FRTIB1-24-RFI-0002-Participant Surveys-Attach- Statement of Wk-12.2023.pdf

CUI//SP-PROCURE

A.07 v2.00 2020.02.05

FEDERAL RETIREMENT THRIFT INVESTMENT BOARD (FRTIB)

PARTICIPANT SURVEYS

STATEMENT OF WORK

Participant Surveys Statement of Work

I. Background

The Federal Retirement Investment Board (FRTIB) is an independent Federal government agency in the Executive Branch created by the Federal Employees’ Retirement System Act of 1986 (FERSA). The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a retirement savings and investment plan for Federal civilian employees and members of the uniformed services that offers its participants the same type of savings and tax benefits that many private corporations offer their employees under I.R.C.§401(k) plans. The TSP is the largest participant-directed defined contribution plan in the world. The mission of the FRTIB is to administer the TSP solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries.

The FRTIB is a self-funded agency with independent budgetary authority that receives no annual appropriations from Congress. FRTIB is not strictly bound to adhere to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). However, FRTIB procurements will largely adhere to the FAR, unless doing so might infringe upon the Agency’s fiduciary obligations under Federal Employees’ Retirement System Act (FERSA). FRTIB has adopted the FAR as its primary contracting policy and procedures for procuring its goods and services.

The Thrift Federal Acquisition Supplement (T-FAS) specifies when the Agency’s policies and practices deviate from the FAR. See link to T-FAS below.

https://www.frtib.gov/Procurement/DoingBusiness.html

II. Objectives

The mission of the FRTIB is to administer the TSP solely in the interest of the participants and beneficiaries. As such, the FRTIB, also referred hereto as the Agency, needs to understand the satisfaction, perceptions, and behaviors of plan participants to develop effective plan features and communications and tools geared at meeting the needs of plan participants.

To accomplish this, the Agency periodically surveys TSP participants. These surveys assist the Agency in understanding participant perceptions, desires, frustrations, and satisfaction of the Thrift Savings Plan in order to inform changes to plan features and communications to participants.

The contractor shall provide non-personal services to the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) for the end-to-end administration of surveys focused on gaining insight into the satisfaction, perceptions, and behaviors of Thrift Saving Plan participants.

The agency will use the survey results to gauge participant satisfaction with plan features, tailor communications, and inform decisions on plan changes or new feature development.

Specifically, the Agency seeks a consultant to administer the annual Participant Satisfaction Survey a bi-annual Financial Wellness Survey and Ad-hoc topical surveys, as needed.

The Agency seeks a contractor with strong knowledge of the 401(k)/Defined Contribution (DC) plan industry to include broad benchmarks, trends, DC plan product offerings, participant perceptions, and an in-depth knowledge of the TSP participant demographics and current plan features.

The contractor will develop, field, analyze and report survey results. The survey presentations and reports must:

• Identify long term trends and statistically significant year over year changes,

• Make comparative analysis between the TSP and broad DC industry benchmarks and between participant demographic groups and

• Be of a high professional quality suitable for presentation to the Agency’s Executive level board members, press and public.

III. Scope of Work

A. SURVEY HISTORY, TYPES AND FIELDING FREQUENCY

1. Participant Satisfaction Survey (Annually): The Participant Satisfaction Survey, focuses on collecting participant satisfaction with plan features is conducted annually. FRTIB began fielding the Participant Satisfaction Survey annually in 2020.

2. Participant Financial Wellness Survey (As-needed, typically bi-annually): The Participant

Financial Wellness Survey, last implemented in 2022, focuses on participant perceptions of their general financial and retirement planning well-being and is typically conducted every other year.

3. Ad Hoc Surveys (As-needed): In addition to the Satisfaction and Wellness Survey, the agency conducts other ad-hoc surveys, as-needed. These ad hoc surveys are more narrowly focused on a single plan feature or participant behavior or perception. Topics for past ad hoc surveys have included participant withdrawal preferences and participant annuity perceptions.

B. SURVEY METHODOLOGY

The surveys will be conducted in three primary phases: Planning, Fielding, Analysis & Reporting.

1. Survey Planning: During this phase, FRTIB works closely with the survey vendor to identify survey objectives, appropriate questions, the appropriate survey methodology and applicable survey sampling plan. The survey vendor provides recommendations for the best stratum groupings and participant indicative data needed to achieve survey objectives. FRTIB provides survey strata counts and a random sample of participants to be surveyed in accordance with the vendor’s sampling plan. The vendor develops the appropriate web-based survey and/or paper-based surveys and corresponding survey response collection processes.

The participant survey sample provided by FRTIB will contain participant mailing and email addresses along with other indicative data. This information must be handled in accordance with the Additional Information, Security Requirements and Standards section of this SOW.

2. Survey Fielding: During this phase, the vendor develops and sends out promotional products such as notification postcards and emails prior to the survey fielding dates to alert participants of the impending survey. The vendor subsequently sends paper surveys/weblinks to each participant as well as follows up notification postcards/emails to ensure adequate response rates. The vendor will track and pay for all printing and postage costs. There may be two survey instruments (versions) used for each survey: one for active participants and one for separated participants. The vendor then collects and processes survey responses. The survey fielding/data collection period is typically one month.

3. Survey Analysis & Reporting: During this phase the results of the survey are weighted by specific demographic classifications such as strata, gender, household income, retirement system and race and then results are analyzed. Analysis includes, but is not limited to:

• Comparative analysis between TSP retirement systems and participant demographic groups within retirement systems

• Comparative analysis between the TSP and broad DC industry benchmarks

• Year over year differences within TSP retirement systems and demographic groups

The contractor will deliver a written technical report and a presentation of survey results to FRTIB. The technical report summarizes the survey methodology and provides results for all survey questions as well as key survey findings. The presentation is tailored to highlight executive level results, key findings, and other topics of executive interest. The presentation is delivered to the FRTIB executive level board members during a meeting which may be attended by key TSP stakeholders, participants and the press. The survey analysis and reporting period is typically one to two months.

Technical reports and board presentations for the past iterations of TSP surveys can be found in the Exhibits in Enclosure 5 (Past TSP Surveys and Survey Sizing). Additional surveys conducted in the past by the TSP can be found at: www.FRTIB.gov. Questions from past http://www.frtib.gov/ surveys are included in the appendices of the respective survey technical reports.

C. SURVEY SIZING:

1. Annual Participant Survey: Recent Satisfaction Survey sample sizes typically range between

34,000 and 37,000 participants spread over 24 primary strata. The number of survey questions on recent satisfaction Surveys generally range from 26 to 35.

In the 2022 Satisfaction Survey the Agency observed an overall response rate of 14% with 35% of participants responding via mail and 65% on-line.

2. Bi-Annual Financial Wellness Survey: The Financial Wellness Survey is a smaller survey than the Participant Satisfaction Survey with a comprising sample size of 10,000, 6 primary strata, and 30 questions.

The response rate for the Financial Wellness survey is approximately 20%.

3. Other ad-hoc surveys: Other ad hoc surveys sample sizes typically range between 5,000 to

10,000 participants and typically range from 3 to 6 in primary strata. Ad-hoc surveys have fewer questions (typically less than 10) than the Satisfaction and Wellness Surveys.

Additionally, ad-hoc surveys do not require extensive analysis and reporting.

The response rates vary considerably more for ad hoc surveys depending on the topic, ranging from 17% to 44%.

A table summarizing the survey sizing and response statistics for past iterations of the Satisfaction, Wellness and other ad-hoc surveys is included in Enclosure 5 (Past TSP Surveys and Survey Sizing).

IV. Tasks and Deliverables

A. Post-award Meeting (On-site FRTIB location or virtually via MS teams)

The Contractor shall meet with FRTIB staff within 14 days of selection and provide briefing materials to describe the Contractor’s technical approach for the project, high level overview of the project schedule, milestones, data gathering approach/requirements, and similar information useful in orienting FRTIB staff to the technical approach. During this meeting the Contractor shall provide a high-level project plan.

The Contractor shall revise the project plan based on feedback from Contracting Officer (CO) or Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) or as needed to reflect updated project activities and timelines. The project plan will be sent to the COR in MS Project templated Adobe PDF file.

B. Annual Participant Satisfaction Survey

The Contractor shall plan, field, analyze & report on an annual TSP Participant Satisfaction Survey, in consultation with the FRTIB staff. The survey population will include all FERS, US-BRS and US-Legacy retirement system account holders. The results of the participant satisfaction survey will assist the Agency in understanding participant perceptions, desires, frustrations, and satisfaction of the Thrift Savings Plan. The surveys will be conducted in English only.

Plan the Survey. The Contractor will apply best practices relating to survey methodology, design and management to design and plan an annual Participant Satisfaction Survey in order to gauge the level of participant satisfaction with key aspects of the Thrift Savings Plan. The sampling size and weighting plan is to be sufficient to yield statistically significant findings consistent with best practices in surveying. Survey planning activities include but are not limited to the following activities:

• Developing a survey sampling plan to meet survey objectives.

• Recommending the best method(s) and frequency for promoting the survey (i.e., postcards, cover letters, save the date emails, reminder emails, etc.)

• Printing and preparing hardcopy surveys and promotional products for mailing to include envelope addressing and preparation. All products should inform participants of the option of taking the survey online using the survey website.

• Developing a secure web-based survey to enable participants to take the survey on-line and make it available for preview by FRTIB staff. The Contractor’s survey design and response collection processes shall preclude multiple response submissions by the same participant and preclude survey response submissions by participants who were not selected for the survey.

• Preparing a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document that explains the purpose of the survey, how a participant was selected, data anonymity and safeguards. The FAQ document should provide a vendor POC (telephone number or email) that participants can call if they have specific questions about taking the survey or getting a replacement survey sent to them. The FAQ documents should be suitable to be sent to representatives at TSP call centers to provide them an overview of the survey, the survey dates, confidentiality precautions of responses, and actions to take if participants contact the call centers seeking information about the survey.

• Leading periodic survey status meetings with FRTIB stakeholders. The focus of these meetings is to review the upcoming survey plan tasks, issues, responsible parties, and task deadlines as well as any changes to the survey project plan. The Contractor will develop and send the meeting agenda to FRTIB staff members involved in the meeting at least the day prior to the meeting.

FRTIB will provide counts of population strata as requested and will provide participant samples with indicative data. The Contractor shall recommend indicative data which should be included with each sample to achieve survey objectives.

Field the Survey. The Contractor will field the survey to the selected participants via the appropriate mode and collect responses. The Contractor will track and pay for all postage costs associated with fielding the survey.

Survey fielding activities include but are not limited to the following activities:

• Mailing and/or emailing promotional products and surveys directly to participants. Only

US postal addresses will be used to include military (APO/FPO/DPO) addresses. FRTIB will provide participants’ physical and email addresses.

• Accumulating mail and/or web-based participant survey responses and tracking response rates across strata and sending appropriate reminders.

• Providing survey response data to the Agency in tabular form. Both qualitative and quantitative data collected will be delivered to the Agency in electronic format that will enable the Agency to be easily understand and further manipulate and analyze after the conclusion of the survey. Survey response data returned to the Agency shall be anonymized and shall not contain PII or data fields which would be able to associate responses to individual participants.

C. Analyze & Report the Survey. The Contractor shall produce a technical report and executive summary presentation of survey results, within 90 calendar days of the conclusion of the survey fielding period. The survey technical report will be published on a public facing website for participants and TSP stakeholders to view and the executive summary brief will be presented to the Agency’s board of directors.

D. Technical Report. The contractor will provide a results-oriented report in accordance with the following guidance:

• The report will contain narrative and informational graphics summarizing each survey question. The informational graphics should clearly support and illustrate results and support the key findings. The report should not rely on tabular presentation of results.

The report should avoid using complex surveying methodology and statistical terminology in the main body.

• The report will include comparisons of TSP demographic groups of interest as designated by FRTIB staff, as well as comparisons to previous year survey results and will identify significant changes and/ or trends in satisfaction and sentiment across demographic groups.

• The report will identify any general economic and market event during the administration period which may have impacted survey results. In addition, general market data will be correlated to historical TSP satisfaction levels. Such data may include but is not limited to: Consumer Price Index, Quarterly GDP growth, Dow Jones Industrial Average, U.S. Recorded Unemployment Rate etc.

• The Contractor shall include in the report comparisons of TSP results and findings as they relate to relevant benchmarks across the Defined Contribution (DC)/401(k) retirement plan industry. Examples of such comparisons may include but are not limited to: DC plan/401(k) participant participation rate, DC plan/401(k) satisfaction rate, DC plan/401(k) participant use and/or satisfaction of various plan communications channels, DC plan/401(k) participant use (uptake rates) of various plan features such as loans, withdrawal options, etc.)

E. Executive-level Summary presentation.

The contractor will provide an executive level power-point presentation of results. The presentation shall contain graphical representation of key survey results as well as narrative bullets highlighting key findings. The presentation will be of executive level quality and substance. The informational graphics for each slide should clearly demonstrate the results and findings. The presentation will include speaking notes a presenter can use when briefing the presentation to the board of directors.

The final presentation will be approximately 15-25 slides in length. While it is expected that many of the same informational graphics created for the technical report will be used in the presentation, some tailoring of graphics may be necessary to convey specific findings and results for the presentation.

F. Present Survey Results

The contractor shall be prepared to deliver the presentation of survey results to Agency executives and/or board members. This is an optional task since FRTIB staff typically brief the board. The Agency will notify the contractor 30 days in advance if this task is required.

The presentation will be given either in person at the Agency offices in Washington, DC or via teleconference to Executive managers and/or Board members. The public and press may also be in attendance.

G. Financial Wellness (Optional task)

The contractor shall plan, field, report and analyze and other on a Financial Wellness Survey on an as needed basis. However, the Financial Wellness Survey is typically conducted every 2 years. The tasks/sub-tasks and activities for conducting the Financial Wellness Survey are the same as those outlined above for the Participant Satisfaction Survey in paragraph 4.2. The primary difference between the Wellness Survey and the Annual Satisfaction Survey is the number of stratum and total surveys administered in accordance with the Survey Sizing and Response Table found in Enclosure 5 (Past TSP Surveys and Survey Sizing).

H. Other Ad-hoc Surveys (Optional task)

The contractor shall plan, field, analyze and report on ad hoc surveys on an as needed basis.

Ad hoc surveys examine topics of special interest which are more narrowly focused in scope and size than the Participant Satisfaction and Wellness surveys. These surveys may be conducted solely by mail or online web surveys depending on the targeting population.

Ad hoc surveys response collection may span several months if needed, in order to capture responses about specific participant transactions which occur repetitively over several months. For example, a multi-month ad hoc survey could be used to capture participant satisfaction of the loan transactions over several months. In this case, a representative sample of participants taking loans in each month would be surveyed for up to 12 months.

The analysis and reporting phase for ad hoc survey is far less extensive than for other surveys. The contractor will provide an 5-10 slide executive level power-point presentation of results and corresponding technical report. Sizing of ad hoc surveys differ from other surveys in sample size and number of strata as indicated in the Survey Sizing and Response Table found in Enclosure 5 (Past TSP Surveys and Survey Sizing).

The Contractor should be prepared to conduct up to three ad-hoc surveys per period of performance. The Agency will notify the contractor a minimum of 30 days in advance if this task is required.

V. Additional Contract Requirements

A. Data Rights

The preliminary and final deliverables and all associated working papers, data and other material generated by the Contractor in the performance of this SOW are the exclusive property of the FRTIB.

B. Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM)

FRTIB does not foresee a requirement for the Contractor to address SCRM mitigation strategies in the proposal.

C. Performance Standards

All task deliverables shall comply with the performances standards and requirements in Enclosure 1 .

D. Period of Performance

A base year plus four option years.

E. Contract Performance Location

The primary place of performance will be conducted remotely.

F. Delivery Schedule

Delivery of work items shall in in accordance with Enclosure 2 .

G. Security Requirements and Standards

1. Confidential Information

All information received by the Contractor as a result of performance of this contract is confidential and subject to the Privacy Act of 1974. All contractor personnel shall maintain this information in strict confidence and shall not disclose this information, or any information obtained as a result of its performance of this contract, to any person or entity without the prior written approval of the Contracting Officer.

All contractor personnel are responsible for adhering to the following:

Shall not disclose this information to any person or entity or otherwise make any improper use of this information during or after the performance period of this contract, Strictly prohibited from using information for their personal or business gain, personally or for another, directly or indirectly, without prior written approval of the Contracting Officer. This provision/clause shall be placed in subcontracts.

2. Personnel Security

All Contractor staff assigned to work under this Contract shall be U.S. citizens or resident aliens with current valid green cards.

The contractor shall not allow any of its employees to access Agency information and systems except to the extent that an employee needs access to work under this contract.

The contractor shall coordinate with FRTIB to ensure that all such individuals are screened according to the risk management policies and standards prior to being provided access to Agency information and systems.

The Contractor shall follow FRTIB’s “Contractor Fitness Requirements” as defined by the Office of Resource Management. The level of screening required shall be dependent upon https://fedthrift-my.sharepoint.com/personal/dennis_mcnulty_frtib_gov/Documents/HomeDrive/Contracts_Procurements/Survey%20Contract%20Recomplete/Current%20Aquisition%20Documents/A.4_Particiapant%20Surveys_SOW.docx#_Enclosure_1_Performance https://fedthrift-my.sharepoint.com/personal/dennis_mcnulty_frtib_gov/Documents/HomeDrive/Contracts_Procurements/Survey%20Contract%20Recomplete/Current%20Aquisition%20Documents/A.4_Particiapant%20Surveys_SOW.docx#_Enclosure_2_Delivery a risk designation assigned to this Contract and the individual’s responsibilities and access required to perform services.

The contractor shall ensure that all individuals on the Contract are re-screened according to the policies and standards in FRTIB’s Personal Identity Verification program and risk management program. Failure to coordinate these rescreening activities could result in individuals being denied access.

Contractor shall notify the COR and designated Agency security administration functions of the termination of any individual assigned to work on this Contract not more than 2 hours after termination. Contractor shall retrieve any and all credentials, property, documentation, etc. from the terminated employee. Contractor shall ensure that at all times it retains complete control of Contractor- and Agency-owned information systems and information.

Contractor shall ensure that all individuals assigned to perform Services on this Contract accept and sign Non-Disclosure Agreements.

Contractor shall immediately (within 60 minutes) revoke all system access rights and restrict security (e.g., access badges) of its personnel who are no longer employed on this contract. Contractor shall provide documentation of its compliance with this requirement upon Agency request.

Contractor shall maintain a system of sanctions against individuals who perform Services under this contract for failure to comply with any Contractor or Agency security requirements.

Contractors who may need to come to FRTIB HQs to for any reason will be escorted as visitors into the building.

3. Information Security

Participant sample files will contain Personally Identifiable Information (PII); the Contractor shall ensure this data remains confidential and safeguarded.

All PII and sensitive information transmitted via email will be saved in a separate document and password protected. The password will be sent to the recipient with a separate email. Passwords will be strong, i.e., not contain words or common phrases which can be easily guessed or associated with the data being delivered.

FAR 52.224-3 Privacy Training- The contractor is required to comply with this clause.

4. Information Technology

FRTIB does not envision Contractors to require any access to Agency IT systems to perform this contract.

Agency Specific IT Requirements

The agency uses MS Office products and deliverables shall be compatible with the standard suite of MS Office products. (i.e., EXCEL, Word, Project, Teams,)

Contractor Specific IT Requirements

FRTIB does not envision any IT specific requirements that the Contractor will need to comply to successfully execute the work outlined in this SOW.

5. Agency Furnished Equipment (AFE) and Agency Furnished Information (AFI)

AFE: FRTIB does not envision providing any AFE to the Contractor to fulfill the requirements under this SOW.

AFI:

FRTIB will provide the Contractor with the necessary pertinent data to include:

Population counts for survey strata for strata determined by the Contractor.

Appropriate numbers of participant data samples for each survey strata in accordance with the survey sampling plan determined by the Contractor. The sample for each participant selected will include key participant indicative (demographic and transactional) data fields required to meet the needs of the survey objectives.

The Agency will provide to the Contractor additional participant indicative data deemed necessary to meet survey objectives provided it is available.

Enclosure 1 Performance Standards Table

Task Performance Standard Minimum Quality Threshold

Maximum Time to Remediation

Method of Surveillance

Survey Technical Report(s)

Technical report(s) will contain a narrative and graphical summary of results for each survey question, grouped by question theme or subject.

The narrative and graphical summaries will highlight relevant trends, statistically significant differences changes or differences between stratum or other demographic groups from previous surveys. The report will include comparisons of TSP demographic groups of interest as designated by FRTIB staff.

The report will include in the report comparisons of TSP results and findings as they relate to comparable benchmarks across the DC/401(k) retirement plan industry.

The report will include general economic and market historical trend data in the report findings as they relate to the survey administration period and correlate it to overall TSP satisfaction levels.

The report narrative will be succinctly written and will avoid using complex surveying methodology and statistical terminology except in designated methodology appendices.

The report will be of high quality;

generally free of grammatical and spelling errors and will be suitable for publication on a public facing website for participants and TSP stakeholders to view.

N/A 14 calendar days

COR

review

Executive Results Presentation(s)

The presentation(s) shall contain graphical representation of survey key findings and results of interest and as well as narrative bullets highlighting key take-aways on each slide.

The presentation(s) will be of executive level quality and substance.

The informational graphics for each slide shall clearly represent the results and findings for that slide.

The presentation(s) will contain speaking notes a presenter can use when briefing the presentation to the board of directors.

N/A 14 calendar days review

Enclosure 2 Delivery Schedule Table

Deliverable Format Due Date or Occurrence

Distribution

Contract Kick Off (KO) Meeting

Telecom via MS TEAMs or in person @ FRTIB HQs

Within 14 calendar days of selection

Send meeting materials at least 24 hours in advance to

COR

Survey Project Plan MS Project Template in Adobe PDF

Within 14 calendar days of the conclusion of contract KO meeting

Status meetings Telecom via MS

Teams As agreed upon by COR and Project PM

Send agenda to COR with cc to all meeting invitees at least 24 hours in advance

Survey Sampling Plan MS Excel IAW Project Plan

COR and FRTIB data analyst

Survey Instrument and promotional products

Working copies – MS Word Final copy - Adobe PDF format

IAW Project Plan

COR

Web-survey Secure https:// web link

IAW Project Plan

COR

Frequently Asked Question Document

MS word IAW Project Plan

Weekly Survey Response Report

MS word or Excel

Weekly during survey fielding

COR

Survey Response Data MS Excel Not more than 90 calendar days after final survey responses are accumulated

Survey Technical Report Adobe PDF format

Not more than 90 calendar days after final survey responses are accumulated

COR

Executive Presentation MS Power Point Not more than 90 calendar days after final survey responses are accumulated

COR

Oral Presentation to board

N/A Not to exceed 30 minutes

FRTIB senior management staff and/or board of directors

Acronyms

Abbreviation Definition

CO Contracting Officer

COR Contracting Officer's Representative

Days Calendar Days unless otherwise specified

NLT Not Later Than

WDA Working Days After

FERSA Federal Employee’s Retirement System Act

CSRS Civil Service Retirement System

BRS Blended Retirement System

WD Withdrawal

APO Army Post Office

FPO Fleet Post Office

DPO Diplomatic Post Office

PII Personally Identifiable Information

US Uniformed Services