HR Specialist (Employee Relations)
What you'd do
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is an independent office whose mission is to promote excellence, integrity, and accountability throughout the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In our dynamic environment, the OIG conducts investigations, audits, evaluations, and inspections to enhance program effectiveness and efficiency and to detect and prevent waste, fraud, and mismanagement in DHS programs and operations.
Major duties
As a Human Resources Specialist (Employee Relations), you will be responsible for providing overall advice and assistance on management-employee relations, discipline, adverse actions, grievances, performance management and recognition, employee counseling, and related functions to employees and management. Typical work assignments include: Provides advice and assistance to employees, supervisors, managers and officials on individual disciplinary and adverse action cases. Serves as the action officer for disciplinary and adverse action cases that requires action and provides a counseling service to employees on complaints or inquiries not referred by employees to supervisors. Provides management-employee relations support to assigned organizations where issues typically involve extremely difficult situations and environmental conditions causing significant problems in identifying the nature and scope of personnel issues. Assures that official case files are properly maintained with complete documentation to support recommended or final action. Coordinates with legal officials as appropriate. Reviews and advises management on performance plans and provides technical information on performance management systems. Interprets OIG policies and provides advice on other personnel issues such as RIF, substance abuse, sexual harassment, hours of work, changes in working conditions, job related stress, smoking/violence in the work place, leave administration, pay entitlements, affirmative action, etc.
What you need to qualify
You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this vacancy announcement. If you are a current federal employee, you must meet all time-in-grade and time-after competitive appointment qualifications by the closing date of this vacancy announcement. To make an accurate determination, you will need to include on your resume your federal position title, pay plan, occupational series, grade level, agency, dates for which you held the grade level (stated as MM/YYYY to MM/YYYY, OR MM/YYYY to PRESENT), and total hours worked per week. 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). Minimum Qualifications for GS-14: You qualify for the GS-14 position if you possess one year of ALL the specialized experience at the equivalent to GS-13 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience at this level includes: Prepare or review notices of proposed disciplinary and adverse actions for legal sufficiency, procedural compliance, and consistency with OIG policy. Provide advice and assistance to supervisors to develop in them an awareness of the human needs and reactions of employees, and suggest constructive methods for dealing with problems arising from indifference, personality conflicts, and poor work habits or behavior problems. Serve as the technical authority and action officer for disciplinary and adverse action cases and provides a counseling service to employees on complaints or inquiries not referred by employees to supervisors. 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. The qualification requirements listed above must be met by the closing date 07/06/2026 of this announcement. Current federal employees must have served 52 weeks at the next lower grade level or equivalent grade band in the federal service. The time-in-grade requirement must be met by the closing date 07/06/2026of this announcement. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must authorize employment offers made to current or former political appointees. If you are currently, or have been within the last 5 years, a political Schedule A, Schedule C, Non-career SES or Presidential Appointee employee in the Executive Branch, you must disclose this information to the Human Resources Office.
Before you apply
Federal applications are different: your resume should be 3–5 pages and mirror the language of this announcement. Read our federal resume guide first — it's the #1 reason qualified people get screened out.
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