Vocational Specialist

Join Tessera and make a difference. Tessera is a national leader in creating meaningful employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities and veterans. We are a dynamic and growing organization of social entrepreneurs dedicated to building strong communities and delivering exceptional service. About Tessera: A recognized leader in inclusive employment and workforce development. A mission-driven team of innovative and passionate professionals. Operating self-sustaining businesses across 15 states and the District of Columbia, with a workforce of more than 2,000 employees. Committed to providing outstanding customer experiences across all service lines. Focused on supporting employee growth through robust training, development, and support programs. Our Bremerton, Washington Home Office supports nationwide operations with a highly skilled and motivated team specializing in finance, human resources, vocational and workforce development, information systems, strategy, business development, communications, marketing, quality, safety, learning, and more. Location: Bremerton, Washington Type: Non-exempt Compensation: $25.77 - $34.45 Work Schedule: Full-time Monday – Friday 7:30am – 4:00pm (flexible start and end times depending on scheduling needs) As a Vocational Specialist, you'll… meet with every AbilityOne-qualified employee throughout their Tessera life cycle to ensure they are thriving and productive members of our workforce. These activities include, but are not limited to, assisting with obtaining disability documentation during recruiting; partnering with their supervisor to develop an effective accommodation plan; frequent check-ins during their probationary period and scheduled check-ins each year; assisting with identifying and implementing safety considerations, and connecting them to Tessera Career Advisors and resources for their career aspirations. Professional duties also include ensuring compliance with AbilityOne and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) documentation requirements. The success of this position will also draw from Tessera’s professional staff leadership competencies: Purpose and Values; Safety Awareness; Operations Excellence; Customer Service and Servant Leadership. Travels to supported Tessera worksites for approximately two weeks each quarter, or more frequently as business needs require, to provide direct vocational support, training, consultation, employee engagement, and operational partnership. Promotes the Tessera purpose and educates supervisors, managers, and employees on disability awareness and the requirements of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) for Tessera workplaces. Works as a member of a diverse Cross Functional Team consisting of professionals dedicated to servicing a large and diverse number of Tessera sites. Develops collaborative relationships with Tessera site management and supervisors to support all Tessera employees of all abilities. This will require monthly meetings with site management and supervisors to ensure job accommodations for employees are effective and to ensure federal AbilityOne reporting is accurate. Supports the Regional Vice President (RVP), Recruiters, Human Resource (HR) Partners, functional Vocational leadership, and site managers in maintaining the AbilityOne disability ratio. Manages a caseload of approximately 70-100 Tessera employees with a wide variety of disabilities; ensure that these employees are being provided job customization and individualization as well as the most appropriate accommodations to allow them to perform their work successfully and safely.   Provides job coaching as needed for employees to learn job tasks/functions. Partners with Tessera’s Career Advisors to ensure career conversations and support are creating opportunities for upward mobility within Tessera and outward mobility beyond Tessera, depending on employee career aspirations. Works with site leadership, safety personnel and Tessera’s Workers’ Comp team to ensure that employees returning to work after an injury are provided with any additional accommodations as deemed necessary by medical personnel. Reviews and assesses disability documentation for applicants and current employees to ensure they qualify under the AbilityOne program. Frequently, this will require phone calls to applicants. Maintains required documentation for each employee on caseload to include: Federal AbilityOne reports, case notes, accommodation plans, and Workday employee summaries. Administrative support duties including obtaining new disability documents and preparing for internal and external audit reviews. Makes phone calls to physicians, mental health providers, state Voc Rehab agencies, and Veterans Affairs offices to assist applicants and employees with obtaining qualifying AbilityOne documentation. Uploading data into the Source America portal on a timely basis, typically two weeks before the stipulated federal deadlines. Assists with crisis intervention, suicide prevention, and suicide safety planning to support employees who are struggling or in crises. Assists employees with paperwork, including benefits enrollment and accessing their information within the Workday system. Assists employees in applying for internal positions within Tessera. Connects employees with internal resources such as HR, Career Advisor, CES, Benefits, Security, etc. Performs check-ins with all employees on caseload during their first 30/60/90 days of employment and minimum of twice annually thereafter, documenting these check-ins with case notes in Workday, Tessera’s HRIS.  Discusses safety considerations and career mobility in all check-ins. Oversees, responds, and follows up on accommodation requests in a timely manner. This includes: providing employees with ADA packets when accommodations require additional documentation from provider. Upon receipt of completed packet, assist managers and super