RFI-2019-S-033_Compensation_Study.pdf

DESC: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FOR QUALIFIED BIDDERS LIST FOR

DEVELOPMENT OF COMPENSATION STUDY SERVICES

The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gain knowledge of potential qualified industry sources to provide compensation study services to the United States Senate (Senate), Office of the Secretary of the Senate (Secretary of the Senate). The Secretary of the Senate has been directed to conduct a review of the salaries and benefits of staff employed by Senators' offices and Senate committees to evaluate the extent to which Senate staff receive similar pay for similar work, both internally and externally to the Senate. The review must consider job responsibilities, experience, and outside qualifications, including education, for such comparisons.

Responses to this RFI will assist the Senate in identifying potential qualified industry sources in the field of compensation study services and provide insight into various methodological practices.

The Senate requests responses that: 1) meet or exceed the requirements set forth herein and 2) provide a full description of services offered, methods of implementation, and scope of work.

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This RFI does not commit the Secretary of the Senate to contract for any product or service whatsoever. Further, the Secretary of the Senate does not seek proposals at this time; will not accept unsolicited proposals; and will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI and all costs associated with responding will be solely at the interested party’s expense. If the Secretary of the Senate subsequently releases an RFP, it will be published on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website, at a minimum. It is the responsibility of the potential contractors to monitor this site for additional information pertaining to this requirement.

All questions listed below require a response and all requirements are mandatory unless otherwise noted. This synopsis contains the currently available information and is subject to change at any time.

BACKGROUND:

The positions to be compared internally and externally are federal legislative positions and incumbents hired and employed by approximately 120 independent employing offices of the Senate. While submission of data by these offices will be voluntary, the total potential pool of data will include analysis of over 50 differently titled positions held by approximately 5,000 staff members based in every state and Washington, D.C. Each employing office determines its own job titles as well as the qualifications and competencies required for each office position, thereby requiring examination of both internal and external correlations. It should be noted that job titles (including duties, qualifications and competencies for each position) may be, but are not required to be, uniform across Senate employing offices.

The Secretary must also take all reasonable and necessary steps to ensure that the data gathered is securely protected and kept confidential. The Secretary is directed to provide a report summarizing the comparisons, necessitating the exclusion of any information that could be used to identify any individual, any Senators' office, any committee, or any other entity of the Senate.

QUESTIONS/REQUESTED INFORMATION:

1. Describe compensation market data (wages and benefits) specific to the Washington, D.C.

metro area and nationally your company would use as the basis for the compensation review, including a discussion of the anticipated limitations of such data applied to positions in the Senate. Please specify if this market data is publically available, proprietary, or a combination of publically available and proprietary data.

2. Provide a benchmark structure for competencies and criteria that will allow (i) grouping of functionally equivalent staff positions within the Senate, notwithstanding different positon titles, and (ii) comparison of Senate staff positions to functionally equivalent positions in the external job market.

3. Describe your specific methodology for comparing the wages and benefits for a Senate-specific position, such as a Chief of Staff in a Senator’s personal office, to the appropriate segment of the compensation market data described in response to Question 1.

4. Describe three similar recent projects comparing governmental compensation (federal, state and/or municipal) to private sector compensation, including wages and benefits, describing data used for analysis and steps taken to ensure comparisons were apt. Include particularly any projects that are not focused on law enforcement and/or educational organizations (e.g., school districts), if any.

5. Provide the initial proposed timelines and final deliverable dates for the projects described in Question 4 and include work flow, plan, map, or diagram showing the order of tasks required to accomplish the compensation review.

6. What information security practices does your company use to ensure data remains secure and confidential?

7. Identify the key components necessary to collect in an internal survey of Senate offices in order to allow for comparison of Senate-specific compensation data to recommended external data sets that would meet statutory requirements to consider salaries, benefits, job responsibilities, experience, and outside qualifications such as education.

8. Describe experience and best practices working in a closely integrated partnership with a government client, including any partnerships with a government agency, omitting agency name if confidential.

KEY PERSONNEL

Provide credentials in the form of a resume of at least one (1) company employee who could be assigned as KEY PERSONNEL for the planned project having, at minimum, 10 years of experience in comparative research, and demonstrated prior experience in statistical analysis of positions in government or private industry.

In addition, provide background information about a proposed project team, including the knowledge, skills, and experience of the project team members; their roles; and the time each member would be expected to allocate to this project.

PAST PERFORMANCE/CORPORATE EXPERIENCE

Provide past performance/corporate experience information concerning at least three (3) compensation study efforts completed within the past three (3) years, involving the use of corporate capabilities relevant to the Senate’s requirements. Include contact information, and a brief synopsis of work performed and results relative to the requirements.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR RESPONSE:

Responses to this RFI shall include a response to each of the mandatory questions and requests listed above. Demonstration of capabilities, individual experience, and/or past performance/corporate experience concerning compensation analysis services for government entities may be considered more valuable than experience concerning commercial industries.

The information contained in this RFI will be the only information provided by the Senate during this source identification process. All qualified sources should respond to this notice by submitting an information package in accordance with the instructions provided. If suitable responses are received from qualified sources, the Secretary of the Senate anticipates release of a solicitation during the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2019.

Responses to this RFI are due no later than March 25, 2019 and shall be submitted electronically via email only to the attention of Ms. Connie Kemper at acquisitions@saa.senate.gov.

The subject line of the email message shall be: “RFI-2019-S-033 entitled "Compensation Study Services". No other method of transmittal will be accepted. Unnecessarily elaborate submissions are discouraged. Pages over 25 may be discarded. Access by the Secretary of the Senate to information in any files attached to the response is the responsibility of the submitting party.

Neither the Secretary of the Senate nor the Senate is responsible for any failure to access vendor's information.

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. THIS NOTICE CONSTITUTES THE

ENTIRE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION AND IS THE ONLY INFORMATION

PROVIDED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE SENATE OR SENATE. ANY REQUESTS

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL NOT BE HONORED.

mailto:acquisitions@saa.senate.gov

QUESTIONS/REQUESTED INFORMATION: