SMART ENERGY ISLANDS: Employment Services Framework QUERIES AND RESPONSES Please ensure all queries are submitted by e-mail, are recorded on this sheet and are immediately updated onto the relevant procurement portal / HEU website. QUERY DATE RECIEVED QUERY HEU RESPONSE DATE PUBLISHED NO. Clarification Response 1 - Similar questions have been asked from multiple companies and have been summarised below. If you feel your question has not been responded to 1 27/10/2017 31/10/2017 2 26/10/2017 01/11/2017 please email SEI.PMO@hitachi-eu.com Will the individuals be required to work on Isle of Scilly. What geographical region/spread will the job roles be for? What is the likely volume of recruitment support and spend required for Lot A and Lot B All roles are located at Hitachi Europe Limited, Whitebrook Park, Maidenhead We are unable to confirm at this point as future decisions affecting this will be made based on specific skill sets, availability and future business opportunities. 3 26/10/2017 What are the typical job titles you need agency support to 01/11/2017 fill? 4 31/10/2017 Please can you provide further details on the precise IT job roles/categories in scope (with likely role salary bandings if available)? Please see published document Example Job Roles for more information Please see published document Example Job Roles We are unable to provide estimates on likely salary banding as this will be affected by specific skill sets, availability and future business opportunities.
5 Pricing: You have detailed that this will cover temporary roles as well as permanent, all our temporary resources work to day rates and are not salaried, how would you like us to calculate pricing for these types of positions? Please see published document Example Job Roles for more information Pricing for Lot B should be calculated as described in the ITT and accompanying documents. HEU will pay invoices where the temporary workers remuneration has been verified and the total cost of the invoice is the hourly remuneration to the employee * hours worked + Management Fee. Please also see answers to questions 8 & 11 6 31/10/2017 What are your proposed payment terms Invoices will be paid monthly in arrears and will be payable within 30 days of receipt by HEU. 7 31/10/2017 Thank you for providing a copy of the contract. Can you All comments relating to any of the please confirm at what stage of the tender process you documents published as part of this tender, would like to receive our legal comments including the ITT, Framework Agreement and Call Off Contract should be submitted 8 31/10/2017 We note a requirement in the contract for the supplier to engage temporary workers on permanent contracts of employment. As an agency we do not employ our temporary workers, we engage them on contracts for services which effectively means they are self-employed. We still payroll them as PAYE (or Ltd) and ensure statutory costs are paid however neither we, nor our clients employ them. Can you please confirm if this model is acceptable and if it is are you willing to accept amendments to your contract to reflect this? within the clarifications period. Due to the terms of our funding this model is not acceptable. To clarify: Hitachi Europe Limited are inviting Employment Agencies (Companies that find permanent work for work-seekers who are employed and paid directly by the employer) for Lot A; and Hitachi Europe Limited are inviting Employment Businesses to bid for a place on the framework for Lot B. Employment
9 31/10/2017 Could you please confirm the contract value split into temporary and permanent recruitment 10 31/10/2017 01/11/2017 Please can you tell me how Hitachi wish the tender to be submitted? 11 31/10/2017 Please can you confirm whether contractors will be operating inside IR35 regulations Businesses are companies that provide temps to organisations. The Employment Business engages a workseeker under a contract with them, and the temp then works under the supervision of someone else at a hiring organisation. Temps are paid by the Employment Business not the company they are supplied to. Please also see answers to questions 5 & 11 We are unable to confirm at this point as future decisions affecting this will be made on specific skill sets, availability and future business opportunities. Version 2 of the ITT now details the process for the submission of tenders in Section 7.1.2 Personnel supplied under Lot A will be employed directly by HEU Personnel supplied under Lot B will be working under the control of the end client (HEU) as a temporary employee. Please also see answers to questions 5 & 8 12 26/10/2017 Framework Value is this spend per annum? No the Framework Value range is the total expected over the three years of the framework Clarification Response 2 - Similar questions have been asked from multiple companies and have been summarised below. If you feel your question has not been responded to please email SEI.PMO@hitachi-eu.com
13 06/11/2017 Please clarify your answer to question 8 Sorry, the answer to Question 8 was a misunderstanding of the question posed. Clause 8 of the Call Off Contract has been removed and Hitachi are no longer requiring Employment Business to employ temporary workers between contracts. 14 06/11/2017 Is it possible to bid for two of the three bands for each lot. The initial band of 0-50k is too low for our core search provision. No. At this stage of the procurement, suppliers are bidding for a place on the Framework. To submit a compliant tender all suppliers are required to provide a percentage discount for each of the salary bands in Lot A and Lot B. 15 06/11/2017 Is it possible to split the middle band and bid for 75,000-100,000 roles 16 07/11/2017 For Lot A, can you confirm whether the contractors would need to be permanently employed by the agency? Or will they be employed by Hitachi? 17 08/11/2017 Lot B- you have outlined salary banding where we would expect to pay temps a daily rate. Would you like us to price this on total cost of contract (per role) and fit that into the salary banding Only tenders that have used the Answer Template and Pricing Matrix to provide answers to the quality questions and percentage discounts to agency fees will be deem compliant. No. At this stage of the procurement, suppliers are bidding for a place on the Framework. The salary bands have been provided to indicate the maximum HEU is willing to pay for Management/Agency fee in each Lot. Workers supplied through Lot A will be employed by Hitachi Europe Ltd. Please use the LOT B Discount Pricing Matrix supplied in the Answer Template and Pricing Matrix in responding to this opportunity. For clarity in LOT B HEU are seeking Employment Businesses and will
pay the salary of the temporary worker and a management fee. The maximum management fee allowable to employment businesses for each salary band is stated in the Discount Pricing Matrix, please enter the percentage discount amount your company is willing to offer. 18 08/11/2017 Are you expecting that the temporary workers used to be our employees? Our intention which is in accordance with AWR regulations is to employ temporary workers under a contract for service. Is this acceptable? 19 08/11/2017 In your response to question 8 within the clarification question 8, it states we can use qualifying temporary workers but then states these workers need to be employed between contracts. Our understanding is that these are different employment models so please could you provide further clarity on the model you require? Only responses that have used the Answer Template and Pricing Matrix to provide answers to the quality questions and percentage discounts to agency fees will be deem compliant. Please see the answer to question 13 Please see the answer to question 13 20 09/11/2017 Would you be open to limiting the level of liability for suppliers? HEU are not open to changing the minimum insurance cover amounts and require suppliers to have the minimum insurance cover state in the Framework Agreement and amended version 2 of the Standard Selection Questionnaire (SSQ). Please accept our apology for Section 7 of version 1 of the SSQ not matching the Framework Agreeement
The Standard Selection Questionnaire Insurance figures have been amended to: Employer s (Compulsory) Liability Insurance = 5m Public Liability Insurance = 1m Professional Indemnity Insurance = 1m Please note that suppliers at this stage of the procurement only have to self-certify whether you already have or can commit to obtain these insurance cover levels before the commencement of the contract. Clarification Response 3-14/11/2017 Similar questions have been asked from multiple companies and have been summarised below. If you feel your question has not been responded to please email SEI.PMO@hitachi-eu.com 21 13/11/2017 You state that you do not expect the Employment Business to employ temporary workers between contracts. Could you please confirm therefore that it is acceptable for the Employment Business to engage with temporary workers on a contract for services in fulfilling the requirements of this framework HEU confirm that it is acceptable for an Employment Business to engage with Temporary Workers on a contract for services in fulfilling the requirements of this Framework providing the contract comply with all relevant statues, laws, regulations and codes of practice from time to time. 22 14/11/2017 In relation to Lot B we use contracts for services to engage PAYE workers. Please confirm that this is an acceptable method of engaging the Temporary Workers. Please see answer to Question 22 14/11/2017
23 14/11/2017 We note that you require responses to be completed in the Excel template and then printed. Unfortunately, It will not be possible to view, for example, 1000 words in a cell on screen, and once printed you will only be able to view about a fifth of the response, even if the cell is widened and lengthened to its limits. Would it be acceptable to respond in Word instead, or refer to an appendix in order to provide full and compliant answers? Please advise as the answer template as it is virtually unworkable, bearing in mind the amount of information required. HEU require the use of the Excel template for providing responses to both the quality and price questions. HEU are looking to receive succinct responses from suppliers and, with all suppliers returning a similar format, HEU will be more able to objectively evaluate each submission. In response to your comments, version 2 of the Answer Template and Pricing Matrix now has two cells available for answers where the word limit s over 500. For printing purposes, the font size can be reduced to 8 if there is still an issue with being able to see the complete text in the merged cell. Please be aware that all bidders are required to follow the same rules. Any bids returned the HEU that have not used the pricing template would be considered noncompliant and removed from the tender process. 24 14/11/2017 (Lot A) Can you confirm whether call off will be on a retained exclusive basis across the salary bands or is it on a contingency basis. Each placement of a permanent worker will be on a contingent basis, HEU will pay the full cost on successful placement.