Job Announcement - Human Resources Administrator Wednesday, April 5, 2023

Vacancy Number: 23-01
Classification: CPS CL 27-28 (Salary range $55,266-$107,701) with future potential CPS CL 29 (Salary range up to $128,064) (Commensurate with qualifications and experience)
Location: Fargo, North Dakota
Opening Date: April 3, 2023
Closing Date: April 28, 2023

Overview

The United States District Court and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of NorthDakota and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Dakota are accepting applications for the position of Human Resources Administrator. This position is part of a shared administrative services environment and serves approximately eight judges and 65 employees among three court units: North Dakota U.S. District Court (to include judicial officers/staff) and North Dakota and South Dakota U.S. Bankruptcy Courts (to include judicial officers/staff). Recruitment for this position is being posted for internal and external applications.

The Human Resources Administrator provides a full range of human resources and training services for the Clerk’s offices of the District and Bankruptcy Courts and judicial officers and staff of the District and Bankruptcy Courts. The position's key goal is to provide high quality, relevant, and timely service to judicial officers, chambers staff, court unit executives, and all employees of the Districts of North and South Dakota. The Human Resources Administrator reports directly to the Chief Deputy Clerk of the North Dakota Bankruptcy Court. The successful applicant will participate as an essential advisor to the management teams of each of the three court units. The Human Resources Administrator will serve as the training coordinator for the three court units.

Representative Duties

• Anticipate, originate, implement, and manage human resources policies, procedures, and standards for the supported courts. Research, analyze, develop, and recommend policies, procedures, and standards for multiple court units with different needs, priorities, and cultures.
• Manage the personnel system for each court unit. Provide advice to management on organizational structures and classification standards, and guide management on human resources related changes.
• Initiate, recommend, and assist with the development of strategies for use in the development of performance management tools for the supported courts that are consistent with the court’s philosophy, and reflect each court unit’s culture. Develop performance management tools for each court unit. Develop and classify position descriptions, develop evaluation tools, performance standards, and rating criteria.
• Consult with and provide advice to judges, managers, and employees on human resources issues, procedures, and practices, including employee relations, disciplinary actions, performance management, staffing, payroll, cost projections, and related matters.
• Advise and counsel employees on compensation, benefits, employee assistance programs, career development, retirement, performance management and personnel issues.
• Assist in administering the Employee Dispute Resolution plan.
• Develop and maintain fair employment policies and practices.
• Establish procedures for benefits administration, benefits counseling, recruitment, orientation, classification, personnel action processing, budget, payroll, separations, workers’ compensation, and records management for multiple court units and chambers, each with different needs, priorities, and cultures.
• Develop and administer recruitment programs. Develop interview questions, screen and interview candidates, negotiate salaries, present job offers and assist with new employee orientation.
• Represent the supported courts at the circuit and national levels in the testing, implementation and training of automated systems developed by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
• Manage automated systems for human resources activities locally.
• Advise court unit executives, managers, and staff on leave administration, leave policies and tracking issues in adherence to local leave policies and procedures, as well as those outlined in the Guide to Judiciary Policy.
• Maintain a system of keeping individual training records with distribution of the records to the employees on an annual basis.
• Arrange for expert speakers to provide special instruction, in conjunction with the national and local training needs.
• Plan for and arrange meeting space, equipment, visual aids, handouts and other program logistics for internal training programs.
• Assess training needs for employees and respond to training requests identified by managers.
• Develop internal training programs for employees, which may include researching potential training topics, planning, designing and evaluating learning programs.
• Coordinate, deliver, and evaluate training programs, including those developed in-house and developed by outside vendors. Arrange professional training credit opportunities for staff.
• Draft manuals, handbooks, job aids, web content and other training materials.

QUALIFICATIONS

The successful applicant must have a bachelor’s degree and be a highly motivated self-starter. The applicant must demonstrate tact and good judgment, and always maintain a professional appearance and demeanor. The applicant must also work harmoniously with others and communicate effectively, both orally and in writing. The applicant must be able to work effectively in a fast-paced atmosphere dealing with numerous, time-sensitive issues.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Human resources experience with the federal judiciary, federal government, or a law enforcement agency.
Two years of specialized skills are preferred. Specialized experience is defined as progressively responsible experience in at least one but preferably two or more functional areas of human resources management and administration (classification, staffing, training, employee relations, etc.) that provided knowledge of the rules, regulations, terminology, etc., of the area of human resources administration.

Benefits

• Paid annual and sick leave
• 11 paid holidays per year
• Medical coverage with a government contribution (choose from a variety of plans, health premiums may be deducted as pre-tax dollars, optional participation)
• Vision and dental insurance (optional participation)
• Life insurance program with a government contribution (optional participation)
• Long-term care insurance (optional participation)
• Flexible Spending Program (pre-tax contributions for health/dependent care, optional participation)
• Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS)
• Thrift Savings Plan (employer matching, similar to 401K, optional participation)
This position is subject to mandatory participation in electronic funds transfer (direct deposit) for payroll.

Miscellaneous

• The duty station for this position is Fargo, ND. Based on the nature of the courts’ shared services agreements, regular travel to Bismarck, ND and Sioux Falls, SD is required.
• Flexible schedules and telework opportunities are available.

Selection Process

The most qualified applicants will be invited to one (or more) personal interviews with the court. Persons selected for interviews will be required to travel to the designated location at their own expense. The court is not authorized to reimburse candidates for travel or relocation expenses.
Prior to appointment, the selectee considered for this position is required to undergo an FBI background check and investigation. The selectee may be appointed provisionally, and retention is contingent upon a favorable background investigation. As a condition of employment, employees are subject to updated background investigations every five years.

Application Procedure

To be assured consideration for this position, qualified applicants must submit the following:
- Completed AO 78 (Federal Judicial Branch Application for Employment) (Form is available here: https://www.uscourts.gov/services-forms/forms)
- Cover letter outlining qualifications and relevant experience
- Resume
- Contact information for three (3) professional references
Documents must be sent in PDF format to: ginger_elless@ndb.uscourts.gov.

The court reserves the right to modify the conditions of this job announcement, to withdraw the announcement, or to fill the position sooner than the closing date without prior notice. Incomplete applications, as well as those not submitted electronically, will not be considered. All applications will be maintained in strict confidence with only the hiring authority having knowledge of the applicant’s identity.

The United States District Court and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of North Dakota and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of South Dakota are Equal Opportunity Employers and value diversity.