Job Classification and Compensation Study

Proposals Due:

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2022, 2:00 MDT

Overview

Summit County Government (“County”) is soliciting bids from qualified contractors to provide services for the following Job Classification and Compensation Study.

Copies of the request are available at summitcountyco.gov under ‘Bids & Proposals’ or by request at the County Human Resources Office. Contact Linda Peavey, Human Resources Director for additional project information at linda.peavey@summitcountyco.gov For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address. .

Scope of Services

Contractor shall furnish all labor, transportation, and incidentals necessary to perform the Compensation and Classification Study services. Work shall be completed as set forth in a contract for this project to be negotiated with the County based upon the contractor’s written proposal.

Date and time of service

Project Start Date: April 28, 2023

The deliverables and milestones are shown in the following table:

Indemnification and Insurance

Contractor shall indemnify and hold harmless the County from and against all claims, damages, losses, and expenses arising out of or resulting from acts or omissions of the Contractor, Contractor’s sub-contractors or otherwise arising out of the performance of services by Contractor. No later than seven (7) days following the execution of an Independent Contractor Agreement between the County and Contractor, the Contractor shall provide the County with certificates of insurance evidencing the types and amounts of insurance specified below:

a. Worker’s Compensation and Employer’s Liability:

i. Worker’s Compensation must be maintained with the statutory limits.

ii. Employer’s liability is required for minimum limits of:

§ $1,000,000 Each Accident

§ $500,000 Disease Policy

§ $1,000,000 Disease Each Employee

b. Commercial General Liability:

i. $1,000,000 Each Occurrence

ii. $2,000,000 General Aggregate

iii. $2,000,000 Products Completed Operations Aggregate

c. Automobile Liability: Contractor will maintain business auto liability coverage covering liability arising out of any auto (including owned, hired, and non-owned autos) used in the performance of services under this Agreement.

i. $1,000,000 Combined Single Limit Each Accident

Insurance coverage shall not be reduced below the limits described above or cancelled without the County’s written approval of such reduction or cancellation. Certificates of such insurance, of agents and subcontractors, shall be provided to the County upon request. With regard to all insurance, such insurance shall:

· Be primary insurance to the full limits of liability herein before stated and, should County have other valid insurance, County insurance shall be excess insurance only; and

· Not cancelled without thirty (30) days prior written notice to the County.

Proposal Format

Costs for performing services outlined in this Invitation to Bid shall be clearly stated to allow the County to effectively evaluate each proposal. Potential schedule /timeline of services must also be included.

Proposer shall submit proposals for this Service as outlined in the Request for Proposals and Scope of Services, or an alternately developed plan as developed by Proposer in response to and in accordance with this Request for Proposals and Information to Proposers attached hereto.

1. Provide an overview of your company and proposed team qualifications.

2. Provide a proposed project timeline.

3. Detail your proposed approach for each phase of the project:

a. Project Kick Off

b. Classification Study

c. Compensation Study

d. Implementation

e. Communications

4. Provide references for three (3) similar projects / clients.

5. Provide an all-inclusive flat fixed fee for the complete statement of work that provides pricing that is specific to each task / phase of the study that is broken into each of the following categories:

· General employee jobs

· ATU Collectively bargained jobs

· Sherriff’s Office

· Elected Officials

· Detail any expenses or charges that are not included in the proposed fee.

6. Provide a proposed service agreement.

Refinements and Improvements

Applicants should feel free during the proposal submission process to provide any suggestions or comments that might be advantageous for the County to consider in terms of any efficiencies, issues, or processes. The County is not committed to any single scenario, but efficiency of resources and minimizing impacts are critical in completing this work.

The following pages contain the Invitation to Bid instructions and owners requirements.

Part I - ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

A. Issuing Officer

This request for bidding is issued by Human Resources. For questions, please contact Linda Peavey, Human Resources Director at linda.peavey@summitcountyco.gov For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address. .

B. Purpose

Background

This Invitation to Bid provides prospective contractors with sufficient information to prepare and submit proposals for consideration by the County. To be considered responsive, each proposal must provide for completion of the tasks outlined in the Invitation to Bid.

The primary objective of this project will be to analyze Summit County’s existing pay plans to produce quantifiable and qualifiable data to ensure equitable and market competitive classification and pay practices; and further will review job descriptions to ensure they are up-to-date, reflective of job responsibilities and required knowledge, skills, and abilities. The result of this study is expected to steer the creation or updates of job descriptions, job families, job titling, and class designation. The successful bidder will work with Summit County to prepare a final report of recommendations for potential pay, pay structure, classifications, titling, job descriptions, and a plan for implementation.

Summit County is seeking a qualified vendor to assist in refreshing our most recent compensation study, revisit our pay ranges, reevaluate our list of benchmark comparators, review internal equity, assure compliance with Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, match 75% - 80% of our jobs to the market, review and update job descriptions, create job families for use in career planning, re-evaluate our paygrades and spread within each range, and consider pay steps as well as pay for performance. Compare pay for elected officials and deliver observations and recommendations to support recommendations in establishing an overarching pay philosophy and administrative pay practice guidelines.

Summit County conducted a pay study in 2022 that matched 50% of our jobs to a wide variety of town, county, and city governments. Pay adjustments of $4.00 /hour or the salaried equivalent was applied across the board to all positions in 2022, ending in November 2022.

Annual merit increases are administered on July 1 st of each year. In 2022, the merit pool was 0 – 3%, with most employees in 2022 and historically receiving an across the board 3% adjustment in pay.

The pay structure for ATU transit employees is covered by a collective bargaining pay step salary structure. A new collective bargaining agreement covering the next three-year period was ratified with an effective date of July 2022. The study related to these jobs will not result in changes to the structure or pay within the existing agreement.

Pay for elected officials is legislated. The only action with regards to these nine (9) individual jobs will be to benchmark and compare pay and practices.

A compensation study that is separate and specific to the Sherriff’s Office has already been contracted. Inclusion of jobs within the Sheriff’s Office will be used to evaluate and update current job descriptions, ensure internal equity, ensure compliance with Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, and for use in the creation of job families for the County to use as tools in career and succession planning.

Demographics

The County employs approximately five hundred fifty (550) total employees including the Sherriff’s Office, elected officials, and collectively bargained ATU employees. One hundred eighty-one (181) unique jobs will be included in the study. The study will seek recommendations regarding the number of structures. There are currently three pay structures.

The following is a summary of these structures and their number of unique jobs:

· (29) Sherriff’s Office, seven jobs are within a pay step plan

· (14) ATU / Transit collectively bargained employees within a pay step program

· (132) General employees

· (9) elected officials

History

Summit County, Colorado first received worldwide attention in 1859 when prospectors discovered gold and silver in the surrounding hills. Today, this County which is rich in mountains including the Tenmile Range is home to four world-class ski resorts: Arapahoe Basin Ski & Snowboard Area, Breckenridge Resort, Keystone Ski Resort, and Copper Mountain. The County includes the Towns of Breckenridge, Frisco, Silverthorne, Keystone, Dillon, Blue River, Montezuma, and Heeney. Breckenridge is the County seat and located approximately eighty miles west of Denver.

Summit County may be described as a county government that delivers valuable services to our year-round mountain resort community residents, second homeowners, and visitors. Our economy is heavily reliant on tourism and recreational activities.

The cost of living within Summit County is among the highest and the availability of housing is among the lowest. Many employees rely on public transportation or commute to work from where they live in surrounding counties with marginally lower costs. Unlike some high-cost living areas in the United States, the ability to commute to a more affordable place to live with available housing is very limited.

Summit County is committed to the wellbeing and stability of our employees. We strive to model, review, and update our compensation and classification plans to provide competitive pay, benefits, flexibility, classification, and career growth for our employees who must consider the cost of living and, often, longer than average commute times.

C. Scope

Summit County will ideally partner with a vendor who displays an understanding of resort and high-cost environments with examples of successful implementation(s). It is the Contractor’s responsibility to provide all safety equipment and/or managerial oversight necessary to perform all work in a safe and responsible manner. Summit County reserves the right to enter the work site for periodic checks of safe working environments, as applicable .

Summit County expects that any Contractor providing goods or services will do so in compliance with Summit County policies including, but not limited to, public health orders, permitting requirements, construction ordinances, building access and safety requirements, and Summit County standards of conduct.

This Invitation to Proposal contains the instructions governing the proposals to be submitted and the materials to be included therein. These are mandatory requirements that must be met to be eligible for consideration.

1. The Bidder shall prepare statements to evidence:

a) Understanding of the Project Scope of Work

b) Project approach, including working plans for employee outreach, data gathering/presentation, and examples of final reports.

c) The Project Schedule

2. List of Similar Work

The Bidder shall submit examples of projects of significantly comparable size and scope, specifically with governmental organizations in similar mountain resort and higher cost of labor and living, and in particular those with limited and higher cost of housing.

3. Cost of Services, including reimbursable expenses

The Bidder shall list all costs assumed necessary to successfully complete and/or deliver the provided Scope of Work and/or services including, but not necessarily limited to:

a) Personnel expenses

b) Software and/or system development fees

c) Purchased survey data.

d) Reimbursable expenses for travel and/or administrative services

e) Miscellaneous expenses including any applicable mark-up percentages.

The Bidder shall provide a list of standard fees/rates and material markup rates to include with the Contract if additional services or purchases of goods are incurred that may not be captured in the awarded Contract; billable only as incurred and as agreed upon in advance by mutual signing of a change order.

4. Qualifications

The Bidder shall provide qualifications of the organization, any subcontractors, and key personnel assigned to this project to include:

a) Years of experience in this field of work

b) Qualifying experience with public sector projects

c) Familiarity with Summit County’s services

d) Understanding of Summit County’s competitive labor market and application of laws under Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

e) Ability to support project communications.

Summit County intends for this project to result in a report on where our current staffing model and pay practices compare to similar environments with recommendations for pay practice and pay updates. Updates should include, but may not be limited to, overall budget estimates, adjustments to classifications, job titles, and/or job descriptions, as well as strategies for implementation of an updated or refreshed compensation and classification plan.

Pay updates may be able to begin in a phased approach as early as July 1, 2023. This is the date for the County’s date for annual for merit adjustments. The goal is to achieve full implementation no later than July 1, 2024. Our desired completion date for defining project deliverables would occur for Phase I no later than June 12, 2023, and no later than September 15, 2023, for all budget considerations. Tiered or phased approaches allow for generalized cost estimates before all costing has been completed and to achieve our aggressive, July 1, 2023, Phase I timeline.

Project Kick Off

Project Kick Off, April 28 – May 17, 2023

1. Review background information including the County’s Strategic Plan, organizational charts, compensation plan, and past compensation practices.

2. Meet with Project Team (Project Lead will define stakeholders at various steps) to validate scope of services, methodology, schedule(s), and other deliverables.

3. Conduct orientation and briefing sessions for County staff, including key leadership in each section/department, as coordinated with Project Lead, to present the project objectives and to assess general concerns.

4. Assist County staff with communication planning and distribution as related to the project.

Proposed Progression and Milestones

Classification Study

1. Interviews with key stakeholders.

2. Review and analysis of current job descriptions to prepare and conduct job evaluations. This may include, but is not limited to, questionnaire completion by staff, interviews with a representative sample of covered staff members, and/or interviews with appropriate supervisory personnel.

3. Consultant and County assessment of the accuracy of job descriptions

to include recommended updates, as applicable, in compliance with state and federal employment laws, statutes, and/or regulations to include the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.

4. Perform job evaluation analysis specifically addressing internal pay equity.

5. Allocate all employees included within the scope of the study to an appropriate job title, job class, and ensure compliance for FLSA and EEO-4 classifications.

6. Develop a classification plan that includes job families and career progression within a pay structure can easily be adjusted with annual pay cycles, allows for the creation of new jobs, and that is sustainable in a robust, uncertain, or declining job market.

7. Recommends a pay philosophy that identifies our position within the market and includes pay practice guidelines to include where new hires and promotions should be placed within the range.

8. Evaluate and make recommendations regarding the number of jobs, number of pay grades, and range spread within a new revised structure.

9. Prepare implementation and maintenance manuals for future use and conduct comprehensive training sessions for key staff members.

10. Prepare and present budget impacts and a plan for implementation.

Compensation Study :

1. Compile a sample list of comparators with a similar cost of labor, like cost of living and available housing to include other towns, cities and counties in Colorado and other mountain or other resort communities, as well as through published private sector survey data including MSEC data which the County can provide.

2. Upon concurrence with Summit County and our key stakeholders, gather survey data.

3. Perform survey data analysis and develop an externally competitive and internally equitable salary recommendations for each class of work.

4. Complete internal salary relationship analysis to include the development of guidelines to ensure maintenance of internal equity.

5. Prepare a recommended salary range assignment for each job classification and each position that reflects the results of the market survey and the analysis of the internal relationships using a consistent approach to include pay step progression.

6. Develop a recommendation for implementing a process for recognizing and rewarding increased competencies, skills, and/or performance.

7. Present initial recommendations to Summit County.

8. Present on-site results of survey and conclusions to the BOCC, County and Assistant County Managers, Department Heads, Supervisors and Managers, and employees.

9. Prepare implementation and maintenance manuals for the creation of new jobs and future use and training for key Summit County team members.

Implementation Options:

1. Present one or more options in the development of budgetary impact data and implementation strategy. A costing of implementing any recommended plan will need to be identified so the County can evaluate the expense and choose options such as pay changes and/or migration to new ranges (if applicable).

2. Include with implementation options recommended strategies for setting hiring rates for new employees, model how employees move through the compensation ranges, address how promotions may affect internal equity while understanding the financial and legal constraints of the County.

3. Prepare and present on-site a final report which will include the study methodology, major findings, and major recommendations/implementation strategies.

Communications

The successful bidder will also provide a suggested communication plan and/or tools to help introduce the project, gather, and respond to employee feedback, provide project update, and celebrate the success of the program.

D. Scheduling

Proposals must be submitted via email to linda.peavey@summitcounty.gov For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address. by Friday, April 7, 2023, 2:00 PM MDT. The subject line must be titled: Proposal for 2023 Job Classification and Compensation Study

E. Inquiries and Questions

Prospective applicants are welcome to make inquiries and ask questions concerning the Invitation to Bid to obtain clarification of the any requirements or schedule a site visit to the properties. Direct inquires as follows:

Question Deadline: March 21,2023

Linda Peavey, Human Resources Director : linda.peavey@summitcountyco.gov For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address.

Time Schedule:

F. Instructions for Submission of Proposals

It is imperative, when submitting a proposal, that the outside of the submission email be addressed as follows and with appropriate text in the email subject line and text in the top few lines of the body of the email:

Email Address:

Linda.peavey@summitcountyco.gov For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address.

Subject Line Text:

Proposal for: Proposal for 2023 Job Classification and Compensation Study

G. Late Proposals

It is the responsibility of each vendor submitting a proposal to ensure that emailed proposals arrive to linda.peavey@summitcountyco.gov For security reasons, you must enable JavaScript to view this E-mail address. no later than Friday, April 7, 2023, 2:00 PM MDT.

H. Proprietary Information

Any restrictions on the use of data contained within a proposal must be clearly stated in the proposal itself.

I. Response Material Ownership

All materials submitted regarding this Invitation become the property of the County and will only be returned at the County's option.

J. Incurring Costs

The County is not liable for any costs incurred by those who have submitted proposals prior to issuance of a signed contract.

K. Acceptance of Proposal Content

The contents from the selected contractor’s proposal will become contractual obligations if a subsequent agreement is reached. Failure of the successful contractor to accept these obligations may result in cancellation of the award and such contractor may be removed from future solicitations.

L. Acceptance Time

The County intends to make a proposal selection within 20 business days after the closing date for receipt of proposals.

M. Budget

Costs for performing services must be included in the proposals and should be clearly stated to allow the County to effectively evaluate each proposal.

PART II – PROPOSAL CONTENT

The proposal submitted must clearly address the requirements outlined in the Invitation to Bid. Any concerns that the contactor may have about meeting these requirements shall be specifically identified in the proposal.

When preparing the proposal, each of the following items should be restated above each bidder’s response.

Scope of Work

Provide an outline of the contractor’s understanding of the project. Summarize the basic approach to providing the services, and any recommendations on improving efficiencies in the process.

Qualifications

Each summary shall include a brief project description and name, address and phone number of a local contact person involved in the project. The statement of qualification shall be brief but shall include at a minimum the following:

1. Description of similar projects

Furnish a summary of experience on similar projects and be prepared to provide examples. Include a brief description of past and current projects.

2. Capabilities, provide an overview of your company and proposed team qualifications.

The statement of qualifications should also provide a summary of the bidder’s ability to successfully complete the requirements of this Invitation to Bid.

3. Provide a proposed project timeline.

4. Detail your proposed approach for each phase of the project:

a. Project Kick Off

b. Classification Study

c. Compensation Study

d. Implementation

e. Communications

5. Provide references for three (3) similar projects / clients.

6. Provide an all-inclusive flat fixed fee for the complete statement of work that provides pricing that is specific to each task / phase of the study that is broken into each of the following categories:

· General employee jobs

· ATU Collectively bargained jobs

· Sherriff’s Office

· Elected Officials

· Detail any expenses or charges that are not included in the proposed fee.

7. Provide a proposed service agreement.

PART III – BID EVALUATION AND SELECTION

The County intends to engage the most qualified contractor available for this assignment while providing the most value to the County. Responsiveness to the Invitation to Bid will be a principal basis for evaluation. Bids shall provide a straightforward and concise presentation adequate to satisfy the requirements of the Invitation to Bid. The proposal should clearly express the contractor's understanding of the County's specific requirements, indicating the contractor's qualifications to conduct this service in a thorough and efficient manner.

Failure to disclose a conflict of interest is a misdemeanor criminal offense under Colorado Law. Such conflict may arise if any public official exercises any substantial discretionary function in connection with a government contract, purchase, payment, or other pecuniary transaction without necessary disclosures as defined by Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S.) Section 18-8-308 as amended.

Selection Process .

1. The County reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, to consider alternatives, to waive irregularities and to re-solicit proposals.

2. The County reserves the right to conduct such investigations of, and discussions with, those who have submitted proposals (“Proponents”) or other entities as it deems necessary to assist in the evaluation of any proposal or to secure maximum clarification and completeness of any proposal.

3. All proposals submitted must be valid for a minimum period of ninety (90) days after the date of the proposal opening. Each Proponent must submit with the proposal a list of all subcontractors, independent contractors or sub-consultants employed or proposed to be employed by the Proponent in the performance of the contract.

4. Selection of a contractor will be made at the sole discretion of the County. The County may consider the following criteria when evaluating bids that includes but is not limited to:

§ Approach to Project 35%

§ List of Similar Work 20%

§ Cost of Services 25%

§ Qualifications 20%

5. Contract negotiations will take place with the most qualified contractor. The County reserves the right to incorporate specific contract provisions into the Proponent’s standard contract if the County’s standard contract cannot be used. Such provisions include but are not limited to insurance and indemnification provisions and governmental immunity provisions. If a contract cannot be negotiated, the negotiations will be terminated in writing and negotiations will begin with the next most qualified contractor.