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The Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Network Contracting Office 20 (NCO 20) is conducting a market survey and is seeking potential sources for Nursing Recruitment Services.

This Sources Sought Notice is issued for information and planning purposes only. This is not a solicitation or a request for proposal and shall not be construed as an obligation or commitment by the Government. An award will not be made on any offers submitted in response to this notice, and it shall not be implied the Government is committed to providing any solicitation or award following this notice. The Government will not pay for any information received in response to this request, nor will the Government compensate a respondent for any costs incurred in developing the information provided. Â
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Responses shall be submitted to Denise Patches at Denise.Patches@va.gov by COB:05-10-2023 SUBJECT: RFI 36C26023Q0565 Nursing Recruitment Services.

This notice is intended strictly for market research. The purpose of this Sources Sought Notice is to determine interest and capability of potential qualified sources of supply and determine the socioeconomic size classification of the supplier and manufacturer of the end item.Â
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Interested companies shall provide, at a minimum, the following information with their response;Â Â
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Company Name and Address:Â
Point of Contact (POC)Â
Name:Â
Email Address:Â
Phone Number:Â
DUNS Number/UNIQUE SAM ID:Â
Brochures of their offered equipment/services.

The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541612 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services.
Mark if your firm is eligible for participation in one of the following small business programs. If so, please indicate the program:Â Â
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[ ]Â yes [ ] no - Small Business (SB)Â Â Â
[ ] yes [ ] no - HUBZone  Â
[ ]Â yes [ ] no - Small Business 8(a)Â Â Â
[ ]Â yes [ ] no - Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB)Â Â Â
[ ] yes [ ] no - Women-Owned (WO) Small Business Â
[ ]Â yes [ ] no - Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)Â Â
[ ]Â yes [ ] no - Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB)Â
[ ] yes [ ] no - Large Business  Â
[ ]Â yes [ ] no - Other (please specify)Â Â Â
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Please answer the following questions:Â
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[Â ]Â yes [Â ] no - Does not exceed $16.5 million; (for NAICSÂ 541612) must be verifiable thru the System for Award Management)Â
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[Â ]Â yes [Â ] no Is primarily engaged in the retail or wholesale trade and normally sells the type of item being supplied;Â Â
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[ ] yes [ ] no Takes ownership or possession of the item(s) with its personnel, equipment or facilities in a manner consistent with industry practice (identify how this occurs); and Â
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[Â ]Â yes [Â ] no Will supply the end item of a small business manufacturer, processor or producer made in the United States, or obtains a waiver of such requirement pursuant to paragraph (b)(5) CFR 121.406.Â
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Note: Do not include Proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information in responses.Â
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In addition to providing the information requested above, responding companies are encouraged to include any relevant information (specifications, cut sheets, brochures, capability statement, past experience etc.) to confirm the company s ability to meet the requirements outlined in this request. Â
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Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the U.S. Government to form a binding contract or agreement. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation, or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued.Â

Nursing Recruitment Services
Requested Salient Characteristics/Statement of Work

STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW)
VA Portland Health Care System (VAPORHCS)
Nurse Recruiting at Portland VA Medical Center (PVAMC)

GENERAL INFORMATION

Introduction/Justification
Currently, VAPORHCS is experiencing an unprecedented amount of vacancies within critical need occupations that need filling while our current recruitment methods have not been sufficient to fill this need. Therefore, obtaining comprehensive nursing recruitment advertising services are necessary to advance the commitment of VAPORHCS to optimize the patient care experience for their VAPORHCS Veteran population. Establishment of a contract that enables VAPORHCS to address the organizational priorities for the FY23 FY24 period. The first priority is to stabilize the workforce and a key driver to achieve this is to utilize paid advertisements for recruiting hard-to-recruit positions. Many hard-to-recruit positions fall into nursing roles therefore, under this guidance Nursing Professional Services has a requirement to obtain outside recruitment advertising services above the level that is currently in place through the use of modern technologies.

Scope
The overall purpose is to award a contract with a consulting service that specializes in social media-based staffing and recruitment subscription services to include the administration and analysis of said services.

The requirement is for a contract that would provide comprehensive social media-based staffing and recruitment subscription services. The vendor must provide a comprehensive suite of online social media-driven recruitment tools which will allow VAPORHCS the ability to engage directly with job seekers, specifically nursing professionals, via an online platform and/or network. The recruiting subscription services should include the ability for multiple VA branded job postings which are promoted within the platform/network to reach the best potential candidates. The subscription platform(s) must be usable for attracting, recruiting, assessing, and selecting highly qualified, productive employees with appropriate skills and competencies, from all sectors of society. Vendor platform should allow VAPORHCS recruiter(s) and other designated users the ability to engage with professionals who are actively seeking employment as well as professionals that may not be actively job-seeking but have demonstrable skills which fulfill our specific needs. Vendor platform should have the ability to source candidates using automated technologies that match our job postings to qualified candidates. Vendor platform should highlight our job postings to potential candidates via email and within potential candidates profile page.

For each job slot/posting the vendor must provide:
Ability to edit/change all job postings (title and description) at any time
VA specific branding
Sponsorship and promotion of content within their online platform

For VAPORHCS recruiter/user support the vendor must provide:
Training on all available tools in the form of online learning modules, FAQs, and live support
Searching capability of all professional members
Bidirectional in-platform communication between VAPORHCS recruiter and prospective candidates and the ability to e-mail potential candidates directly

Additionally, the contract will consist of the following activities/deliverables:
VAPORHCS recruiter/user access to vendors online portal/network
Ability to search database of professionals based on a variety of filtering criteria; including but not limited to:
Education level
Current job status/title
Geographic location
Associated job skills
An evidence-based recruitment tool that provides statistically valid measures of nursing recruitment advertising services.
Unlimited live customer service support
Electronic downloading of reports
Access to training materials/videos/FAQs covering all available products and tools
Provision of online analytics tools that enable recruiter to create on-demand reports to track the effectiveness, performance, and ROI of the recruitment services
Provision of raw recruitment data as requested by PVAMC
Provision of online training for online portal(s) and all available recruitment tools for PVAMC users as requested
Execution of all startup activities that conform to the needs of PVAMC
Implementation of job slots and recruiter seats no more than 10 business days following award of contract
Monitoring of any data transmissions to ensure compliance with all applicable VA and other regulations regarding information security

Period of Performance:
Base Period (6 Month pilot)
Date of Award through 30 June 2023
Option Year 1
1 July 2023 through 30 June 2024

Schedule of contract tasks and deliverables
The contractor shall open the allotted job slots no more than 10 business days after notice to proceed is issued after contract award. The contractor will be expected to provide access to training and education upon contract award. The contractor shall perform all necessary tasks to make available reports that track the effectiveness of all the tools VAPORHCS is using for their nursing recruitment advertising services. The contractor will work with the designated PVAMC representative(s) via the online portal/e-mail/virtual meetings to provide analytics that demonstrate the return on investment for these services.

Method of evaluating deliverables
Appointed VAPORHCS staff will evaluate all deliverables and review the resulting data. These reviews will involve close scrutiny of the data, viability of the information and utility of the service in helping improve service to our Veterans, as well as the concurrence and/or changes required to proceed with the work as noted in the contractor s submissions.

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