R--2017 Third Party Salary Survey Services

1 This Request for Information is for planning purposes only at this time and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is one of the largest employers for health care professionals in the United States, and is required by 38 U.S.C 7451 to utilize third party survey data, when available, to determine if Nurse Locality Pay System (LPS) adjustments are necessary. In addition the VA relies heavily on third party survey data when making salary determinations for special salary rates approved under 38 U.S.C. 7455. These special rates may be competitive with, but not exceed, pay for comparable positions at non-Federal facilities in the local labor market. Nurse LPS and special rate schedules are therefore established based on third party survey data for specific local labor market areas. VHA routinely competes with major employers in the health care market to fill their health care positions, and therefore relies heavily on the competitive salaries to enhance the VA s ability to recruit and retain high quality employees. The VA however has been hampered in achieving these goals due to the shortage of human resources staff, difficulty in obtaining data from competing entities, and a lack of understanding of the data required during the collection and analysis phases. As a result the VA is seeking a contractor who can fulfill these services. The VA is seeking a potential contractor to provide all labor, supervision and all other resources required to identify a list of 65+ regional and national surveys VA wish to participate in and receive survey data from. The contractor will establish an agreement with each third party survey provider, and maintain a calendar in order to submit timely VA employee salary and benefit data on VA s behalf, and in order to apprise VA as to when each third party survey deliverable will be received. VA Survey Data Collection and Distribution. Contractor will provide VA employee survey and benefits data on behalf of 152+ VA medical centers, in different local labor market areas to third party survey providers on behalf of the VA. Using large VHA employee data files and duty station locations, the contractor will extract, analyze, perform matching benchmark jobs, and provide employee specific salary and benefit data to more than 65 different third party survey sources on VHA s behalf. Each third party survey may require employee salary and benefit data analysis for up to 100+ healthcare occupations and will cover any duty station location within the VA Health Care System. In order to perform appropriate job matching and benchmarking, the contractor must have extensive knowledge of more than 100 VHA healthcare occupations; knowledge of VHA s unique grade and salary structure, and a thorough understanding of the various qualification standards for each VHA healthcare occupation. Data Analysis and Report Generation - The contractor will collect the third party salary survey results and aggregate the market data and analysis and create market comparisons for national, regional salary data and provide VA with high quality valid survey sources and appropriate job matching for each employee within each health care occupation. The contractor will develop appropriate market analysis and create market comparisons for each employee within the occupation and provide the data in an excel spreadsheet format with the ability for VHA to manipulate the data with built in calculators. Application of Geographic Differentials. In order for VA to utilize national average third party survey data, the contractor must extrapolate and report survey data for each individual VA local labor market area, using recognized industry standards and survey methodology comparable to the methodology used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) per Title 38 U.S.C. 7451. For geographic areas not covered by survey data the Contractor must use a data program that contrasts geographic salaries against regional and national average survey data. Data is gathered from public records, salary surveys, online job postings and licensed datasets. A differential or percentage is calculated and applied to national or other regional survey data. With more than 150 medical centers, covering hundreds of local labor market areas, the Contractor must utilize a data program that is comparable to BLS survey methodology, and which uses recognized industry standards. The contractor shall use a compensation tool to utilize geographic differential data to aggregate national survey data for more than 100 healthcare occupations, and for all established duty station locations. To date VA has approximately 962 different duty station locations. The survey methodology performed by the Contractor must meet Federal statute found in Title 38 United States Code 7451 and VA policy found in VA Handbook 5007, specifically parts VI and X. The Government anticipates issuing a Task Order or Contract with one (1) contractor. Exact items, quantities and delivery requirements will be identified in the Request for Quotation/Proposal. Tasks the contractor will provide are: VA Survey Collection VA Data Reformation VA Data Distribution VA Confirmation Report Survey Collection and Analysis of Third Party Salary Surveys Data Analysis Geographical Differential Analysis Scheduling of Final Products Regional Based Reporting National Based Reporting Regional Compensation Tool Vehicle and User Guide National Compensation Tool Vehicle and User Guide Salary Surveys Because this is a Request for Information announcement, no evaluation review letters and/or results will be issued to the respondents. No solicitation exists. Therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the review. The Government reserves the right to consider a small business, SDVOSB, VOSB or (8) a set-aside based on the responses received. All responses must include the following information: Company name, cage code, Dun and Bradstreet Number, GSA Schedule Contract Number, Company Address, Point of Contact name, Phone Number, Fax number and E-mail address. The subject line of the correspondence should clearly display the Request for Information Number. Also, please provide the following information in your response: Past Experience Provide the following information on a maximum of three similar projects completed within the last five years for which the responder was the prime contractor. A project is considered similar if the contractor provided support during the development lifecycle, preferably in a health systems environment. The name, address, type and value of each project. The name, telephone and address of the owner of each projects. A description of each project, including difficulties and successes The firm s role and services provided for each project. Capabilities/Qualifications Provide the following information for each functional area listed in the REQUIREMENTS section above. Description of the capabilities/qualifications/skills your company possesses to perform task orders under each functional area. Resumes of key personnel for each functional area (one person may be listed as key personnel for more than one functional area). Business size standards Vendor shall provide the following information regarding their company: Whether they are small business, HUBZone small business; service-disabled, veteran-owned small business; 8(a) small business; veteran-owned small business; woman-owned small business; or small disadvantaged business; and their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your response to this information requested will assist the Government in determining whether a set-aside is possible. It is requested that interested contractors submit an electronic submission of no more than ten (10) pages in length, single spaced, and 12 point font minimum that addresses the above information. Be sure to include the Request for Information number in the subject line of the email. Submissions shall be received no later than 1 p.m., Eastern Local Time on January 3, 2017. At this time, no solicitation exists. Therefore, DO NOT REQUEST A COPY OF THE SOLICITATION. Contractors having the skills and capabilities necessary to perform the stated requirements should forward an email only to the primary point of contact listed below. Contracting Office Address: Department of Veterans Affairs Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC) 6150 Oak Tree Boulevard Suite 300 Independence, Ohio 44131 Primary Point of Contract: Yolanda M. Ray, Contracting Officer Email: contact@example.gov