End-to-end 360-Degree employee feedback assessment solution for the water research commission

This RFI aims to gather information on 360-degree employee assessment solutions, including tools, methodologies, and services for multi-source feedback. The purpose is to provide a comprehensive, multi-perspective evaluation of employees’ skills, behaviours, and competencies to foster personal growth, leadership development, and organisational improvement.

Required deliverables:

• Individual Confidential Reports:

• Per participating employee, including competency scores by rater group, strengths, development areas, comparative insights, and practical recommendations.

• Organisational Aggregated Report:

• Consolidated, anonymised trends across WRC or defined groups, including common strengths/gaps, priority development areas, and training recommendations.

• Presentation of Findings:

• Key results and actionable insights for workforce development.

• Ratee Reports:

• Customised reports for ~90 ratees, emailed during the survey period.
• Include explanations, instructions, score interpretations, rating scales, and bar charts (self, manager, peer, direct report ratings).
• Distribute within 1 month of assessment completion.
• Submit a soft copy of all reports to WRC HR (anonymised).

• Organisational Reports:

• Comprehensive leadership effectiveness report per WRC programme.
• Comparison report per programme participation.

Evaluation is conducted in 4 phases:

• Phase 1: Compliance to minimum requirements. Submit all requested information for verification. Non-compliance results in elimination.
• Phase 2: Pre-qualification. Submit signed reference letters proving expertise in:

1. Conducting 360-degree employee feedback assessments (design, customisation, administration, analysis, reporting, feedback delivery).
2. Producing comprehensive 360-degree feedback reports identifying competency gaps and actionable recommendations.

Each reference letter must be on client letterhead, signed by the referee, contactable, and specify the work performed. Failure to comply results in immediate elimination.

• Phase 3: Functional evaluation. Minimum threshold of 75% required to progress. Criteria and scoring:
• Company profile and relevant experience (25 points): >10 years = 35 points, 6-10 years = 30 points, 4-6 years = 20 points, 2-4 years = 10 points, 0-2 years = 5 points.
• High-quality individual and organisational reports (35 points): Must include clear instructions, score explanations, rating scales, and dimension descriptions.
• Project proposal and methodology (20 points): Evaluated on comprehensiveness, justification, and implementation clarity.
• Signed reference letters (20 points): 1 point per letter, up to 5 letters.
• Phase 4: Pricing and Specific Goals. Only bidders progressing from Phase 3 are evaluated. Highest-scoring bidder is recommended for award.

Minimum qualification threshold: 75% in Phase 3. Failure to meet this threshold results in elimination.

Scope of work for the 360-degree feedback assessment solution:

• Project Initiation and Planning:

• Conduct a start-up meeting with WRC’s project team to confirm objectives, target population (~90 employees), timelines, reporting requirements, and governance.
• Submit a project implementation plan with milestones, roles, responsibilities, communication plan, risk management, and quality assurance measures.

• Tool/Instrument Design and Customisation:

• Design or customise a questionnaire covering competency areas: leadership, collaboration, accountability, innovation, stakeholder engagement, communication, planning, and delivery.
• Ensure the tool supports feedback from line manager, 3 peers, direct reports (where applicable), and self-assessment.
• Include rating scales and qualitative comment sections.
• Submit the tool for WRC approval before implementation.

• Administration and Deployment:

• Provide a secure online platform that:

• Protects confidentiality and complies with data protection/ethical requirements.
• Automates distribution, reminders, and completion tracking.
• Ensures data integrity and user-friendly access.

• Onboard participants with guidance on purpose, process, confidentiality, and timelines.
• Provide helpdesk/technical support during the survey period.

• Data Collection, Quality Control, and Analysis:

• Manage survey administration for adequate response rates and data completeness.
• Clean and validate data, checking for anomalies, incomplete submissions, and minimum rater thresholds.
• Analyse results at individual (confidential reports) and organisational/programme levels (aggregated, anonymised insights).

• Reporting and Deliverables:

• Individual Confidential Reports: Competency scores by rater group, strengths, development areas, comparative insights, and practical recommendations.
• Organisational Aggregated Report: Anonymised trends, common strengths/gaps, priority development areas, and training recommendations.
• Presentation of Findings: Key results and actionable insights for workforce development.

• Feedback and Development Support:

• Facilitate workshops and/or one-on-one coaching for employees.
• Support Individual Development Plans (IDPs).
• Coach managers on ethical and constructive use of results.

• Project Team Support:

• Dedicated team for technical support, nominations, verifications, evaluations, reporting, and corrections.
• Daily progress reports to management on issues affecting milestones.

• Communication System Requirements:

• Virtual engagement with executive management.
• Automated emails for nominations, verifications, invitations, reminders, and reports (~90 employees).

• System Automation:

• Allow raters to nominate peers and direct reports.
• Select line managers from a predetermined list.
• Support up to 12 raters per ratee (from a pool of 90).

• Ratee Reports:

• Customised reports emailed to ~90 ratees within 1 month of assessment completion.
• Include explanations, instructions, score interpretations, rating scales, and bar charts (self, manager, peer, direct report ratings).
• Submit a soft copy of all reports to WRC HR (anonymised).

• Organisational Reports:

• Comprehensive leadership effectiveness report per WRC programme.
• Comparison report per programme participation.

• Project Period: 1 year (2026/27 financial year).

Methodology requirements:

• Project Initiation and Planning:

• Conduct start-up meeting with WRC’s project team.
• Submit a project implementation plan with milestones, roles, responsibilities, communication plan, risk management, and quality assurance measures.

• Tool/Instrument Design and Customisation:

• Design or customise a questionnaire covering competency areas: leadership, collaboration, accountability, innovation, stakeholder engagement, communication, planning, and delivery.
• Ensure tool supports feedback from line managers, 3 peers, direct reports, and self-assessment.
• Include rating scales and qualitative comment sections.
• Submit tool for WRC approval before implementation.

• Administration and Deployment:

• Provide a secure online platform with confidentiality, automated distribution, reminders, completion tracking, data integrity, and user-friendly access.
• Onboard participants with guidance on purpose, process, confidentiality, and timelines.
• Provide helpdesk/technical support during the survey period.

• Data Collection, Quality Control, and Analysis:

• Manage survey administration for response rates and data completeness.
• Clean and validate data, checking for anomalies, incomplete submissions, and minimum rater thresholds.
• Analyse results at individual and organisational levels.

• Feedback and Development Support:

• Facilitate workshops and/or one-on-one coaching.
• Support Individual Development Plans (IDPs).
• Coach managers on ethical use of results.

• Project Team Support:

• Dedicated team for nominations, verifications, evaluations, reporting, and corrections.
• Daily progress reports to management.

• Communication System:

• Virtual engagement with executive management.
• Automated emails for nominations, verifications, invitations, reminders, and reports.

• System Automation:

• Allow raters to nominate peers and direct reports.
• Select line managers from a predetermined list.
• Support up to 12 raters per ratee.

Bidder qualifications and experience requirements:

• Submit a company profile detailing years of experience in administering 360-degree employee feedback assessments. Scoring:

• 10 years: 35 points.

• 6-10 years: 30 points.
• 4-6 years: 20 points.
• 2-4 years: 10 points.
• 0-2 years: 5 points.
• Provide documented evidence of previously completed 360-degree feedback assessments, including:
• High-quality individual reports with clear instructions, score explanations, rating scales, and dimension descriptions.
• High-quality organisational reports with the same elements.
• Submit signed reference letters on client letterhead, signed by the referee, contactable, and specifying the work performed. Points awarded per letter (up to 5 letters).

Quality control and data analysis requirements:

• Manage survey administration to ensure adequate response rates and data completeness.
• Conduct data cleaning and validation, including checks for anomalies, incomplete submissions, and minimum rater thresholds.

Mandatory compliance requirements:

• Confidentiality: Rater responses must remain confidential, with reports designed to prevent identification of individual raters.
• Data management: Provide a clear approach for data storage, access control, retention periods, and secure disposal.
• Ethical standards: Process must be developmental, aligned with ethical assessment standards, minimise bias, and promote fairness.
• Reference letters: Submit signed reference letters on client letterhead, signed by the referee, contactable, and specifying the work performed.

Ethics, confidentiality, and data protection requirements:

• Ensure confidentiality of rater responses in all reports.
• Provide a clear data management plan covering storage, access control, retention periods, and secure disposal.
• Align the process with ethical assessment standards.
• Minimise bias and promote fairness in participation and communications.

Contractual terms:

• Project period: 1 year (2026/27 financial year).
• Confidentiality: Rater responses must remain confidential, with reports designed to prevent identification of individual raters.
• Data management: Clear approach required for data storage, access control, retention periods, and secure disposal.
• Ethical standards: Process must be developmental, aligned with ethical assessment standards, and minimise bias while promoting fairness.

Phase 2: Pre-qualification evaluation phase. Bidders are required to submit the listed requirements to comply. Failure to comply results in immediate elimination. Only compliant bidders proceed to Phase 3.