RFI Attachment 1 - Performance Work Statement.doc

RFI 1625-OSM-20-NAT-0000

Attachment 1

Attachment 1: Performance Work Statement (PWS)

This attachment is a copy of BLS’ most recent Contract’s PWS related to this notice. The Contract was awarded in Fiscal Year 2018. This attachment serves as an example of the services we have used in the past and how a future PWS could be structured. However, BLS does not anticipated needing these same outcomes as shown below in the future.

CNSTAT Consensus Panel on Contingent Work and Alternate Work Arrangements

PART 1

GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1 Background:

The Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly survey of about 60,000 households, provides data on employment and unemployment in the United States. Special supplements to the CPS are an efficient way to collect targeted data. The statistics produced from the supplements and CPS in general are often considered to be the gold standard. Currently, supplemental questions are asked on a wide range of topics including veterans’ employment, displaced workers, and students’ employment. In addition, data on contingent and alternative employment arrangements were collected periodically in supplements from February 1995 to February 2005 and in May 2017.

There is value to fielding a supplement over time without changes to the questions, so that valid time-series comparisons can be made. However, the U.S. labor market is dynamic and people may want to ask new or different questions as a result. In fact, almost immediately after BLS released estimates from the May 2017 contingent worker supplement (CWS), a variety of users (academics, business leaders, politicians, and other government researchers) provided feedback. Most users agreed the comparison of estimates from the May 2017 and the February 2005 CWS was helpful, but there were still important questions not answered.

This topic is even being discussed in Congress. The Senate appropriations committee’s June 28, 2018 report contains “The Committee is pleased BLS is reporting on the contingent workforce during the current fiscal year. The Committee directs BLS to continue capturing data on contingent work and alternative work arrangements by conducting the Contingent Worker Supplement to the Current Population Survey on a biennial basis.” (http://src.bna.com/z3y)

Additionally, the key concepts have a variety of definitions and there is no agreement on the exact concepts that should be measured to best inform this suspected change in the labor force. For example, BLS does not have an official definition of ‘gig’ workers or the ‘gig’ economy. Outside researchers have many different definitions. Some of those definitions contain elements of contingent or alternative work arrangements, while others suggest that they are independent concepts. Electronically-mediated work is another facet of this topic often discussed, but rarely defined.

Tracking the changing work environments requires establishing the categories of work and determining where one category ends and another starts. BLS data has consistently shown little change in the percentage of on-call workers, temporary help agency workers and workers provided by contract firms. So, while those categories may no longer be of primary interest, the changing rates of independent contractors and anecdotal evidence about alternate work arrangements described above suggests that careful thought must be paid to how these new work arrangements fit into the larger picture of the labor force.

Identifying the key constructs to be measured and defining those constructs in a way that could be used to develop survey questions, is a vital first step in meeting the needs of users seeking more information about the labor market. Additionally, it will be important to consider other factors that would drive the design of a new supplement including:

· Self or proxy reporting: Currently the CPS and the CWS use proxy reporting, where one person answers questions about everyone living in the household. Although the BLS is confident that respondents can answer the core CPS questions for other household members, it is unclear if this holds true for alternative work arrangements, which may be more intermittent, less time consuming or less profitable.

· Sample universe: only employed people were asked the 2017 CWS questions. They were identified by asking “LAST WEEK, did you do ANY work for pay (either pay or profit)?” However, some researchers have found that people may not consider ‘gig’ work to be a job, and so this universe may need to be expanded. For example, respondents who have AirBnB rentals may or may not consider that a job. Managing a bed and breakfast is clearly a job, and cleaning and managing your property for rental is a job, but simply collecting rental income from your property is not.

· Reference period: The reference period for the CPS and CWS is a single week, the week that included the 12th of the month. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many people who participate in ‘gig’ work are doing so sporadically. By focusing only on the ‘last week’, it is possible that the number of people engaged in this type of work is underestimated.

· Main job: all CWS questions apply only to a person’s sole or main job (excluding the four new questions on electronically-mediated work). For the relatively few people with more than one job (about 1 in 20 workers in 2017), this is the job in which they usually work the most hours. Because anecdotal evidence suggests that many people do ‘gig’ work in addition to a full-time job, it is again possible that the number of people engaged in this type of work is underestimated.

· Data Users and Uses: The CWS has a variety of data users and stakeholders, including public policy makers, economists and academics. Furthermore, the uses of the CWS data are enhanced by having important contextual variables for workforce research, such as health insurance arrangements, retirement savings, job preferences, earnings, included in the CPS or the CWS or other sources. The panel should consider the uses of the data, the needs for additional information, as well as the availability of other relevant data sources in its recommendations.

Working within the context of the CPS survey leads to some constraints that must be recognized. Specifically, BLS is not considering changes to the main CPS to capture this new information. Therefore, any additional information of interest, such new information about second jobs, must be contained within a supplement. The supplement must also be kept to a reasonable length, to minimize potential impact on response rates to future waves of the CPS and other CPS supplements.

1.2 Objective:

The services covered by this performance work statement include everything necessary for the Contractor to convene an Expert Consensus Panel to define measurement objectives for a CPS supplement to measure contingent and alternative employment arrangements. The Panel shall conduct a public workshop to identify stakeholder and public perspectives on the topic. Based on that workshop, and their expert opinions, the Panel shall conduct internal deliberations and produce a consensus report summarizing the recommended measurement objectives for a new CPS supplement on the topic.

1.3 Location of Performance

All work shall take place at contractor facilities or contractor designated locations. Workshop location shall be in the DC Metro Area are so BLS staff can attend. Contractor must notify BLS of location at least three weeks in advance so preparations can be made to attend.

Travel costs must be in accordance with OMB Circular A-122.

PART 2

TASKS

2.1 Statement of Task:

The Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shall appoint an expert panel to review the Contingent Worker Supplement (CWS) of the Current Population Survey (CPS) for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the U.S. Department of Labor. The CWS provides key measures of contingent workers, alternative work arrangements, and insights on the “gig” economy; however, there are disagreements among stakeholders on definitions and measures of these concepts. The expert panel shall carefully review the CWS and other existing measures as well as the methodological issues surrounding measurement of these concepts. As part of its information-gathering activities, the panel shall conduct a workshop to discuss the views of data users, stakeholders and survey experts. The panel shall produce a consensus report, which shall include a rapporteur-authored proceedings of the workshop along with conclusions and recommendations for BLS on the CWS.

The contractor shall provide services required to convene a consensus panel, hold a public workshop and produce a consensus report with recommended measurement objectives. An overview and approximate timeline for all tasks is presented in Table 1. All workshops, meetings and events will meet the requirements stated in the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA).

Additionally, the contractor shall:

1. Be available for periodic status meetings with BLS representatives to discuss progress and resolve technical issues.

2. Collaborate with BLS on potential panel members and on the public agenda for the meetings and the workshop.

3. Contractor shall provide to BLS all materials developed in fulfillment of task objectives.

Table 1. Overview and Timeline of Tasks

Draft report and proceedings

Hold a final closed meeting of the Panel in-person to finalize report language, conclusions, and recommendations.

PART 3

PERFORMANCE MEASURES

3.1 Quality Control (QC)

The contractor shall develop and maintain an effective Quality Control Program (QCP) to ensure services are performance in accordance with this PWS. The contractor shall develop and implement procedures to identify, prevent and ensure non-recurrence of defective services. The contractor’s QCP is the means to assure that work complies with contract requirements. The QCP shall be submitted along with the contractor’s proposal. Copies of a comprehensive written QCP shall be submitted to t official designated by the Government, including, CO and COR within five working days when changes are made thereafter.

3.2 Quality Assurance (QA)

The government shall evaluate the contractor’s performance under this contract in accordance with the Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP). This plan is primarily focused on what the Government must do to ensure that the Contractor has performed in accordance with the performance standards. It defines how the performance standards will be applied, the frequency of surveillance, and the minimum acceptable defect rate(s). Additional, more specific quality assurance measures may be included in individual task orders as appropriate to the deliverables of such orders.

3.3 Performance Requirements Summary

The contractor services requirements are summarized into performance objectives in the attached Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP), see Attachment I, which relate directly to mission essential items. The performance threshold briefly describes the minimum acceptable levels of service required for each requirement. These thresholds are critical to mission success.

3.4 Deliverables

The deliverables are as follows:

1. Proceedings report from the public workshop, to include a summary of all discussion, list of attendees and presentations.

2. Approved prepublication paper and electronic copies of final consensus report with findings and recommendations for BLS to consider for the Contingent Worker Supplement to the CPS.

3. Bound and 508 compliant electronic copies of final consensus report. The final report shall be comprehensive and contain the information requested in the PWS, free from typographical errors and grammatically correct.

4. Monthly progress report, to include activities during the reporting month, activities planned for the next month, problems encountered and proposed solutions, schedule changes (if any), and project finances (total budget, total spending in current reporting period, total spending to date, and funds remaining). The monthly progress report will be electronically submitted to the COR not later than the 15th of the month following the reporting month.