HUMAN RESOURCES ASSISTANT

Summary

The USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service seeks a Human Resources Assistant (GS-0203) for the HR Operations Division. This role provides critical clerical support, processes personnel actions, and manages records. Depending on placement, you will either support staffing workflows by reviewing application packages or assist with benefits administration and enrollment processing. The ideal candidate has strong customer service skills to resolve diverse employee inquiries.

Duties

• Provide guidance to employees on how to access Federal benefits information, explain eligibility requirements, application processes, and timelines.
• Receive, review and process enrollment forms.
• Determine benefits status and eligibility using programs, regulations and policies.
• Drafts and send letters and notifications related to life events, retirements and separations.
• Review submitted documentation for completeness and input data into appropriate databases.
• Develop reports, review data, and suspense files using approved methods.
• Participate in projects under the direction of a specialist or supervisor.
• Pay duties including research, verify, and resolve pay issues and personnel documents for employees.
• Participate in recruitment/examining activities for identified positions through databases.
• Respond directly to applicant inquiries, complete tasks for pre-employment processes.
• Assist with making job offers, preparing and coordinating Entry on Duty (EOD) dates, release dates, examining on-boarding documentation for completion.
• Ensure that personnel actions contain correct nature of action and legal authorities, employee data, pay data and remark codes.
• Review submitted documentation for completeness. Input data into appropriate databases.
• Responds to inquiries: Answers written and oral questions directly from job applicants.
• Issues job offers: Prepares and distributes tentative and official job offer correspondence to selected applicants.
• Validates onboarding forms: Reviews completed new-hire onboarding packets for accuracy and assigns new-hire tasks in automated HR systems.
• Reviews a variety of incoming personnel documentation for completeness and codes approved transactions in HR systems.
• Tracks SF-52s: Builds, reviews, monitors, and tracks federal personnel actions for assigned programs and districts.
• Verifies position data: Assesses personnel documents for accuracy regarding position data elements and required attachments.
• Manages system data: Uses human resources applications to input, modify, maintain, and inactivate official position data.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including time-in-grade restrictions, specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Time in Grade: Current federal employees applying for a promotion opportunity must meet the time in grade requirement of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. Specialized Experience: 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 and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. GS-05: Experience performing basic office support, clerical, or data-entry tasks within a structured professional or human resources environment. Reviewing documents for administrative completeness against specific checklists. Inputting and retrieving simple database records into automated systems. Maintaining local files, logs, or tracker spreadsheets. Answering baseline customer inquiries by pulling information from pre-established reference materials. Following sequential, multi-step instructions provided directly by a supervisor or senior colleague. GS-06: Providing technical clerical assistance across routine human resources operations under established guidelines. Input or modify standard personnel actions (such as SF-52s, data entries, or benefits forms). Screening new-hire documentation to verify basic completeness. Identifying data entry errors and executing corrective updates within electronic records systems (Ex. Reviewing onboarding documents, requesting information, and applying changes). Providing information to employees regarding standard workplace procedures, benefits offerings, or onboarding steps by interpreting readily applicable instructions. GS-07: Experience independently processing a wide variety of interrelated, non-standard human resources support actions while interpreting regulatory guides. Evaluating, tracking, or auditing personnel actions (such as recruitments, mass realignments, or promotions) to verify regulatory compliance. Executing data-system actions across a broad spectrum of HR specialties like classification library management, recruitment tracking, or benefits administration. Resolving system transaction errors or technical discrepancies through collaboration with regional centers or external platforms. Providing technical guidance to internal managers or agency employees on the application of HR laws, rules, or local operating policies.

Education

If education is required or being used to qualify, you must submit a copy of all relevant college transcripts. An unofficial copy is sufficient with the application if it includes your name and the necessary course information; however, if you are selected, official transcripts will be required prior to entering on duty. Education must have been successfully obtained from an accredited school, college or university. If any education was completed at a foreign institute, you must submit with your application evidence that the institute was appropriately accredited by an accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as equivalent to U.S. education standards. There are private organizations that specialize in this evaluation and a fee is normally associated with this service. For a list of private organizations that evaluate education, visit the NACES website. All transcripts must be in English or include an English translation.

How to apply

Please read the entire announcement and all the instructions before you begin an application. To apply and be considered for this position, you must complete all required questionnaires, assessments, and required documentation as 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. Resumes must not exceed two pages. The application process is as follows: Click the Apply Online button. 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. 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. 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. 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: Click on this: https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/how-to/application/status/. 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. Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration.