signed LSJ 21-108 Without Clearance Page -2.pdf

LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION TO INCREASE THE CEILING

AND PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE OF CONTRACT AID-OAA-M-16-00019

TO: Mark Walther, Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA)

FROM: Bob Leavitt, Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), Human Capital

Talent Management (HCTM)

SUBJECT: Limited Sources Justification

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Limited Sources Justification.”

This document sets forth the facts and rationale justifying the use of other than full and open competition, in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C) limiting sources in the interest of economy and efficiency. The completion of existing work and performance of new work are a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order that was placed in accordance with the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The original order was not previously issued under sole-source or limited sources procedures.

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

HCTM requests to increase the ceiling in the amount of $26,489,494 to GSA GS- 00F-0028Y, Order No. AID-OAA-M-16-00019, Human Resource Transformation (HRT) Services, a time and materials type award. The current ceiling is $65,193,091.61. The contract’s period of performance began October 10, 2016 with a current end date of October 9, 2021. This request is for an increase in both the ceiling and the period of performance. As of May 26, 2021, there were only $1,533,304 available to be obligated into the contract. This last incremental funding action will take place at the beginning of June, which will effectively be the last funding action under this ceiling. As of May 12, 2021, the activity’s available unliquidated balance was $4,061,137.34 million. The current burn rate is at $1,565,485 per month based on a three-month period between February and April 2021. Using the existing burn rate and the available unliquidated pipeline, the program will run out of funds by June, 2021.

The Contractor, Deloitte Consulting LLP, provides unique HR Transformation services that are critical for reforming HR Operations and supporting the Agency and workforce in carrying out its mission. These services help provide a sustained, higher-level of services that enhance the effectiveness, readiness, agility, and resilience of the Agency and its workforce, workplace, and culture to advance development and humanitarian goals. HR Transformation services also provide foundational support for implementing the Agency’s Transformation priorities, including empowering the workforce and restructuring the Agency.

The HR Transformation program has three main objectives:

● Transformation Objective 1: Efficient, Customer-Focused HR Operations Sustained

● Transformation Objective 2: Agency Workforce is prepared for Today and the Future

● Transformation Objective 3: Agency Culture and Workplace Enhanced

HCTM is establishing stronger core HR capabilities that substantially benefit its customers and prepare the workforce to deliver the mission today and in the future.

The HR Transformation Services contract also allows for other USAID offices to utilize services provided by the Contractor under the contract’s scope of work. To date, support has been provided to DCA/DFC, OCRD, OAPA with additional support planned for BHA, OCRD and Asia Bureau, as well as Agency-wide initiatives such as Diversity, Equality, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA). The need for Bureaus outside of HCTM to buy into this contract has been one of the drivers to increase the ceiling and caused some HCTM priorities to be completed slower than originally anticipated.

As a result of the proposed action the modification would increase the total estimated cost (TEC) by $26,489,494 from $65,193,091.61 to $91,682,585.61 and extend contract’s period of performance from Oct. 9, 2021 to September 30, 2022.

The modification will allow the contractor to complete the many on-going HR Transformation activities and help the agency address strategic priorities associated with recruiting and hiring to reach staffing mandates provided by Congress.

The Level of Effort required to support these activities for FY22 is outlined below.

Workstream FY22 Level of Effort

Process Redesign for LaunchPad $5,680,802

Performance Management and Promotions $ 1,425,002

Workforce Planning $ 2,275,148

Operating Model Implementation $ 1,681,295

Diversity, Inclusion, and Wellbeing $ 943,267

Program Management and Adoption $ 2,533,980

Agency Bureau Buy-Ins $5,950,000

Three month funding gap under existing contract period (July-Sept, 2021)

$6,000,000

Total $26,489,494

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the Agency’s needs (including the estimated value):

Since October 2016, Deloitte Consulting, LLC (Deloitte) has been HCTM’s primary contractor supporting the Agency on Reorganization and Human Resource (HR) Transformation efforts. Through this HRT contract, Deloitte has provided specialized support to HCTM to optimize the Agency's performance, bringing meaningful and lasting change to the way the Agency manages its HR operations and ensuring it is better able to meet the needs of its workforce today, while building and retaining a strong workforce for the future.

Currently, this contractor is providing critical support to the Agency’s Transformation priorities, including HCTM’s primary goals for 2021 which align with the Administrator’s goals of reorganization and hiring new Civil Service and Foreign Service employees. Further, work under the HR Transformation project directly supports the HR Transformation Strategy and Action Plan which is designed to achieve transformational change in the way USAID supports human resources and talent management needs of its current and future workforce - the goal is HR services that support the 21st-century workforce.

The contractor has been supporting the implementation of the HR Transformation for more than four years, and over that time has amassed a deep understanding of the challenges the agency faces, the reasons why those challenges exist, and the steps and methods that are needed to resolve them. The contractor has developed a depth of expertise in USAID’s HR processes to be able to streamline processes, created new SOPs and identified bottlenecks and redundancies. In addition, all of the HR Transformation projects connect and inform one another; the contractor understands how all of the projects interconnect to enable the agency to solve for all three objectives. Without authorizing the contractor to conduct this additional work risks the Agency's ability to fulfill its strategic priorities and goals as mentioned above. Due to the contractor’s experience in performing this work over the last four years, it is best positioned to complete these activities in the most efficient and effective manner.

The following work streams briefly reflect priority areas for Fiscal Year 2022.

3.1-- Support for LaunchPad Process Redesign to Improve HR Operations and Customer Experience. HCTM has been undertaking significant efforts to transform HR operations and functions through the implementation of new technology, enhanced operating models and streamlined processes. The sustainability of these improvements relies on the completion of activities and technological solutions by September of 2022. Only then will these improvements be sustained beyond the end of the contract. Some of these efforts include but are not limited to, complete the design, development, and roll out of the Robotics Process Automation to facilitate 70% Personnel Action Request automation of HR transactions; complete the rollout and adoption across the Agency of the Employee On-boarding/Off-boarding modules; and completion of HCTM’s quality assurance capabilities related to organizational and operational KPIs

3.2-- Support for Performance Management and Promotion. HCTM has been planning and anticipating making substantial improvements to performance management for Civil Service (CS), Senior Foreign Service (SFS) and Senior Executive Service (SES). Among these improvements, they include a transparent, tracible, and streamlined ePerformance Management process; finalizing the alignment of the SES system to the existing HCTM process, including integration with other HR processes; improving standardization of CS performance management experience across hiring processing and automating PAR ticket creation for SFS by FY22 performance management cycle

3.3- Support for Workforce Planning and Analytics. USAID is working to strengthen its workforce planning to proactively build, manage, and adapt its workforce to support the achievement of Agency priorities. This process consists of an integrated cycle of activities to forecast future staffing needs, analyze current workforce capabilities and gaps, and implement strategies to close identified gaps.

In addition, partial support for Congressionally Mandated Recruiting and Hiring Surge may be needed. During 2020 and into 2021, HCTM was and continues to be responsible for hiring more than 200 Foreign Service Officers and nearly 400 Civil Service Officers. A good amount of recruiting and hiring efforts have been completed, however, a continued focus on the process steps that occur between vacancy, position identification and classification through final selection of the candidate are needed.

3.4- Support to Implement HR Transformation Operating Model. Part of HCTM’s transformation includes implementation of a detailed future state organizational model that is better aligned with new capabilities. This will continue to improve HR Service delivery and customer service satisfaction, enabling more efficient, accurate and compliant case management practices.

3.5- Support of the Agency’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.

This has and continues to be a priority for the Agency and under this project workstream will enable USAID to assess DEIA capabilities and reduce biases across all workforce segments. Leaders will be able to model inclusive behaviors and positively influence staff behaviors and mindsets. Specific activities will be implemented that strengthen managers’ ability to engage in difficult diversity and inclusion related conversations and increased employee engagement, among other lines of effort.

3.6- Support of Program Management and Adoption. As a result of over two dozen different process improvements related to newly developed IT tools over the past two years, there is an increased need for greater competency in data and operating procedures and standardizing ways of working across HCTM.

Specifically, increased knowledge and adoption of these new IT systems is critical not only to HCTM but the Agency as a whole. Supporting HCTM and other Bureaus in this effort will reduce knowledge loss during workforce changes and increase workforce readiness across HR operations and processes.

3.7- Support for Agency Bureau Buy-Ins. A continued need exists for various Bureaus to buy into this mechanism. Based on current discussions, it is anticipated that multiple buy-ins will take place during FY22. Achieving and sustaining bureaus’ and independent offices’ operating model vision and mission requires revisiting and analyzing current staffing structure to optimize existing resources and develop sound staffing approaches. Deloitte’s unique expertise will help consolidate findings and provide recommendations from staffing assessments that will position bureaus and independent offices to meet their operational needs and achieve the desired future state. This support will include, but is not limited to, current state staffing assessments, capabilities and capacity assessments, gap analyses, Agency-wide alignment analyses, and recommendations for ensuring that operating units are well equipped to achieve their stated goals.

4. Authority permitting other than full and open competition:

This request is being made pursuant to: FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C), in the interest of economy and efficiency. The completion of existing work and performance of new work are logical follow-ons to the original Federal Supply Schedule order.

The original order was placed in accordance with the applicable Federal Supply Schedule ordering procedures. The original order was not previously issued under sole-source or limited sources procedures.

Deloitte has been providing this type of support since program inception in 2016 and this extension represents a logical continuation of a broad HR transformation efforts that have been underway for more than four years. Deloitte helps to provide a sustained, higher-level of services that enhance the effectiveness, readiness, agility, and resilience of the Agency and its workforce, workplace, and culture to advance development and humanitarian goals—critical for ensuring the Agency is at the forefront of development assistance throughout the world.

During this time, the contractor has gained detailed knowledge of the interconnections of multiple work streams and lines of effort through daily interaction and support of all HCTM Centers. The contractor has provided direct support to Bureaus and Offices outside of HCTM, providing support services assistance and expertise related to the Agency’s Reorganization and Recruitment & Hiring objectives. The contractor has consistently provided sound recommendations to senior leaders in HCTM, across Bureaus and I/Os based on their deep understanding of agency processes and opportunities for improvement.

This level of institutional knowledge cannot be replicated by another contractor without significant disruption to the progress of the transformation and the agency reorganization.

5. A determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with 8.404(d).

The cost to the government for the services to be provided is based on cost proposal under the Federal Supply Schedule. The costs were analyzed, and the Contracting Officer has determined the proposed costs represent the best value for the Government.

6. Description of the market research conducted, and the results or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted:

Upon examining the other available GSA Schedule holders, it is possible that other firms could fulfill some of the requirements of this contract, however, given the reasons described above; the time required to become knowledgeable of HCTM and Agency processes, the advanced technological solutions that are under development, and integrated nature of these projects with the ongoing execution of the HR Transformation Strategy, it would be cost prohibitive and present substantial delays if a new contractor was selected. Thus, the extension is logical and necessary.

As part of HCTM’s planning for a follow-on procurement, market research through a Request for Information (RFI) or industry conference will be used to determine which General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule can be used to satisfy the category management goals for the follow-on procurement in 2021/2.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification:

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, HCTM has needed to respond to new Agency priorities over the past year, diverting previous resources from HR Transformation goals. This mechanism played a critical role in supporting the continuity of HCTM operations during this crisis.

This continued support will increase the readiness, agility, and resilience of the Agency’s workforce while continuing to move forward the Agency’s Transformation priorities, including buy-ins from across the Agency.

As part of the HR Transformation strategy, HCTM has been modernizing and streamlining its ability to provide HR services to create the capacity necessary to perform services it historically hasn’t been able to perform. A key part of that effort has been the implementation of the Gateway solution (built on the Service Now platform but labeled as LaunchPad for USAID’s use), which digitizes and automates HR processes. Nearly every project being executed in the HR Transformation impacts the LaunchPad solution as the organization redesigns its services to be delivered digitally, to optimize the use of self-service. The Gateway solution is a solution that was developed on the contractor’s investment, without government funds, and implemented in USAID’s environment to be configured for the agency’s use. Full understanding of the code written to develop this solution and the architecture that connects each service is necessary to continue the configuration of additional processes to reach HCTM’s goal of modernizing HR services to meet customer needs.

The contractor is in the unique position to be the only feasible and cost-effective company to assist USAID in its plan to improve specific HR processes. The current contractor possesses the historical knowledge, work experience, expertise, and capacity to complete these projects that are directly attributable to the Transformation Objectives outlined in the original contract.

If the original contract’s total estimated cost is not increased, the majority of HR Transformation Objectives (improving the customer experience, development of workforce analytics tools, surge support for hiring hundreds of new employees and facilitation of culture change stemming from the Agency’s Leadership Philosophy) will not be completed or become operational. Specific solutions that will be halted include: decommissioning of legacy systems such as EIMS and WebPASS, 70 percent automation of HR processes that involve the on-boarding and off-boarding of employees, a redesigned promotion board process, getting-to-post automation, finalization of talent analytics and SLG bidding tools, a new assignment boards solution, and the upgrading of the data warehouse.

Delay in the completion of the above solutions will result in delays for hiring new employees, slower timelines for executing promotion boards, assignment selection for FSOs, and workforce/talent analytics related to USAID’s reorganization.

The Deloitte Consulting LLP Order has consistently received an overall rating of ‘Satisfactory’ or above in the delivery of services provided on Order No. AID- OAA-M-16-00019, for Human Resource (HR) Transformation Services.

8. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made:

No barriers to entry are foreseen for future procurements. The Human Capital and Talent Management, Transformation Team (HRT) is in the planning and design phase of the follow-on activity for the upcoming requirement which will be competed utilizing a Category Management solution, with a Best-in-Class vehicle given first priority.

9. Technical or Requirement Personnel Certification:

In accordance with FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(x), I hereby certify that the technical statements included above, which form a basis for the justification, are complete and accurate.

Email__________ Date: June 7, 2021 Juan Gamboa

Technical Office Representative

10. Contracting Officer’s Certification:

Based on the limited sources circumstance described above, I hereby certify that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Email Clearance____________ __ June 7, 2021_

Gwendolyn Ruffin, Contracting Officer M/OAA/RM

Date

11. Approved / Disapproved

Pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(d)(4), I hereby approve this Limited Sources Justification.

Approved ____ Disapproved. _____

Mark Walther Date Head of the Contracting Activity

MARK ANTHONY

WALTHER

(affiliate)

Digitally signed by

MARK ANTHONY

WALTHER (affiliate) Date: 2021.06.15 13:46:26 -04'00'