Technical Submittal_RFP No. 6100066384_FINAL.pdf

TECHNICAL SUBMITTAL

I-1. Statement of the Project. This request for proposals (“RFP”) provides to those interested in submitting proposals for the subject procurement (“Offerors”) sufficient information to enable them to prepare and submit proposals for the Pennsylvania State Police’s (“PSP”) consideration on behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (“Commonwealth”) to satisfy a need for the development and administration of promotion examinations to the ranks of PSP Corporal and Sergeant. This RFP contains instructions governing the requested proposals, including the requirements for the information and material to be included; a description of the service to be provided; requirements which Offerors must meet to be eligible for consideration; general evaluation criteria; and other requirements specific to this RFP.

State in succinct terms your understanding of the project presented, or the service required by this RFP.

Offeror Response

I-2. Qualifications.

A. Company Overview.

a. Prior Experience. Include experience in the development of personnel selection systems. Give specific references to any prior work done with law enforcement supervisory positions. Describe any related prior experience in developing selection systems for law enforcement positions. Emphasis should be placed on projects of comparable size to this project and must include projects that involve testing a minimum of 500 candidates located in multiple locations simultaneously. Experience shown should be work done by individuals who will be assigned to this project as well as that of your company. Studies or projects referred to must be identified and the name of the customer shown, including the name, address, and telephone number of the responsible official of the customer, company, or agency who may be contacted.

B. Personnel. Include the number of executive and professional personnel, analysts, auditors, researchers, programmers, consultants, etc., who will be engaged in the work. Show where these personnel will be physically located during the time they are engaged in the Project. For key personnel, include the employee’s name and, through a resume or similar document, the Project personnel’s education and experience in test development, administration, and validation. Include information describing prior experience in developing selection systems for law enforcement agencies. Indicate the responsibilities each individual will have in this Project and how long each has been with your company.

C. Subcontractors. Provide a subcontracting plan for all subcontractors, including small diverse business and small business subcontractors, who will be assigned to the Project. The selected Offeror is prohibited from subcontracting or outsourcing any part of this Project without the express written approval from the Commonwealth. Upon awarding the contract resulting from this RFP, subcontractors included in the proposal submission are deemed approved. For each position included in your subcontracting plan provide:

a. Name of subcontractor;

b. Primary contact name and email;

c. Address of subcontractor;

d. Description of services to be performed;

e. Number of employees by job category assigned to this project;

f. What percentage of time the staff will be dedicated to this project;

g. Geographical location of staff; and

h. Resumes (if appropriate and available).

i. The Offeror’s subcontractor information shall include (through a resume or a similar document) the employees’ names, education and experience in the services outlined in this RFP. Information provided shall also indicate the responsibilities each individual will have in this Project and how long each has been with subcontractor’s company.

I-3. Training. If appropriate, indicate recommended training of agency personnel. Include agency personnel to be trained, the number to be trained, duration of the program, place of training, curricula, training materials to be used, number and frequency of sessions, and number and level of instructors.

I-4. Financial Capability. Describe your company’s financial stability and economic capability to perform the contract requirements. The Commonwealth reserves the right to request additional information to evaluate an Offeror’s financial capability.

I-5. Requirements.

A. Conditions.

a. Legal Defensibility of Assessment Tools. Proposals shall address legal defensibility and compliance with professional standards, applicable federal laws, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection. Offerors must be committed to providing consultation and testimony in response to litigation arising from the promotion process if needed.

b. Validity of Assessment Tools. Validity of recommended assessment tools must be addressed in this proposal. Offeror must specify how validity is to be defined and measured.

c. Mandatory Examination Instruments. A written examination and an oral examination that together identify the extent to which promotion candidates demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities determined necessary to succeed at the higher rank.

d. Time Constraints and Candidate Pools. Tentative administration dates of assessment examinations will be September 2027 through October/November 2027 and again in September 2029 through October/November 2029.

i. Number of candidates to be tested. Offeror shall plan that all 2,800 eligible Troopers will compete for the promotion to Corporal and 875 Corporals will compete for the promotion to Sergeant. Prior to each examination, PSP will poll eligible candidates to determine the actual number of candidates to be assessed.

ii. The actual administration dates may be rescheduled or eliminated by PSP with 150 calendar days’ notice.

iii. Other related activities such as Job Analysis, Examination Development, Scoring and Analysis shall be scheduled as necessary before or after the administration of the examinations.

iv. Time necessary for each candidate to complete each assessment tool.

1. Proposals should address the number of days and the hours per day that candidates will be required to participate in assessment tools.

2. Proposals shall address the maximum number of candidates that will be scheduled per day for each assessment tool, and the duration (in days) of each assessment tool from the first candidate to the last.

e. Makeup Examinations. Proposed makeup examination schedules shall be based on administering an estimated three (3) makeup examinations, spaced at six (6) month intervals, after each regularly scheduled examination.

Actual makeup examinations shall be administered as often as deemed necessary by PSP, with sixty (60) calendar days’ notice. Candidates that complete a makeup examination shall be merged with candidates on the existing eligibility list. Makeup examinations shall continue through the term of the contract. Proposals shall be based on between one and fifteen (1-15) Troopers and one and ten (1-10) Corporals competing for promotion to the higher rank at each makeup examination.

f. Limited Disruption of PSP Day-to-Day Operations. Due to operational and administration considerations, the Offeror shall schedule the examinations for dates and times determined by PSP.

i. Written examinations shall be administered simultaneously to all candidates of the same rank.

1. Corporal and Sergeant written examinations shall be conducted on separate, not necessarily consecutive, days of PSP’s selection.

2. PSP requires a minimum of eight (8) written examination sites statewide, chosen with the objective of limiting candidate travel time to one and a half (1.5) hours or less.

ii. Oral examinations shall be administered on multiple consecutive days, not to exceed fourteen (14) calendar days.

1. Oral examinations for Corporal and Sergeant shall be administered concurrently. PSP requires a minimum of four

(4) oral examination sites statewide, chosen with the objective of limiting candidate travel time to two (2) hours or less.

g. Security. Proposals shall identify the Offeror’s strategy for ensuring security of assessment tools.

B. Emergency Preparedness. To support continuity of operations during an emergency, including a pandemic, the Commonwealth needs a strategy for maintaining operations for an extended period of time. One part of this strategy is to ensure that essential contracts that provide critical business services to the Commonwealth have planned for such an emergency and put contingencies in place to provide needed goods and services.

a. Describe how you anticipate such a crisis will impact your operations.

i. Describe your emergency response continuity of operations plan.

Please attach a copy of your plan, or at a minimum, summarize how your plan addresses the following aspects of pandemic preparedness:

1. Employee training (describe your organization’s training plan, and how frequently your plan will be shared with employees).

2. Identified essential business functions and key employees (within your organization) necessary to carry them out.

3. Contingency plans for:

a. How your organization will handle staffing issues when a portion of key employees are incapacitated due to illness; and

b. How employees in your organization will carry out the essential functions if contagion control measures prevent them from coming to the primary workplace.

4. How your organization will communicate with staff and suppliers when primary communications systems are overloaded or otherwise fail, including key contacts, chain of communications (including suppliers), etc.; and

5. How and when your emergency plan will be tested, and if the plan will be tested by a third party.

I-6. Tasks. Describe in narrative form your technical plan for accomplishing the work using the task descriptions set forth below as your reference point. Modifications of the task descriptions are permitted; however, reasons for changes should be fully explained.

Indicate the number of person hours allocated to each task. Include a Program Evaluation and Review Technique (“PERT”) or similar type display, time related, showing each event.

If more than one approach is apparent, comment on why you chose this approach.

A. Job Analyses.

a. Offeror is responsible for conducting job analyses to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities (“KSAs”) most essential for successful performance of the positions of PSP Corporal and Sergeant. Complete and comprehensive job analyses shall be conducted prior to the initial Corporal and Sergeant promotion cycle in 2027, with updates performed prior to the subsequent renewals.

b. Methodology for completing the job analyses must be described in the proposal.

B. Assessment Tool Development.

a. Offeror is responsible for designing a promotion process that identifies the extent to which promotion candidates possess the KSAs necessary to succeed at the higher rank. PSP relies on the expertise of the Offeror to recommend the type, number, and relative weighting of assessment tools.

The PSP promotion process design historically consists of a written and oral examination for each rank.

b. The written examinations for all positions should be designed for duration of approximately two (2) hours, and the oral examination should be designed for a duration of approximately one (1) hour. Durations include check-in, reading of instructions, and examination performance.

i. The written examination for Corporal and Sergeant should consist of at least two (2) parts. Part 1 should consist of questions requiring rote memorization from Department regulations. Part 2 should consist of single-best answer situational-response questions.

1. No reference materials will be available to candidates during the written examination.

ii. PSP desires that the written examination be used to narrow the field of Corporal and Sergeant candidates, so that not all advance to the oral examination. PSP has not established a particular percentage of candidates to advance but is committed to complying with the EEOC Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection.

1. For the purposes of cost proposal, Offerors should plan that 70 percent of Corporal and Sergeant candidates shall advance to the oral examinations.

iii. The relative weight of assessment tools shall be determined early in each promotion cycle, based on the outcome of the comprehensive job analysis and subsequent updates.

iv. Offeror is responsible for developing examination instruments for each promotion cycle. PSP intends that while the same promotion process components will be used throughout the contract, assessment tools will not be reused from one cycle to the next.

1. PSP will communicate testing dates to the successful Offeror no later than 150 calendar days prior to the administration of the examinations.

2. PSP will make subject matter experts and meeting space available to the successful Offeror.

3. PSP will provide candidate data in advance of the examinations. Typical data fields include full name, rank, employee number, race, gender, assigned location, and preferred testing site.

4. PSP will review and approve the content of assessment tools during development and before administration.

5. PSP will not release examination content from prior Corporal and Sergeant contracts, to include the selected Offeror.

v. Offeror is responsible for producing a candidate preparation guide for each promotion cycle.

1. As a minimum, the preparation guide shall address all promotion process components, the relative weight of each, sources of assessment tool material, and tips for success.

2. Offeror shall submit their preparation guide in Portable Document Format (PDF) to the PSP Project Officer no later than ninety (90) days before administration of the assessment tool. PSP’s Project Officer will ensure availability to candidates.

3. Promotion Candidates shall not be obliged to incur out-of-pocket expenses for examination materials.

vi. PSP retains final approval authority over all examinations and procedures.

C. Assessment Tool Administration.

a. Offeror is responsible for locating, reserving, and paying for suitable examination facilities as well as lodging for administrative staff and oral examination assessors.

i. In planning to administer assessment tools, Offeror may investigate options such as: high schools, community colleges, armories, hotels, and community fire companies. PSP expects that adequate workspace, lighting, sound control, temperature, etc. will be maintained so that all candidates share a similar testing experience.

ii. PSP does not intend specific examination sites be named in the proposal. Suitable examination sites shall be recommended by the Offeror prior to each examination cycle, subject to PSP approval.

1. Offeror is responsible for locating, reserving, and paying for a suitable oral examination assessor training location as well as lodging for oral examination assessors.

2. PSP will make PSP Sergeants and Lieutenants available to serve as oral examination assessors for the Corporal and Sergeant examinations.

3. Assessor workdays shall not exceed eight (8) hours, inclusive of meals, breaks, and administrative demands.

4. PSP will provide up to three (3) administrative support staff per examination site for assessment tools. Training administrative staff is the responsibility of the Offeror.1

5. PSP will fund travel and subsistence for PSP assessors and administrative staff only related to the Corporal and Sergeant examinations. PSP will not fund or reimburse any travel or subsistence expenses related to Offeror’s staff, assessors, employees, etc.

1 The Commonwealth’s Travel Policy (Management Directive 230.10 can be found here. The associated Commonwealth Travel Procedures Manual (Manual 230.1) can be found here.

https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/oa/documents/policies/md/200/230-10.pdf https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/oa/documents/policies/ml/m230-1.pdf

6. Offeror shall train oral examination assessors prior to each oral examination administration.

7. Offeror shall provide one responsible manager per assessment tool site and additional staff as appropriate to manage the assessment tooling process. Manager must have sufficient expertise to provide consultation, observation, and problem resolution.

8. Offeror shall provide at the assessment tool site all clerical materials necessary to administer assessment tools, to include but not limited to pencils, pens, highlighters, forms, and folders.

9. Offeror shall provide at the assessment tool site all test-taking materials necessary to conduct assessment tools.

10. During oral examination assessor training and oral examination administration, Offeror shall provide refreshments such as coffee, tea, juice, water, and pastries for oral examination assessors each morning; and provide coffee, water, and soda each afternoon.

D. Assessment Tool Scoring, Analysis and Feedback.

a. Offeror is responsible for scoring and analysis of individual assessment tools and applying weight values to each component.

b. Upon analyzing written examination results, the Offeror shall recommend a minimum passing score required to advance to the oral examination for the ranks of Corporal and Sergeant, subject to PSP’s approval.

c. The final output of the promotion process shall be a rank-ordered list of eligible candidates. This does not preclude a pass/fail component in the promotion process.

d. Corporal and Sergeant candidates with the same overall examination score shall be ranked based on secondary input provided by PSP.

e. Offeror is responsible for producing individual feedback for each candidate.

The report shall provide each candidate with a narrative description of strengths, weaknesses, and comparative performance levels for both the written and oral examinations. Offeror shall submit feedback to the PSP Project Officer in paper format, sealed with individually addressed envelope for distribution to candidates. A description of the feedback report must be included with the proposal.

E. Scoring, Analysis and Feedback of Makeup Examinations.

a. Makeup examinations will be scheduled and administered according to the needs and availability of PSP. Makeup examinations will only be administered for candidates who miss the regularly scheduled administration due to military obligations or Department-approved reasons.

b. PSP is responsible for providing facilities, administrators and assessors for Corporal and Sergeant makeup examinations.

c. Offeror shall provide all test-taking materials and guidance to PSP personnel to conduct makeup examinations.

d. Offeror is responsible for the scoring and analysis of individual makeup examinations.

e. Offeror shall determine proper placement on the eligibility list of individuals completing a makeup examination and notify PSP.

f. Offeror shall produce individual feedback reports to individuals completing a makeup examination.

I-7. Reports and Project Control.

A. Task Plan. A work plan for each task that identifies the work elements of each task, the resources assigned to the task, and the time allotted to each element and the deliverable items to be produced shall be submitted to the PSP Project Officer for review and approval prior to initiation of any project development work. Where appropriate, a flow chart and timetable should be used to show project, task, and timeline relationships. This report in most cases is the original proposal (modified as necessary after negotiations) and attached to the contract.

B. Status Report. At the discretion of the PSP Project Officer throughout the project, a periodic progress report covering activities, problems and recommendations may be requested. This report should be keyed to the work plan the Offeror developed in its proposal, as amended or approved by the Issuing Office. Other telephonic status reports may be requested at the discretion of the PSP Project Officer. Project deliverables should be submitted for draft review as developed throughout the project.

C. Problem Identification Report. An “as required” report, identifying problem areas. The report should describe the problem and its impact on the project overall and on each affected task. It should list possible courses of action with advantages and disadvantages of each and include Offeror recommendations with supporting rationale.

D. Eligibility Lists. An eligibility list for each rank, ranking candidates based on their performance, shall be provided to the PSP Project Officer within thirty (30) days following the completion of the respective assessments. Updates to eligibility lists shall be provided within thirty (30) days of makeup examinations.

E. Feedback Reports. Feedback reports for each candidate are due within thirty (30) days following the submission of each respective final eligibility list and makeup examination.

F. Final Report. The Offeror shall submit a final report for each rank within thirty

(30) days following the completion of all deliverables for the specific rank, not including makeup examinations. The final report should serve as the primary documentation for the process following in examination development and administration and should conform to the format described below.

a. Summarize the result of the promotion process in terminology that will be meaningful to management and others generally familiar with the subject areas.

b. Describe data collection and analytical and other techniques used during the study. Describe dimensions and/or KSAs measured in each examination component.

c. Summarize findings, conclusions and recommendations developed in each task.

d. Include all supporting documentation; e.g., questionnaires, linkage statistics, formulars, answer keys, etc.

e. Include actual promotion examination instruments. All assessment instruments become the property of PSP.

f. Include actual component/item score data on each candidate in Microsoft Office or Microsoft Office-compatible format.

I-8. Objections and Additions to Standard Contract Terms and Conditions. The Offeror will identify which, if any, of the terms and conditions contained in the Buyer Attachments section that it would like to negotiate and what additional terms and conditions the Offeror would like to add to the standard contract terms and conditions. The Offeror’s failure to make a submission under this paragraph will result in its waiving its right to do so later, but the Issuing Office may consider late objections and requests for additions if to do so, in the Issuing Office’s sole discretion, would be in the best interest of the Commonwealth. The Issuing Office may, in its sole discretion, accept or reject any requested changes to the standard contract terms and conditions. The Offeror shall not request changes to the other provisions of the RFP, nor shall the Offeror request to completely substitute its own terms and conditions for this RFP. All terms and conditions must appear in one integrated contract. The Issuing Office will not accept references to the Offeror’s, or any other, online guides or online terms and conditions contained in any proposal.

Regardless of any objections set out in its proposal, the Offeror must submit its proposal, including the cost proposal, on the basis of the terms and conditions set out in the Terms and Conditions contained in the Buyer Attachment section. The Issuing Office will reject any proposal that is conditioned on the negotiation of the terms and conditions set out in the Terms and Conditions contained in the Buyer Attachment section or to other provisions of the RFP.