SS-2024021550 - Psychometric Services Update Crew Leader JTA .pdf

Sources Sought Notice No. SS-2024021550

“Psychometric Services for Updating the Crew Leader Job Task Analysis”

July 29, 2024

Background:

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is a national laboratory owned by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). NREL is the only federal laboratory dedicated to research, development, commercialization, and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. NREL is managed and operated for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy (Alliance), the “M&O Contractor”.

Numerous private organizations provide training, certification, or skill recognition for personnel operating in the residential building retrofit market. The competencies conferred upon personnel who complete such training or skill recognition programs varies widely between organizations, leading to uncertainty in the marketplace as to 1) what competencies are necessary for a person to adequately perform a specific job, and 2) which training program’s graduates are qualified according to those competency requirements.

Due to these market irregularities, the Department of Energy Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) tasked the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with facilitating the development of a job task analysis (JTA) for field staff that could be used by training entities to align training curriculum, certification bodies responsible for certification of personnel, or implementers of the Installer Badge Toolkit. The JTA identifies and catalogs the job tasks a worker performs in a given job category, and the essential knowledge statements, defining the minimum requirements necessary for a person to adequately perform their job.

In 2013 two Job Task Analyses were created for crew leaders and retrofit installer technicians. In Fiscal Year 2018, DOE, along with the crew leader scheme committee, determined the retrofit installer technician JTA could be eliminated, and its tasks inserted in the crew leader JTA. The retrofit installer technician tasks became the basis of the Installer Badges Toolkit, providing a flexible, customizable, and voluntary approach to training and skills recognition.

Objective:

The objective of this Sources Sought is to identify potential subcontracting companies that are qualified and capable of meeting the project objectives. The project objective, at a high level, is to provide Psychometric Services for Updating the Crew Leader Job Task Analysis.

Project Details:

In the event a solicitation is released, NREL is seeking information from sources that may be capable of providing a solution that meets or exceeds the following minimum capabilities:

To meet the objective, the Subcontractor shall facilitate a committee of subject matter experts that will combine, add, edit, or remove content from the published Weatherization Crew Leader Job Task Analysis resulting in an updated crew leader JTA in accordance with industry best practices and market trends. Updates will be done in an industry-inclusive manner while leveraging subject matter expertise to ensure relevance and outlining the knowledge, skills and abilities required of field staff responsible for energy retrofits of residential housing stock.

The project anticipates the Subcontractor to perform the following Tasks:

4.1. The subcontractor shall develop a “Job Task Analysis Revision Plan” that ensures the project objectives as described in section 2 will be achieved. The plan should include a schedule of activities (Meeting agendas, industry validation plans, etc.), describing each activity.

4.2. The subcontractor shall facilitate scheme committee JTA revision meetings. The scheme committee will be recruited by NREL. Activities to be conducted with the committee and time allotment per activity must align with the approved plan (task 4.1).

4.3. Develop and administer industry validation studies for the crew leader JTA. The industry validation process shall be developed by the Subcontractor and approved by NREL.

a. Develop a distribution list for the crew leader job role for review by NREL.

NREL will identify representatives that shall be added to the distribution list.

b. Provide NREL the validation plan for comment and review and incorporate NREL’s feedback as needed.

c. Implement the validation surveys and manage the validation process and statistical analysis.

d. Once the validation process is completed by the industry participants, the Subcontractor shall present the validation results to the scheme committee for feedback including all comments. The committee will complete updates as needed resulting in an updated JTA for crew leaders.

4.4. The subcontractor shall produce a JTA revision process draft and final report. NREL feedback on the initial draft will be incorporated in the final JTA revision process report. The reports shall include industry validation comments and provide the revision committee’s decision to include or exclude validation feedback. A meeting minutes summary shall be included as an appendix. The final report will incorporate NREL’s feedback into the draft report as needed.

a. The final report shall include:

i. A description of the revision process;

ii. Detailed agenda of scheme revision meetings;

iii. Meeting minute summary of scheme revision meetings outlining high-level changes to the existing crew leader JTA as appendix;

iv. Redline version of the changes to the crew leader JTA as appendix;

v. List of committee members attending meetings;

vi. Statistical analysis of the industry validation feedback surveys;

vii. The updated job task analysis for the crew leader including the domain tasks and knowledge statements.

4.5. The Subcontractor shall prepare a monthly highlights report. This report shall communicate an assessment of subcontract status, explain any variances or problems, report performance milestones and/or deliverables. The final reports are in lieu of the 10th monthly report.

Small-Business Requirements: Sufficient, qualified responses to this SSN will determine if a total small business set aside is appropriate for a resultant RFP. The NAICS code applicable to this SSN is 541690.

The following links are being provided for convenience:

• https://www.sba.gov/document/support--table-size-standards

• https://www.sba.gov/size-standards

Period of Performance: This project is anticipated to have a base period of performance totaling eight (8) months

Submission Requirements:

For companies interested in competing for the “Psychometric Services for Updating the Crew Leader Job Task Analysis” RFP, please submit the following to Paul Wilke at ASP.Responses@NREL.gov on or before 5:00 p.m. (MST), 8/28/2024. Your submission response is limited to 5 pages:

1. Company Name, Address, and Company URL (include bona-fide location as stated above).

2. Point of Contact Information (Email, Direct Phone Number).

3. Company’s Capability Statement that provides a narrative of the Offeror’s expertise with projects of similar scope, size, and complexity as identified in the Project Details and tasks above.

4. Rough Order of Magnitude Estimate (ROM Estimate) https://www.sba.gov/document/support--table-size-standards https://www.sba.gov/size-standards mailto:%20ASP.Responses@NREL.gov mailto:%20ASP.Responses@NREL.gov

Disclaimer: Responding to this request identifies your company as an interested candidate only. Your submittal is not in response to a Request for Proposals (RFP).

This is an SSN, not a Request for Proposal. Verbal replies will not be accepted. All inquiries must be in writing via email. Project related questions will not be entertained at this point in the procurement process. This document represents a market research effort. Any costs associated with the development of a response to this request will not be reimbursed by NREL and submission does not guarantee or otherwise promise inclusion in any forthcoming RFP. In the event a solicitation results from this SSN, NREL reserves the right to set aside in total or in part any resultant award. No award will be made to any subcontractor/vendor that is not registered or in the process of registering with the System for Award Management (SAM). Please visit the SAM website at https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration for instructions on how to register.

If a solicitation is conducted and an award is resulting, a SAM registration is required to be active at time of award.

https://sam.gov/content/entity-registration