Social Services Assistant (Silent Monitor/Trainer)

Social Services Assistant (Silent Monitor/Trainer)

Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

Location(s): Anywhere in the U.S. (remote job), United States

Salary Range: $50460 - $82007 Per Year

Job Summary: The Social Services Assistant (Silent Monitor/Trainer) works within the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL) call center to assist in the delivery of resource connection, telephone triage and support to the VCL telephone responders who need assistance. These positions are located at the VCL in Office of Mental Health & Suicide Prevention. The VCL's mission is to provide 24/7, world-class suicide prevention and crisis intervention services to Veterans, Service Members, and their family members.

Major Duties:

• Major duties include but are not limited to: Follows set policy and procedures for monitoring to ensure that SSA's provide excellent customer service, follow all VCL policies and procedures. Follows all HIPAA guidelines, privacy, and confidentiality requirements to include all regulatory processes, VCL, and agency policies; including in the workplace, in public, in committee meetings and in consultation. Participates and acts as the subject matter expert (SME) in all SSA trainings and the creation and editing of course materials to maintain proficiency and knowledge of operations, policy changes, and updates. Provide feedback for educational and performance review purposes. Communicates both positive and corrective insightful feedback to staff in a way that is supportive and constructive. Recommends additional training and surveys the training needs of SSAs and advises the Supervisor of trends in deficiencies. Designs, completes, and distributes quality assessment reports to management that identify performance and quality assurance issues. Maintains close working relationship with other members of the VCL clinical staff by attendance at professional-administrative staff meetings, case review, case staffing, and conferences with staff consultants. Participates in a continuing quality improvement program for ongoing systematic monitoring and evaluation of patient outcomes to include tracking appropriate data. Supports the Health Science Specialist (HSS) to ensure that the customer and or focus's safety is addressed. Once deficiencies are found, the incumbent is responsible for coaching the SSA on the proper procedures and policies. Provides private one-on-one coaching and feedback to SSA on the soft and technical skill's observed. Develops and revises classes, briefings, lesson plans, methods of instruction, training-aid materials and multi-media instructional materials using Microsoft Power Point, Word and Excel. The incumbent also provides training and recommendations on the monitoring processes. Monitors and documents observations in terms of procedural compliance, customer service standards, and opportunities for improvement. Responsible for silent call monitoring of individual VCL Social Services Assistants to ensure that all VCL policies and procedures are followed. Listens attentively and review the SSA's actions and interpersonal processes while managing their customer calls to ensure that accurate information is provided to the contact and/or emergency response services. Resolves complaints, stay within scope and elevate issues as required. Performs other duties as assigned. Work Schedule: The Veterans Crisis Line is a 24/7 call center. This position has a varied work schedule to include evenings, nights, weekends and holidays. Selectees will be expected to work all shifts. Recruitment & Relocation Incentives: Not authorized Financial Disclosure Report: Not Required

Qualifications: To qualify for this position, applicants must meet all requirements by the closing date of this announcement, 04/28/2026. 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-7 position you must have served 52 weeks at the GS-6. 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. You may qualify based on your experience and/or education as described below: Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR): The IOR is a basic requirement that must be met by every applicant in order to qualify for entry into this occupational series and is something that cannot be waived. Your education must be accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education at the time the degree was obtained. To qualify for this occupational series, you must possess one of the following: Group leader in community or residential recreation or training programs. Counselor in a youth summer camp. Instructor in a training program for the development of job skills. Work that demonstrated the ability to be responsible for and to lead and train members of a job crew. Group activities leader in the Armed Services. Unit leader-monitor-proctor for a dormitory group in a boarding school or other residential facility. Aid or assistant to professional or specialist staff in such fields as personnel (private or government), employment guidance in a vocational or academic institution, social service, or manpower development. Aid or assistant to professional or associate staff engaged in work of a social services nature in private, public welfare, government program, or community organizations, or in voluntary activities. Aid or assistant to professional or specialist staff working with individuals who are addicted to or abuse alcohol and/or drugs. GS-7 MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: In addition to the Individual Occupational Requirement (IOR) listed above, all applicants must also meet ONE of 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. In order to meet the minimum qualifications for this position, you must meet at least 3 of the 5 following specialized experience requirements: Monitoring and documenting observations in terms of procedural compliance, customer service standards, and opportunities for improvement. Providing customer service focused trainings and 1:1 coaching/feedback for educational and performance review purposes. Communicating both positive and corrective insightful feedback to staff in a way that is supportive and constructive. Developing and revising classes, briefings, lesson plans, methods of instruction, training-aid materials and multi-media instructional materials using Microsoft Office applications. Participating in continuing quality improvement programs for ongoing systematic monitoring and evaluation of patient outcomes to include tracking data and designing/distributing quality assessment reports for management which identify performance and quality assurance issues. OR, Education: Applicants may substitute education for the required specialized experience. To qualify based on education for this grade level you must have successfully completed at least one (1) full year of graduate level education or an internship in course matter that must include courses directly related to the work of the Social Services Assistant position. Education must have been obtained at a college or university that is accredited by the U.S. Department of Education. You will be rated on the following Competencies for this position: Compliance Communications Teaches Others Quality Assurance 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. 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/.

How to Apply: Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply for this position, you must complete the initial online application, to include the initial online questionnaire and submission of the required documentation specified in the How to Apply and Required Documents section. The complete application package must be submitted by 11:59 PM (ET) on the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. To preview the application questionnaire, click https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/12941596. The application process is as follows: To begin, click Apply Online to create a USA JOBS account or log in to your existing account. Follow the prompts to select your USA JOBS resume and/or other supporting documents. Answer the questions presented in the application and attach all necessary supporting documentation. Click the Submit Application button prior to 11:59 PM (ET) on the announcement closing date, 04/28/2026. If you are required to complete any USA Hire Assessments, you will be notified after submitting your application. The notification will be provided in your application submission screen and via email. The notification will include your unique assessment access link to the USA Hire system and the completion deadline. Additionally, in USAJOBS you can click "Track this application" to return to your assessment completion notice. Access USA Hire using your unique assessment link. Access is granted through your USAJOBS login credentials. Review all instructions prior to beginning your assessments. You will have the opportunity to request a testing accommodation before beginning the assessments should you have a disability covered under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. Set aside at least 3 hours to take the USA Hire Assessments; however, most applicants complete the assessments in less time. If you need to stop the assessments and continue later, you can re-use your unique assessment link. NOTE: Your responses to the USA Hire Assessments will be reused for one year (in most cases) from the date you complete an assessment. If future applications you submit require completion of the same assessments, your responses will be automatically reused. Visit the USA Hire Applicant Resource Center for practice assessments and assessment preparation resources at https://support-usahire.opm.gov/hc/en-us. To update your application, including supporting documentation: During the announcement open period, return to your USAJOBS account, find your application record, and click Edit my application. This option will no longer be available once the announcement has closed. To view the announcement status or your application status: https://help.usajobs.gov/how-to. Your application status page is where you can view your application status, USA Hire assessment completion status, and review your notifications sent by the hiring agency regarding your application. Beginning September 27, 2025, Federal agencies will only accept resumes up to two pages in length to comply with the Merit Hiring Plan. Resumes longer than two pages will result in ineligibility for further consideration for the position. USAJOBS will not allow you to upload or build resumes longer than two pages, and you will need to update the resumes in your profile before applying for a job. Resumes should include information relevant to the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of the position to which you are applying. VA is unable to make assumptions about qualifications if not clearly listed. Resumes must be legible so they can be reviewed for eligibility, minimum qualifications and other position requirements listed in the job announcement. Your resume must be 5MB or less. We recommend saving and uploading your resume as a PDF to maintain formatting and number of pages. We also accept GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, TXT, PDF, ODT or Word (DOC or DOCX). We do not accept PDF portfolio files. We recommend using a sans-serif font size like Lato, if available. Other widely available options are Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Open San Source Sans Pro, Roboto or Noro Sans. Make your page margins 0.5 inches. Consider using 14-point size font for titles and 10-point for the main text in your resume. The resume builder can help you create a resume using these recommendations and uses the information in your USAJOBS profile to help you get started. Helpful Hints for Creating a Two-Page Resume: Prioritize most relevant and recent experience Use concise, results focused language Align language from the job announcement Focus on demonstrating skills and competencies Remove outdated or unrelated experience Use the USAJOBS resume builder Additional guidance on this new requirement and resume building tools can be found at: https://help.usajobs.gov/faq/application/documents/resume/page-limit.

Application Deadline: 2026-04-28