phone - by-pass phone - digital pagers - voice pagers - and incoming and outgoing phone lines
- Performs clerical duties such as typing documents - record keeping - quick reference guides - on-call schedule - timekeeping - and ordering supplies
- Performs other duties as necessary to ensure the full functionality of the Medical Center switchboard as assigned by the Supervisor
- Performs other related duties as assigned
- Work Schedule: Full-time - Sunday - Thursday - 2:30 PM to 11:00 PM Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Critical Skills Incentive (CSI): Not Approved
Salary : $40,922 - $53,202