WC2024M11HRSK0012 HandShake Sole Source Special Notice as PUBLISHED in PDF on Aug 26 2024.pdf

SOLE SOURCE SPECIAL

NOTICE

for

DOT’s Obtaining Access to the

Handshake Recruitment Tool

Owned by

JoinHandshake.com

This is SOLE-SOURCE Special Notice explaining why the Office of Human Resources, in the

U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of the Secretary, needs to award, to a firm named

JoinHandshake.com, a SOLE-SOURCE contract to be used for DOT’s obtaining access to that company’s Handshake recruitment tool, which is used to recruit university students and early alumni talent for federal employment.

JUSTIFICATION

Agency and Contracting Activity ~ FAR 8.405-6(c)(i).

US DOT/OST/M11

OST Office of

Human Resources

1200 New Jersey

Avenue, SE

Attn: Soletia Christie

US Department of

Transportation

OST, Acquisition

Services (M-63)

1200 New Jersey

Avenue, S.E.

Washington, DC

20590-0001

Nature/Description of Action(s) ~ FAR 8.405-6(c)(ii).

The Departmental Office of Human Resource Management (DOHRM) Division of Human

Capital Planning and Solutions (M-11) proposes to procure by means of other than full and open competition, contract services for the recruitment platform tool provided by Handshake.

Handshake is a recruitment tool utilized to recruit university students and early alumni talent for federal employment.

Description of Supplies/Services ~ FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(iii).

DOHRM, Human Capital Division will leverage the tools and platform of Handshake as part of its Recruitment efforts towards highly qualified individuals who also participate in the

Handshake platform. The Handshake social media networking platform’s objective is to provide job seekers with access to companies’ (and government agencies’) hiring teams across the

Department.

Handshake is a service that aggregates job posting for colleges and universities across the U.S.

Handshake prides itself in having the premium tech solution to source, attract, and manage relationships for job seekers from 0-7 years post-graduation.

The Authority and Supporting Rationale ~ FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(iv).

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

Determination Order Represents the Best Value ~ FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(v).

The Department currently uses a free version of the service which allows posting of jobs at over

1,300 schools with a single click as well as to register for career fairs at the various institutions.

The free version, however, limits the contact which DOT recruiters can have with students to

100 messages per recruiting season. Handshake’s Premium Service will allow DOT hiring managers to actively recruit students and alumni for positions.

Description of Market Research ~ FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(vi).

Various online recruitment tools have been reviewed by DOT, but Handshake was determined to the only tool capable of meeting DOT’s needs.

DOHRM has an ongoing effort to increase brand awareness, exposure to job announcements, and internship opportunities, and Handshake was determined by DOT to be the only platform capable of meeting DOT’s needs in seeking entry-level and college level talent—as is spelled out in greater detail in the Statement of Work set forth below in this Sole Source Special Noticc.

Nevertheless, any entity (other than JoinHandshake.com), which believes that it can meet DOT’s needs at the extremely high level of quality and efficiency indispensable to the Department, may e-mail, to james.mowery@dot.gov and to Soletia.Christie@dot.gov and to

Bree.Green@dot.gov, not later than 11:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time September 2nd, 2024, a

Statement of Qualifications attempting to prove the submitter’s capabilities.

Statement of Work

August 2024

BACKGROUND

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Departmental Office of Human Resource Management

(DOHRM) Division of Human Capital Planning and Solutions (M-11) is responsible for ensuring that the

Department of Transportation identifies strategies and methods to develop and maintain a pipeline of highly qualified diverse individuals to fill mission critical occupations. As part of our efforts to attract talented diverse entry level candidates we have utilized the no-cost version of the Handshake platform, but that version is limited to 100 messages per recruiting season and does not allow the Department to actively recruit students and alumni throughout the year. The Handshake social media networking platform’s objective is to provide job seekers with access to company’s (and government agencies) hiring teams. Handshake is a service that aggregates job posting for colleges and universities across the U.S. Handshake is the premium tech solution to source, attract, and manage relationships for job seekers from 0-7 years post-graduation. DOT has an ongoing effort to increase brand awareness, exposure to job announcements, and internship opportunities so that we can attract entry level talent. By procuring Handshake Premium DOHRM will be able to further leverage the Handshake platform and tools to bolster our strategic recruitment efforts. The DOHRM Corporate Recruiter, along with other DOHRM

HR personnel are the representatives of DOT and will serve as leads and technical experts in DOT staffing/hiring needs utilizing Handshake Premium to increase our recruitment capacity and reach.

KEY OBJECTIVES

- Have the ability to promote, drive/demonstrate ROI from, and increase reach of DOT wide events to a qua lified national early talent audience.

- Building a talent pipeline to fill mission critical occupations with early in career talent.

- Support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) efforts through increasing awareness to tra ditionally underrepresented candidates in support of the strategic plan.

- Develop brand awareness with Gen Z in an effective and engaging capacity.

- Track candidate engagement from events to build a longer-term pipeline is important.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The term of this Performance Work Statement (PWS) shall be for (1) base year and up to three (3) Option Years after the date of initial contract award.

mailto:james.mowery@dot.gov mailto:Soletia.Christie@dot.gov mailto:Bree.Green@dot.gov

Base Period – September 23, 2024, Thru September 22, 2025

Option Year 1 – September 23, 2025, Thru September 22, 2026

Option Year 2 - September 23, 2026, Thru September 22, 2027

Option Year 3 - September 23, 2027, Thru September 22, 2028

SCOPE OF WORK

The U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking to purchase the brand name or equal to Handshake’s premium enterprise services to recruit university students and early alumni talent. Handshake is the leading early talent marketplace with a proprietary network of ~17 million students & young professionals across 1,300+ universities in the US. The contractor shall ensure DOT gets the right volume of the right candidates, scale efficiently without adding recruiting bandwidth, meet hiring expectations of DOT hiring managers, use their unique insights to create effective recruitment strategies for current and future needs.

This purchase order provides funding for the DOHRM Human Capital Planning and Solutions Team to acquire the services that the brand name or equal to Handshake Premium offer. Activities include, but are not limited to:

Task 1: Participation in Project Meetings

The Contractor shall participate in regular and ad hoc meetings called by DOT/DOHRM and the COR to discuss current status, work, schedule, and related topics. The meetings may be held on-site at DOT HQ, at Contractor’s office, remote/virtual or other locations as deemed necessary in the Washington, D.C. local area. It is estimated that this will typically be once per month as needed.

Task 2: Accomplishment Reports

The Contractor shall provide to the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) a monthly report detailing assignments with a short description of training provided and technical support requests completed, and any other project related reporting appropriate.

Task 3: General Tasks

3.1 Core

3.1.1 Establish Presence

3.1.1.1 Post jobs

3.1.1.2 Message individuals

3.1.1.3 Attend school-hosted career fairs

3.1.1.4 Collect and review applications

3.2 Premium

3.2.1 Brand

Build brand with Gen Z using rich media, candidate reviews, and employee testimonials all housed on organization employer page.

3.2.2 Message

Scale and automate communication and nurture the right candidates to drive job applications.

3.2.3 Manage Candidates

Review and nurture your candidates throughout the application process

3.2.4 Build Relationships

Host your own events, participate in career fairs, and connect candidates with internal advocates in real time, in person and online.

3.2.5 Source

Filters, such as locations, institutions, and skillsets, as well as automated candidate matching help you laser in on the right talent.

3.2.6 Analyze & Optimize

Analytics on your team's performance, school management, event and campaign effectiveness, and more.

3.3 Accessibility

The Contractor shall support efforts to achieve compliance in line with federal standards and Departmental policy including Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 AA requirements. All web products created by the Contractor shall adhere to these standards.

3.4 Quality Assurance

The Contractor shall provide quality assurance of all content updates based on extensive functional testing and automated testing for performance as well as any integration with the web site, other external web platforms, or other tools within scope of the implementation project.

3.5 Documentation

The Contractor shall prepare materials explaining proper procedure for using new and existing features that are included in the Premium package as well as with any exercised optional ala carte service procured.

Deliverables

Contractor deliverables include the items listed in Section 3 above. Specifically, the Contractor shall deliver the outlined items as it pertains to the DOHRM’s Premium Handshake account:

4.1 The Configurable user roles

4.1.1 Access four new premium user roles with growing levels of permissions

4.1.2 Adjust the permissions of any premium role to meet the unique needs of your team – or keep the recommended permissions

4.1.3 Quickly add new users with permissions automatically application

4.2 The Talent Engagement Suite (Build a proactive, digital approach to early talent recruiting)

4.2.1 Personalized branding capabilities

4.2.2 Automated communication with candidates at scale

4.2.3 Host events, participate in career fairs, and connect candidates with internal champions

4.2.4 Automated candidate matching

4.2.5 Post jobs to any of the 1,400+ Handshake-affiliated institutions

4.2.6 Real-time suggestions for school partnerships

4.2.7 Analytics on your team's performance, event and campaign effectiveness, and more

4.3 Event Manager: (A single place to source attendees, schedule, host events, and connect with early talent.)

4.3.1 Fill your events

4.3.2 Schedule, host, and follow up

4.3.3 Create a seamless candidate experience

4.3.4 Analyze top performing events

4.3.5 Run your Gen Z recruiting on a single platform

4.4 Applicant Tracking System: (Connect your systems to Handshake for a full-funnel view of your Gen Z recruiting.)

4.4.1 Streamline your recruiting

4.4.2 Improve the candidate experience

4.4.3 Connect activities to outcomes

4.5 Insights (Get relevant, actionable information to take the guesswork out of early talent recruiting.)

4.5.1 Report on 360 degrees of data

4.5.2 Get ahead of market trends

4.5.3 Benchmark & optimize your performance

4.5.4 Improve DEI

4.6 Expert Assist (Extend your impact by partnering with Handshake's team of experts to boost recruiting bandwidth and improve ROI.)

4.6.1 Relevant candidates, faster

4.6.2 Faster onboarding

4.6.3 Improved productivity

4.6.4 Reach more students than ever in a hybrid world

4.7 Premium Employer Access Subscription Services Measurement Subscription

4.7.1 Talent Engagement Suite 5 Recruiter Seats

4.7.2 Expert Assist Platform

4.7.3 Event Manager Platform

4.7.4 Insights Platform

4.8 In pursuit of items 4.1 – 4.7 above, the Contractor shall work closely with the Office of Human Capital and

Planning and Solutions and other DOHRM staff in developing a strategy for the planning, creation, and delivery of all updates, ensuring that the Premium Employer Access Subscription Services are fully realized.

4.9 For items 4.1 - 4.7 above, the Contractor shall support efforts to achieve compliance in line with federal standards and Departmental policy including Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 AA requirements. All web products created by the Contractor shall adhere to these standards.

4.10 For items 4.1 - 4.7 above, the Contractor shall provide quality assurance of all enhancements, ensuring that all platform updates are error-free.

4.11 For items 4.1 – 4.7 above, the Contractor shall prepare materials to document new processes resulting from platform changes.

OPTIONAL SERVICES:

5.1 Premium Branding, this builds on item 3.2, adding Premium Branding for just the Department of Transportation landing page. This includes the ability to share rich information to encourage talent to consider your organization and follow your brand to stay up to speed on the latest news, events, jobs, and more. You can have subpages to spotlight interesting programs, people, or departments to early talent. Also includes the ability to feature affiliate

OAs to deepen connections to other brands you want early talent to consider or know about to further stand apart as a great employer.

6.0 This version would enable up to 10 individuals across DOT to have a Handshake Premium User seat.

TRAVEL

Travel will not be required under this contract.

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

• The Contractor shall perform all duties at a contractor-provided location.

• Meetings will be scheduled virtually.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

If for any reason the DOT COR or CO or the Contractor determines that a potential, perceived or real conflict of interest exists, the contract employee that is the source of the conflict shall cease all work.

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The period of performance for this contract shall begin September 2024 with the possibility of three (3) Option

Year. Should the Government determine the requirements for services under this contract no longer exists before the end of the period of performance the Contractor will be provided a minimum of 30-day notice, assuming satisfactory performance was provided up to that time.

Contract Type: Firm fixed price