Congrats on bid submission! Wow potentially a $1m+ government contract! Are you now preparing for the win and the Pre-Award Compliance Review? Helpful tips to score a Pre-Award review win below.
First understand that a compliance review is a step in the right direction with regards to securing a government contract. The purpose of a compliance review is to determine whether the contractor is maintaining nondiscriminatory hiring and employment practices. (Mondy, 2012) The review will also allow the government agency to “kick the tires” in other words validate that your business is legitimate and capable of performing to the contractual terms.
Here are a few steps to prepare and ultimately achieve a successful review.
1. Carefully review the correspondent sent by the government agency to determine what exactly (meaning which core functions and business processes) will be reviewed during the site visit.
2. Carefully review the correspondent sent by the government agency to determine when the review will take place. It is imperative that your company has established time to fully participate as requested by the government agency and that you have identified internal and external resources (e.g. additional experts, capital, physical space, etc.) needed to ensure a smooth Pre-Award compliance review.
3. Retrieve your winning bid submission and carefully examine your operational capabilities (e.g. human capital, technology, processes including reporting, finances, etc.) and to determine if there is additional planning, policy creation, employee or function development, redesigning and/or designing of business processes, upgrades, etc. to successfully perform the contract terms.
4. Be brutally honest about requiring help or additional resources and do not wait until the midnight hour to ask for help!
5. Examine the company’s workforce plan and management strategies to determine if your plan reflects incorporation of qualified applicants from the community in which you do business. Typically this information is stored in an Affirmative Action Program (AAP). The program ensures that the contractor is utilizing affirmative action to guarantee that applicants are employed, placed, trained, upgraded, promoted, terminated, and otherwise treated fairly without regard to race, color, religion, gender, national origin, veteran status, or disability during employment. (Mondy, 2012)
6. Examine the human resource management function (all aspects of the function: Recruitment & Staffing, Training & Development, Compensation & Benefits, Employee & Labor Relations, HR Information System, Safety and Health, policies, practices, etc.) to ensure non-discriminatory practices and efficient services delivery. Ensure that your on-boarding of new employees include the E-Verify step to check for legal status as required by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (Learn more by visiting http://www.uscis.gov/and clicking on E-Verify Home page to the right side of the page).
7. Contact Plan Execute Grow LLC for more Pre-Award compliance review preparation tips and a complimentary consult to solidify your government contract.
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References:
Mondy, R.W. (2012). Human Resource Management (12th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
