Digital Mobile Recruiting Platform for Veterans Affairs Canada

Advance Contract Award Notice

Title: Digital Mobile Recruiting Platform for Veterans Affairs Canada

1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) has a requirement for the provision of a secure digital mobile platform for video interviewing and testing by way of automated screening, pre-recorded interviews, live interviews and pre-configured questions and automated reference checks.

The digital mobile recruitment platform provided by the Contractor and accompanying consulting services will help in the management of human resources and recruitment for collective staffing processes by allowing for the assessment of candidates in a more efficient and timely manner.

The purpose of this Advance Contract Award Notice is to signal VAC’s intention to award a contract for these services to VidCruiter Inc. Before awarding a contract, however, VAC would like to provide other suppliers with the opportunity to demonstrate that they are capable of satisfying the requirements set out in this Notice, by submitting a statement of capabilities during the 15 calendar day posting period.

If another potential supplier submits a statement of capabilities during the 15 day calendar day posting period that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the government will proceed to a full tendering process on either the government’s tendering service or through traditional means, to award the contract.

If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a statement of capabilities meeting the requirements set out in the ACAN, a contract will be awarded to the pre-selected supplier.

2. Definition of the requirement

Background Information:

At VAC, Human Resources Resourcing is responsible for providing prompt and reliable strategic advice and guidance in the area of staffing. This includes human resource planning, recruitment, ensuring the Department is inclusive, that those employed are diverse and representative of the Canadian workforce and the clients we serve, as well as ensuring that Canadian official languages are respected. Resourcing works in partnership with management to strategically recruit and maintain an employee base who can effectively implement the goals of the department and deliver the services, programs and business priorities of the organization. Current and future needs are also taken into consideration, short and long term HR requirements, organizational structures, and employee skills and competencies to correspond with organizational plans.

In support of this, Resourcing has established targets for timely staffing and pay, to ensure that it is effectively supporting its manager clients in all aspects as noted. This includes providing timely and quality staffing services to all clients, expert strategic and operational staffing advice and recommendations; and overall operational staffing support.

The time to staff can get quite lengthy when attempting to recruit a high volume of candidates with a mix of requirements and groups/levels, at multiple locations across Canada, with multitudes of assessment boards, and a variety of assessment phases with no innovative tools or technology to support hiring managers.

Requirement:

Veterans Affairs Canada has a requirement for a secure cloud based and commercially available accessible human resources platform (hereafter referred to as “the platform”) for human resources activities including testing, interviewing and reference checking that is customizable for VAC.

The platform must provide Human Resource Advisors and hiring Managers of Veterans Affairs Canada with on-demand, real-time unlimited access.

3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities

(Minimum Essential Requirements)

Any potential supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities and include documentation to support their responses that it meets the following requirements:

3.1 Service Support Requirements

The Contractor must:

• be capable of providing an ongoing technical support mechanism, in both official languages of Canada for the duration of the contract at the Protected B level.
• provide technical and supervisory support in conforming to all level AA standards in accordance with the principles, guidelines, success criteria, and sufficient and advisory techniques outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20
• provide 24/7 bilingual (both official languages of Canada) technical support for the web-based platform to candidates, client’s administrators and scoring managers in multiple formats (e.g. e- mail and/or telephone).
• have the capacity to provide advice and guidance to VAC on how best to use its platform when designing interviews, test questions and reference checks.
• be able to assist in the development of interview, testing and reference tools to upload to provider’s online platform.
• be capable of providing remote training, in both Canadian official languages, to VAC employees on the use of any systems and/or tools being used.

3.2 Security Requirements

The Contractor’s platform must meet the Government of Canada’s requirement for Protected B as stipulated here Government of Canada Security Control Profile for Cloud-based GC Services - Canada.ca

3.3 Platform Requirements

The Contractor’s platform must:

• be a bilingual (in both official languages of Canada) cloud web-based platform capable of securely facilitating and storing pre-recorded interviews, tests and references.
• support Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari web browsers.
• be compatible with technology, including but not limited to iOS, Android and Windows).
• be able to provide downloadable real-time reports, documents, tests, interviews and reference checks in the Microsoft Suite operating systems (Excel, Access, and Word) per competitive staffing process.
• have a testing environment that allows candidates to ensure no technical issues exist prior to the examination commencing via a practice test or connectivity test.
• be compatible with bandwidth internet connection as low as ISDN (512Kb).
• be able to integrate many different types of interview questions (written for candidates to read and answer verbally, recorded for the candidates to listen to and then answer).
• allow for customization in order to represent VAC’s trademark and VAC general look and feel with respect to the VAC Communication Policy.
• allow an unlimited number of access accounts to accommodate a minimum of 1,000 candidate assessments taking place at one time.
• must conform to all level AA standards in accordance with the principles, guidelines, success criteria, and sufficient and advisory techniques outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20 and be compliant with adaptive technology such as screen readers.

• perform regular maintenance and monitoring, including back-ups, on hardware, software and infrastructure so as to prevent vulnerabilities form being exposed to threats and potential risks, and protect the integrity of information and results.

4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreements:

• Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
• World Trade Organization Agreement of Government Procurement (WTO-AGP)
• Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
• Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-UK Trade Continuity Agreement
• Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement
• Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)

5. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

The Pre-Identified Supplier, VidCruiter Inc. is the only known supplier that can provide a secure Digital Mobile Recruitment Platform that meets all the minimum essential requirements described in the ACAN.

6. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)

The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) – “Only one person is capable of performing the contract.”

7. Ownership of Intellectual Property

Ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising from the proposed contract that is not specifically provided by VAC will vest with the Contractor. VAC will maintain the intellectual property rights of the content that it provides to the Contractor for inclusion in the platform.

8. Security Requirement

This contract will contain a security requirement.

9. Period of the Proposed Contract

The period of the contract is for one (1) year from date of contract and includes two one (1) year option periods.

10. Estimated Cost

The estimated cost of the contract in Canadian dollars is $137,597.50. Applicable Taxes included.

Option Periods, if required.

The additional estimated value of the option periods (if exercised) in Canadian dollars in $137,597.50 per year. Applicable Taxes included.

11. Name and Address of the Pre-Identified Supplier

Vid-Cruiter Inc.

100 Cameron Street

Moncton NB E1C 5Y6

12. Suppliers’ right to submit a statement of capabilities

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the ACAN may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

13. Closing Date and time for Submissions:

The closing date and time for accepting statement of capabilities is June 9, 2022 at 2:00 pm EDT.

14. Inquiries and submission of statement of capabilities

Inquiries and statements of capabilities will only be accepted by email to:

Susan O’Brien, Senior Advisor

Veterans Affairs Canada

Procurement and Contracting

Susan.obrien@veterans.gc.ca

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.

Canada retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.