OPM RFI: Web-Based Application Platform

Notice ID:  24322624S0004

The Office of Personnel Management has a requirement for a platform that can receive applications (including letters of recommendation); maintain compliance with privacy, cybersecurity, and accessibility requirements; and has the ability for the Government to download application materials to be printed for readers and interviewers. This…

The White House Fellows Program is exploring new options to manage our annual application intake of about ~500 applications per year. We are interested in understanding the feasibility, timeline, and costs of transitioning to Salesforce or another platform. Currently, this service is provided by the Office of Personnel Management’s HR Systems (OPM HRS) office. The document below summarizes the current services provided by OPM HRS. We can consider what changes to our process might be needed should we switch platforms. Fundamentally, we are seeking a platform that can receive applications (including letters of recommendation); maintain compliance with privacy, cybersecurity, and accessibility requirements; and allow us to download application materials to be printed for readers and interviewers.

Requirements:

Project Management

• Provide support, guidance, and to the deployment of the application and compliance requirements including:
  • Privacy Threshold Analysis
  • Privacy Impact Assessment
  • SORN
  • OMB Control for Paperwork Reduction Act o Title 1, Chapter IV, Part 425
  • 508 Testing
• Provide access to the Commission staff (roughly 4 users) to access and download data. At this stage we do not envision using the platform to review application as this is currently done by paper, but would be interested in learning about the feasibility of online review.
• Provide the Commission with notice prior to incurring costs that extend beyond the estimated costs. Any additional expenses need to be approved by the Commission Director prior to incurring such costs.

Email Notifications to Applicants

• The WHF web application will send email notifications to applicants upon completion of their application. Collection and Processing of Letters of Recommendation
• Once recommendation letters are received, the letters will be linked to the application in the system. Automated email confirmations will be sent to the applicant and to the recommender when a recommender submits a recommendation letter. Up to four recommendation letters will be accepted (one of them as an alternate), and the letters will be limited to two pages in length.
  • Essentially, we need candidates to be able to start soliciting their letters of recs before submitting the application itself. I think the WHIP application currently has this functionality.
  • Ideally, we’d have a manual option to upload these on behalf of recommenders for folks who are less technically savvy …

Period of Performance: 12 Months from the date of award

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