New Seattle consulting company is subcontractor to firm on no-bid state contract
Commissioner of Administration Kelly Tshibaka takes me to task over my blog post Sunday about the work that a brand new Seattle company, which registered in Alaska in October, is doing for the state.
Her full response is below.
To add a bit more background, I emailed the Department of Administration last Wednesday asking for the state contract with Tandem Motion, which registered with the state on Oct. 5 as a limited liability company.
Tshibaka says that because I didn’t give the state even three full business days to reply, the department did not have time to email me back to say that Tandem Motion is not under contract with the state, but is a subcontractor with Collins Alliance, which has a no-bid contract with her department.
I wasn’t guessing when I wrote that Cara Griffith was under contract to the state Department of Administration.
I wrote that only because that is what she told employees of the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Her slide presentation to DEC employees carried the name of her company, Tandem Motion.
Griffith made the comment about having a state contract just after the 46-minute mark of this recording. It was part of her explanation that preparations for the new employee evaluation pilot project were to be wrapped up by Dec. 20 because that was the end date of her contract.
“I’m doing this for DEC because I care about you guys and I want you to be successful,” she said to the DEC employees. “I’m actually contracted with DOA (Department of Administration). And so this is, you can call it pro bono or whatever you want to call it, but I’m contracted through DOA through Dec. 20. And in choosing, right, I’ve made the choice to draft DEC into his so that you guys can be part of the process.”
I don’t agree with the commissioner’s assertion about my blog post that “several of his statements were FALSE.) I have revised the text of the earlier blog post to identify Tandem Motion as a subcontractor.
Here is the response Tshibaka posted on my blog entry:
Dermot Cole highlighted our initiative to develop a common, annual performance evaluation system at the Dept of Administration (DOA) and Dept of Environmental Conservation (DEC). But several of his statements were FALSE. Because he didn’t wait even 3 full business days for a response to the questions he sent us, Cole has misreported.
Here are the facts:
• The contract for assistance piloting the common, annual performance eval system is with Collins Alliance, not Tandem Motion. Tandem Motion is one of Collins Alliance’s subcontractors. Collins Alliance is a 16-year old company, not a 6-month old company. The contract is for $129,500 for development of performance reviews.
• The State of Alaska does not have a contract with Tandem Motion.
• Performance evaluations required by the unions must occur on each employee’s merit anniversary date (usually coincides with their entry-on-duty date). However, in practice many employees do not receive regular evaluations, including not receiving evaluations for several years.
• As a result, employees miss out on merit increases they are due, as well as meaningful feedback about their contributions, strengths, purpose, and role on the team. Evaluations, therefore, are not meaningfully used to develop employees. This contributes to attrition.
• Commissioner Jason Brune and I are piloting a common, annual performance evaluation process at DOA and DEC. Everyone will be on the same schedule, receiving evaluations at the same time. This will ensure consistent performance reviews for our employees.
• This annual performance eval system will provide employees with role clarity, understanding of their purpose on the team, clear direction, and meaningful feedback to help develop them professionally.
• This will also allow teams, units, offices, divisions, and departments to move together towards achieving measurable outcomes and results.
• The performance evaluation process will be aligned to division and department strategic plans, goals, and objectives, which will allow for increased efficiencies throughout the department.
• Cara Griffith, formerly with Accenture, is volunteering her time to assist with the implementation of the pilot project at DEC because she is committed to the success of State of Alaska employees. I'm grateful for her service to Alaskans.
Here’s more about what we’re doing with Collins Alliance:
For several years, DOA has observed the success the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) has experienced with the Leadership Development Program (LDP) offered by Collins Alliance. Specifically, the LDP was utilized to successfully launch an organizational review that resulted in improved efficiency for DOT&PF and received national acknowledgment. Collins Alliance was selected as the vendor for DOT&PF’s LDP through a Request for Proposals (RFP).
Through long-term, consistent engagement, the Collins Alliance team developed in-depth knowledge of the State of Alaska government structure, culture, processes, rules, systems, and functions.
To successfully accomplish the HR consolidation required by an Administrative Order, DOA has relied on Collins Alliance’s intimate knowledge of SOA culture and organizational protocols, and has implemented LDP principles and tools, such as action learning teams, CoachMotivation, one-on-one coaching, and peer2peer teams.
DOA signed a sole source contract with Collins Alliance for the HR consolidation project on August 14, 2019. A sole source contract was justified under AS 36.30.300 because it was proven that this contractor team was best suited for the project given:
• Their experience and expertise with the State of Alaska,
• Their proven effectiveness in organization development, and
• An analysis which found that outsourcing to a new vendor that did not have the in-depth knowledge of the State’s government process would cost considerably more money than going with a vendor that already had established knowledge and expertise.
During the initial phase of the HR consolidation, Collins Alliance identified several risks and provided recommendations for actions the State could take. One risk and recommendation, that was at the top of the list, centered around the need to revise performance evaluation expectations and align metrics to division and department goals due to future HR work changes. Given HR’s lead role in performance management, Collins Alliance recommended piloting a DOA performance management program to enable the HR team to guide people through the new performance management process. DEC joined in the pilot project.
On October 31, 2019, DOA decided to add an addendum to the existing contract for the performance evaluation component of their recommendations.
We are confident that State of Alaska employees and those advocating for their best interests will support our efforts to provide consistent, timely, clear, and meaningful evaluations that increase the efficiency and improve the performance of DOA and DEC.