City of Tacoma Human Resources Compensation & Benefits Division Insurance Broker of Record for Employee Benefits RFP Specification No.

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1 City of Tacoma Human Resources Compensation & Benefits Division Insurance Broker of Record for Employee Benefits RFP Specification No. HR F QUESTIONS and ANSWERS All interested parties had the opportunity to submit questions in writing by to Jessica Tonka by 3:00 p.m., Pacific Time, April 5, The answers to the questions received are provided below and posted to the City s website at Navigate to Current Contracting Opportunities / Services, and then click Questions and Answers for this Specification. This information IS NOT considered an addendum. Respondents should consider this information when submitting their proposals. Question 1: Answer 1: Question 2: Should we include an executive summary with our submittal? This is not required. Please refer to section 1 N. Content to be Submitted in the Request for Proposals document for further information. How is your current broker compensated? What is that amount? Answer 2: The original service contract provided the broker with a fee schedule for years 1 through 5 (as described in Exhibit B) which would only be paid by the City if the broker did not earn at least those amounts in commissions paid by the insurance vendors. Because the broker earned commissions in excess of the annual fee services in Exhibit B as the City s broker, it was entitled to no additional compensation to be paid by the City for in scope work. The contract was later amended effective June 30, 2017 with Exhibit B-1 which established that fee for services would be paid directly by the third party vendors as base commissions with the percentage rates set by the exhibit. The contract also allowed for the broker to bill the City for necessary travel and other expenses as well as for out of scope work authorized by the City. Question 3: Answer 3: Question 4: Answer 4: Question 5: Why is the City of Tacoma requesting proposals for Benefits Consulting Services? What are the primary objectives the City of Tacoma is attempting to accomplish through this process? Per Section 1 A. Project Overview from the Request for Proposals document, the City maintains a contract with an employee benefits broker of record and that contract will expire June 30, The primary objective of requesting proposals is to select an employee benefits broker of record as listed in Section 1 A. Project Overview and to provide the Scope of Work as listed in Section 2 of Request for Proposals document. How would you characterize the current consulting firm relationship? The current consulting firm relationship with the City of Tacoma is professional, positive, and collaborative. What are the challenges the City of Tacoma is facing in the benefit program? Are there specific projects anticipated? Form No. SPEC-230A Revised: 06/30/2017 Page 1 of 5

2 Answer 5: Question 6: Answer 6: Question 7: Answer 7: Question 8: Answer 8: Question 9: Answer 9: Similar to other municipal entities, the City of Tacoma must balance the need to provide a competitive and quality benefits package in order to recruit and retain an engaged workforce, while being conscientious of the cost and collective bargaining obligations. As far as specific projects, there will be benefits bargaining taking place in 2019 for both the Tacoma Joint Labor Committee contract and the Tacoma Police Union Local #6 contract. How many in-person meetings are anticipated on a yearly basis? There is no set amount of meetings limit identified - this will vary based on need. Currently the City may have an annual meeting onsite with the broker and each benefits vendor. The broker may be requested to attend one or more days at employee Open Enrollment meetings or health fairs onsite. There is usually one or two renewal meetings onsite. Depending on special projects or issues that may arise, the broker has been asked to attend an onsite meeting. During bargaining of the Joint Labor Committee contract, there could be multiple onsite meetings either with management and/or management and labor. What changes has the City of Tacoma experienced in the workforce demographics? There are no real significant changes in the City s workforce demographics. Can you share what departments and areas of work that are represented in the Selection Advisory Committee? The Selection Advisory Committee is comprised of the following departments in the City: Human Resources (Compensation & Benefits Division), Legal Department (Labor Relations Division), Office of Management & Budget, Tacoma Public Utilities (Management Services Office). How long has City of Tacoma worked with key personnel in the existing partnership? Principal since September 2015, Senior Associate since June 2013, and Associate since January Question 10: How is the annual open enrollment managed today? What are any challenges experienced? Answer 10: The City of Tacoma handles the annual Open Enrollment process (e.g. creation of communications, setting up of employee meetings, programming of changes in its online HRIS system, forwarding of electronic files to benefit carriers). Similar to any organization the challenges primarily relate to getting employees to read the communications sent to them by various methods. Question 11: Can City of Tacoma describe the current benefit philosophy? Answer 11: We target our benefits, in total, to be competitive in attracting and retaining our employees. We recognize that other less tangible elements, such as the mission of the departments in serving the citizens of Tacoma, are valuable to our employees. Each element plays a role in our pay strategy. Form No. SPEC-230A Revised: 06/30/2017 Page 2 of 5

3 Question 12: Is it acceptable for references to be provided as part of the finalist presentation vs. provided in the initial response to the RFP? Answer 12: No. Question 13: Page 11, 9th bullet: Executive Deliverables can you expand on what you mean by executive deliverables and how often they are requested? Answer 13: This section in the RFP states Prepare and provide a benefits calendar and execute deliverables accordingly. This is referencing documenting various events or tasks identified throughout the year for the administration of the City s account and then the benefits broker following through (executing) those tasks/events (deliverables). Question 14: Page 11, last bullet: Joint Labor Committee can you please expand on the powers of the Joint Labor Committee? Do they represent the interests of all unions? Do your collective bargaining agreements all expire at the same time? How many unions do you have? Answer 14: Per Section 2.2 of the Tacoma Joint Labor Agreement: The City recognizes the Joint Labor Committee of Tacoma, through its signatory unions, as the exclusive bargaining representative for those issues and matters common to all member unions and their employee members, including, but not limited to: (1) the amount of and basic rules regarding vacation leave, holidays, sick leave, personal time off and other leaves; (2) health and welfare plans, coverage and premium costs; (3) Group Term Life and Long Term Disability insurance plans, coverage and premium costs; (4) policies and personnel rules to the extent they address mandatory subjects of bargaining; and (5) City pension plans, including contribution and benefits levels. Do they represent the interests of all unions? 24 of the City s 29 collective bargaining units are represented by the Tacoma Joint Labor Committee. Non-participating bargaining units represent employees of Tacoma Rail and Tacoma Police Department. 2,262 out of Tacoma s 2,673 unionized employees are represented at the Tacoma Joint Labor Committee. Do your collective bargaining agreements all expire at the same time? No. Approximately 1/3 of our bargaining agreements expire every year; others are three-year labor agreements. How many unions do you have? The City has 29 bargaining units represented by 12 different unions. Question 15: Page 12, first bullet: benefit and labor management meetings please estimate the number of benefit and labor meetings you ve historically had per year? Do you anticipate that changing over the next 5 years? Answer 15: This has really varied by year depending on the need. It could range from 1 5 per year but usually this might be 1-2. No changes are anticipated at this time for the next 5-year period. Question 16: Page 12, Benefit Administration: please estimate the number of open enrollment meetings and benefit fairs you ve historically had per year. Do you anticipate that changing over the next 5 years? How many of your Form No. SPEC-230A Revised: 06/30/2017 Page 3 of 5

4 annual Open Enrollment and Benefit Fair meetings do you expect your consultant to attend each year? Answer 16: The number of Open Enrollment and Benefit Fair meetings has varied by year based on need. There may be more Open Enrollment meetings during a year where there are more significant benefit changes. It could range from Benefit Fair meetings tend include 3-4 a year. We don t anticipate any major changes at this time. We like to have the option of our consultant being available for these meetings. We would expect our consultant to attend several of the Open Enrollment meetings. We have not had the consultant at our Benefit Fairs in the last five-year period. Question 17: Page 12, Benefit Administration: please describe how benefit plan eligibility is transmitted to your carriers/administrators. Who is your current payroll vendor and HRIS? Do you currently have any on-line enrollment capabilities? Answer 17: The City has weekly electronic files transmissions set up for all of our benefit vendors to submit eligibility information except for our FSA plan which staff submit instead a weekly change report. The City has SAP as our HRIS and selfadministers our payroll and online enrollment for employees with its Employee Self Service (ESS) feature. Question 18: Page 12, Employee Communications: please elaborate on how employee benefits are communicated today. What communications materials are currently developed for your health and welfare programs? Do you expect your consultant to cover the printing and/or production costs of any of these materials? Answer 18: Currently the City of Tacoma is responsible for the creation of all employee benefit communication materials along with a combination of standard flyers, summaries, SBCs, SPDs, plan documents from the various benefit carriers. The City has not asked the consultant to date to cover any of the City s printing and/or production costs. Most of the City s communication materials are posted on our website for employees to access. Question 19: Do you have issues/concerns with your current administrators and/or carriers? Answer 19: The City does not have any issues/concerns with our current administrators and/or carriers. This is not to say that in the future the City would not go out to bid on certain benefit plans. Question 20: Would you please indicate the last time each of your benefits was put out to bid? Do you anticipate that any of your benefits will be marketed in the coming 5 years? Answer 20: The City of Tacoma has maintained long standing relationships with the majority of their benefit carriers. In 2013 a Request for Proposal for the City s self-funded health insurance plan, resulted in a 2014 contract for five years with the option to renew for another five-year period. Form No. SPEC-230A Revised: 06/30/2017 Page 4 of 5

5 Question 21: Is the scope of work outlined in the RFP similar to what your current service provider has in place? If not, what are the differences and why are you seeking a different scope or work? Answer 21: Yes Question 22: Would it be acceptable to the City of Tacoma if we used our existing contract and issued SOWs under it if we are awarded the upcoming contract. Answer 22: No. The City is looking to execute its Service Contract. The finalist awarded the contract will enter into contract negotiations with the City, where proposed amendments can be considered. See the RFP Section 1 J. Contract Obligation and the City of Tacoma Standard Terms and Conditions Governs Both Goods and Services as Applicable Section 1.21 Contract Obligations. Question 23: What elements, if any, of your current broker/consultant relationship and services are most important to you to maintain? Answer 23: Customer service/focus, knowledge of the benefits marketplace and with our industry. Question 24: What elements, if any, of your current broker/consultant relationship and services could be improved? Answer 24: There are no issues with the current broker/consultant relationship and or services provided. Question 25: What are the City s top 3 benefit challenges? Answer 25: See the answers to # 5 and # 10 above. Additionally, compliance with federal and state legislative changes. Question 26: Does the City have an established written long term benefit strategy? Answer 26: See the answer to #11 above. Question 27: Do you currently access Benefit Advocacy resources in your current scope of services? Answer 27: No Question 28: How and by whom are wellness activities administered, tracked and documented? Answer 28: The City of Tacoma has a contract with RedBrick (recently acquired by Virgin Pulse) that provides an online wellness platform to administer the primary portion of our Wellness Program that involves the tracking of employee participation, which leads to incentives. Form No. SPEC-230A Revised: 06/30/2017 Page 5 of 5

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