Background and current process [Give the vendors a description of your company mission, the business challenge you are trying to solve with a new software vendor and what is and is not working about your current process if applicable.] Submission instructions To be considered in Phase 1 of our vendor evaluation, please make sure to provide the following on or before the listed date: · Your RFP response must be received by [Closing Date]. · Email your RFP response to [Proposal Contact] at [Contact Email]. · Other conditions: [Insert other conditions] Provide your responses to each of our requirements in the sections below. Vendors shall note the following: · Failure to respond to any question shall be deemed to be a non-responsive answer and [Organization Name] shall assume your system does not support such an item. · We are only interested in solutions that meet all our mandatory requirements. Thank you for participating in our search for a new solution. Feel free to use the contact above for any specific questions you have about the process as you prepare your response. General terms and conditions Submission of proposal: Bids must be submitted on this form, and all information and certifications called for must be furnished. All bids must be delivered to the office of the Purchasing Agent, [Organization Name], by the specified open period of the bid. Bids arriving after the specified time will not be accepted. All formal bids shall be submitted via email. Bid results will not be available until after award of contract, contingent upon approval of [Organization Name]. Errors in bid: Bidders are cautioned to verify their bids before submission. Negligence on the part of the bidder in preparing the bid confers no right for withdrawal or modification of the bid after it has been opened. In case of error in the extension of prices in the bid, the unit prices will govern. Reserved rights: [Organization Name] reserves the right at any time to waive any immaterial defect in any bid. Unless otherwise specified by the bidder or [Organization Name], [Organization Name] has (60) days to accept. The [Organization Name] may seek clarification from any bidder at any time and failure to respond promptly is cause for rejection. [Organization Name] retains the right to have a demonstration of any vendor’s products before making a preliminary or final award. Incurred cost: [Organization Name] will not be liable for any costs incurred by bidders in replying to this invitation for bids. Award: It is the intent of [Organization Name] to award a contract to the bidder(s) that provides the best overall value to us. Award will be based on the following factors (where applicable): (a) adherence to all conditions and requirements of the bid specifications; (b) product capabilities, including the ability to meet future, unforeseen needs; (c) price; (d) qualifications of the bidder, including past performance, general reputation, experience, service capabilities, and facilities; (e) capability of the vendor to deliver the services contemplated; and (f) product usability. Interpretation or correction of bidding documents: Bidder shall promptly notify [Organization Name] of any ambiguity, inconsistency, or error they may discover upon examination of the bidding documents. Interpretations, corrections, and changes will be made by addendum. Prior to submitting a bid, each bidder shall ascertain all addenda have been received and acknowledged in the bid. Desired business outcomes and stakeholders to consider [Listing a precise business outcome and how it will be measured will help vendors speak directly to what matters to you most. Also providing a list of stakeholders and their titles allows the vendor to help you with change management and upselling the solution to all your colleagues involved with this project.] How will you help us achieve this outcome? (character count limit) [This question can help create an executive summary of each vendors’ solution for you to help speed up the selection process. Including a character count will make it more manageable, so the vendors stick to their high-level selling points instead of rehashing all of their features to you again.] Identify current solution and what you want to be different in the next provider [This is an important point if you are looking to replace an existing solution. You’ll want to include any required software integrations, hardware requirements, and unique needs to your workplace or locations.] Bidder qualifications [If you have any qualifications for the type of company you want to work with, include that here. Do they need to have experience operating in certain countries? Do they need to be a certain size? Do they need any specific certifications? Is there anything unique about your billing process that needs to be observed?] Feature requirements [If you are reviewing a workforce management software, consider including the requirements in the following tables:] *Include screenshots of the platform whenever possible [This is a quick way to get a view of the user experience. If a vendor checks all the boxes, but their system is outdated and hard to navigate that will make your job of user adoption that much more difficult.] 1. Standard SaaS Requirements Requirement Yes/No Comments

Fully cloud-based system.

Solution is available 24/7/365.

Offers uptime SLA of 99.9%, excluding planned maintenance or data center outages.

Does not outsource support roles to a third party.

Provides disaster recovery protection.

Maintains at least two levels of backup and failover production.

Indicate whether you’ve ever had a security or data breach.

Standard offering includes development, test, and production environments.

Maintains data centers in our region (please specify).

Validates data in real-time.

Ability to generate real-time alert notifications for critical security situations.

Scheduled maintenance takes place during off-peak hours.

2. Compliance Requirement Yes/No Comments

Automatically applies HR policies and pay calculations (such as overtime, shift differentials, and other premiums).

Tracks unions/CBA/complex employee pay policies.

Simplifies compliance with new and revised federal, state, and local wage-and-hour laws.

Ability to monitor and track employee hours for compliance with federal, state, and local regulations.

Ability to support global rules and policies, as well as holiday calendars based on country-specific rules.

Ability to assign qualifications needed for certain positions.

Expiration-date alerts to notify of renewal of certifications.

3. Custom account self-configuration Requirement Yes/No Comments

Allows custom roles.

Cost for user is independent of assigned role(s) (employee, manager, etc.).

Provides an easy way to delegate assigned roles to other users as needed.

Provides access to an internal Quality Assurance (QA) environment at no extra cost.

Offers standard survey templates (e.g., employee satisfaction, incident reports, etc.).

Readily configurable with the ability to set up screen layouts, messages, calculations, and interfaces without custom programming.

Ability to add custom fields and files (e.g., shifts, timesheets, employee profiles, schedules, etc.).

Offers custom filters for company, department, group, branch, location, team, etc.

4. Clocking in and data collection Requirement Yes/No Comments

Supports various types of data collection, including online timesheets, online time clocks, terminals, and mobile.

Mobile clocking supports geofencing.

Notifications can be generated when punches are outside of a customer-defined area.

Data collection terminals and online web clocks can store punches during power outages and automatically sync up when the network comes back online.

Ability to automatically support daylight saving time.

Provides real-time validation of time entered using alerts and notifications.

Data collection terminals and online web clocks are able to store punches during power outages and automatically sync up when the network comes back online.

Data collection terminals and clock-in mobile apps require minimal training.

Data collection terminals can be managed centrally, regardless of geographic distribution.

Data collection terminals are compatible with existing badges.

Supports various badge types (magnetic stripe, proximity, etc.).

Can interface with other clocking systems.

Biometric enrollment can be done at terminals.

Biometric templates are stored in compliance with privacy/security regulations.

Alternative options are available when biometrics are used for employees whose fingers cannot be read.

5. Time-off and accrual tracking Requirement Yes/No Comments

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: OVERVIEW

Tracks an unlimited number of standard and company-defined time-off categories (such as sick, vacation, PTO, bereavement, jury duty, etc.).

Time-Off rules are automatically and accurately applied, including automated accrual rules, constraints on usage, and related rules.

Supports time-off regulations and practices in the countries and locales in which we operate (please specify).

Supports complex time-off rules based on company policies and union rules.

Supports a robust time-off request/approval process incorporating company-specific policies.

System behavior and rules can be set up differently for different business units and types of employees.

Employee can see an annual summary of leave/time off, including key totals such as any carryover from prior year, annual entitlement, time off used to date, approved future time off, remaining balance for the year based on all the above, and future time off pending approval.

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: USAGE

Tracks time off used by employees, including a full history of past usage, and planned future usage.

Tracks time-off usage in multiple ways according to company policies. E.g., by hours, by days, with or without start/stop times, etc.

Time off can be entered directly on timesheets or via a time-off request/approval process, subject to system setup and security.

Time-off-usage can be validated according to company-specific rules. E.g., only allow usage in certain increments; disallow usage during blackout periods; allow or disallow an employee to use more than their available time (and draw a bank negative), etc.

Additional company-defined information can be captured for time off (i.e., for bereavement time, also select or enter the relationship with the deceased.

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: REQUEST/APPROVAL PROCESS

Allows employees to submit time-off requests via any web-enabled device (including mobile devices).

Time-off requests can be initiated by an employee and approved by managers (or other designated user roles).

Time-off requests can be initiated by a manager on the employee's behalf (i.e., proxy).

Managers/approvers receive automatic notifications of pending requests, and employees receive automatic notifications of approved or denied requests.

Managers/approvers can view a prioritized and color-coded list of pending requests on their home screen.

Manager can approve a time-off request directly from an e-mail notification.

Time-off requests can be set up to require one approval or multiple approvals.

Time-off requests can be automatically routed to different and/or multiple approvers based on multiple criteria (such as type of time off, length of request, immediacy of request, request details, or other company-defined conditions).

Time-off requests are subject to company-defined validations that can be set up to warn users or to prevent a request from being submitted. E.g., limits based on length of request, immediacy of request, blackout periods, time off available to the employee, whether or not employee is in good standing based on attendance points or other criteria, and other company-defined rules.

Time-off requests can be set up to be automatically approved under company-specified conditions. E.g., length of request, immediacy of request, blackout periods, time off available to the employee, employee is in good standing based on attendance points or other criteria, or other company-defined rules.

When an employee initiates a time-off request for a range of one or more days, it can be automatically prepopulated based on the employee's schedule or company-defined rules, minimizing data entry for the employee.

Employees can attach documents to a time-off request.

System tracks a history of all time-off request activity, including when managers approve or deny an employee’s time-off request.

Time-off requests can be edited/altered after initial submission (which causes the approval process to begin anew).

Employees can cancel a time-off request.

Approved time-off appears automatically on employee's timesheet.

Time-off request workflow can be used to record time that has already occurred in the past (or needs to be accounted for in the past).

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: CALENDAR INTEGRATION

Employee can subscribe to automatically update their personal or work calendar (including schedule, time off, and holidays) from their calendar. Requires ICS compatible calendars, such as Google, Yahoo, Outlook, iCal, etc.

Time-off request can be set up to trigger a calendar invite for employee to update their personal or work calendar via an email-based calendar invite. Requires ICS compatible calendars, such as Google, Yahoo, Outlook, iCal, etc.

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: HOLIDAYS

Holiday calendars can be company defined.

Holiday time-off can be set up to appear automatically on employee timesheets, subject to company-defined rules. E.g., holiday time may only be used if employee worked on their most recent scheduled day; holiday time is proportional to recent time worked, time scheduled, or % FTE.

Holiday calendars and holiday rules can be set up consistently across the organization or may differ across business unit and employee types.

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: BANKS

Time-off availability can be tracked using an unlimited number of banks (e.g., Available Sick, Available Vacation, etc.).

Bank balances are automatically updated in real time, based on time-off usage transactions, accruals, and other rules.

For each bank, the balance is calculated and stored in a daily timeline that records the historical balance for past dates and projected balance for future dates. The calculations take into account past usage, accruals and other rules, along with projected future usage, accruals, and other rules.

The bank balance timeline can be viewed, reported, and used in other calculations.

One or more time-off categories can be set up to draw from the same bank (i.e., usage of Sick and Vacation time may be tracked distinctly, but both could be set up to draw from a common PTO bank).

A time-off category can be set up to draw from multiple banks based on rules (i.e., sick time may draw from Sick bank until it is exhausted, then continue to draw from Vacation bank after that).

A user's ability to view specific banks can be based on fixed criteria (such as the role of the viewer and the type of employee whose banks are being viewed).

A user's ability to view specific banks can be based on dynamic criteria (i.e., an annual carryover and its associated bank might be allowed only subject to special approval; the carryover bank should likewise be visible only to employees for whom it has been approved [to avoid setting expectations of carryover for all others]).

Notifications can be issued based on bank balances, according to company-specific rules. E.g., notify users when the bank balance falls below a certain threshold, is projected to run out, or is projected to reach its maximum allowed balance (i.e., user needs to take some time off soon or lose their ability to earn more).

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: ACCRUALS AND CARRYOVER

Time-off accrual can be automated based on multiple rules and criteria, including length of service, employee type, recent work patterns, thresholds and bank maximums, expirations, and approvals for special circumstances. E.g., accrue time off proportional to worked hours; accrue only up to a maximum bank balance; allow accrual past maximum balance with special approval; etc.

Carryover of time at start/end of year (or other defined dates) can be automated according to company business rules, such as all-time is lost; all time is carried over; any time up to a certain limit is carried over but time in excess of the limit is lost; carryover is allowed but only with approval; carryover must be used within a certain period of time, otherwise it is lost, etc.

Accruals can be automatically pro-rated or special rules may be applied for new hires.

Time available and time earned can be tracked separately and reconciled as needed. E.g., Where an employee accrues/earns time off for each month of employment on an as-you-go basis but is given access to their entire projected annual earnings at the beginning of the year and can begin to use them immediately.

Accruals and bank balances can be automatically pro-rated or adjusted as needed for employee status changes, including mid-year status changes for employees who are granted a year's worth of time in advance.

Termination behavior can be automated, including automatic pay-out of remaining time, possibly subject to approval.

TIME-OFF AND ACCRUAL TRACKING: RULES

System is not limited to a fixed set of time-off rules. New, unique rule patterns can be set up using formulas and logic.

Time-off rules are applied in real time (i.e., results are calculated as soon as data is provided to the system, including for past and planned future dates).

Time-off rules can take into consideration multiple types of data, including current and past time off used, available balance in one or more banks, current and past work patterns, current and past schedules, data from the employee record, and company-defined data in all these categories.

The degree of automation of most rules can be adjusted according to the nuances of the company's culture and business process. E.g.: fully automate; automate but allow discretionary overrides; don't automate decisions, but automatically notify users of circumstances that may warrant discretionary action; etc.

6. Calculations Requirement Yes/No Comments

CALCULATIONS: OVERVIEW

Accurately calculates pay in real time based on national and local regulations, company policies, and union contracts.

Preconfigured rules are available for rapid setup to support hundreds of national and local regulations and common business practices. These rules can be further tailored to match company-specific business practices.

Supports complex, company-defined rules.

Automatically calculates overtime, pay premiums, shift differentials, and other pay rules.

Supports multiple pay frequencies (please specify).

System behavior and rules can be set up differently for different business units, unions, and types of employees.

Applies calculations in real time. Results are immediately available whenever data is entered or edited and saved.

System tracks a history of all input data changes, including date/time, user, and the details of the change.

CALCULATIONS: EFFECTIVE DATES

Automatically considers effective dates when performing calculations (including effective-dated rules, effective-dated employee record data, and effective-dated lookup tables when applicable).

Rules can be future effective dated and can be set up and tested in advance of their effective date.

Considers effective dates when performing retroactive corrections to previously paid time. Adjustments are calculated based on conditions that were in effect during the dates whose data was corrected.

CALCULATIONS: DATA

Supports an unlimited number of standard and company-defined time entry and pay codes.

Additional company-defined entry codes can be set up to capture non-time data (e.g., mileage, expenses) or administrative codes to indicate discretionary decisions by managers, payroll, or other authorized users.

Calculated pay results normally include hours by pay code and can optionally also include gross pay.

Both input data and pay results can include an unlimited number of company-defined fields (e.g., project codes, cost centers, divisions, departments, locations, jobs, and tasks).

Each company-defined field can include an associated lookup table of valid values, including additional data applicable to each value (i.e., a table of valid job codes may include a rate for each job).

Company-defined fields can include relationships (i.e., a project may have a list of associated tasks).

CALCULATIONS: COMPLEX RULES

Pay results, including optional gross pay, can be calculated based on complex company-defined rules, including conditional logic, sequential logic, formulas, and lookup data (i.e., variable pay rates based on job or activity, time of day, shift period, productivity incentives, etc.).

System is not limited to a fixed set of rule patterns. New, unique rule patterns can be set up using company-defined data, formulas, and logic.

Calculation rules can take into consideration multiple types of data, including current and past employee time, schedules and other timesheet data, time-off bank balances, lookup table data, accumulators, data from the employee record, and company-defined data in all these categories.

To support company business process, optional authorizations or overrides can be set up according to company and union rules (i.e., for calculations such as employee overtime or other premiums).

The degree of automation of most rules can be adjusted according to the nuances of the company's culture and business process (e.g., fully automate; automate but allow discretionary overrides; don't automate decisions, but automatically notify users of circumstances that may warrant discretionary action; etc.).

Company-defined pay rules can be automatically applied in response to employee status changes and terminations.

Supports compliance with US FLSA overtime "regular rate" requirements in those cases where an employee is paid at multiple rates throughout the week or receives non-discretionary lump sum bonuses. Overtime can be set up to paid at the blended rate or is more commonly paid as a simple 1.5x multiplier with an automatic weekly adjustment applied as needed to ensure compliance.

For US employees, can define special overtime week start/end times, to support 9/80 schedules without incurring FLSA overtime.

Supports automatic rounding and grace rules to calculate number of hours based on start and stop times.

Supports complex attendance rules, including optional attendance points based on company or union policies.

CALCULATIONS: VISIBILITY OF CALCULATION RESULTS

Pay calculation results can be viewed by users immediately after input data is changed, subject to security.

Different types of users can be authorized to view different codes and fields.

CALCULATIONS: VALIDATIONS AND NOTIFICATIONS

Standard and company-defined validations can validate input data and flag special conditions that may require attention.

Validation messages can trigger notifications to users via multiple notification mechanisms.

Validation messages are visible in multiple screens, including individual employee timesheets, multi-employee screens, and manager home screens.

A prioritized, actionable list of validation messages is available on manager's home screen.

Validation messages can be selectively displayed, and include different information, depending on the user who is viewing them.

Validations can be set up to prevent data from being saved or processed.

Validations can be optionally acknowledged/approved to indicate an authorized user has viewed, approved, or dealt with the flagged condition.

Acknowledged/approved validation messages can drive alternate calculation paths (i.e., pay extra hours at a higher overtime rate only if an authorized manager has approved a message indicating the higher rate may be warranted).

7. User interface Requirement Yes/No Comments

Allows all user functions to be performed through an internet browser without plug-ins or add-ons.

Supports modern web browsers.

Available in multiple languages.

Supports multiple currencies and date formats.

Users do not see functions restricted to them by their security settings.

An online dashboard or hub presents key information and action items.

User dashboards are configurable based on user roles.

8. Timesheet approvals Requirement Yes/No Comments

Allows automatic timesheet approval with no variance.

Allows comments on timesheets.

Includes ability to rate shifts and leave feedback.

Includes live cost tracking on timesheets.

Includes photo identification on timesheets.

Tracks automatic and manual breaks.

Tracks tips and allows users to split them in the system.

All timesheet changes are tracked for auditing/reporting purposes.

Supports multiple levels of approvals.

Issues automatic email alerts and configurable escalation reminders for unsubmitted or unapproved timesheets.

Overtime approval workflows align with our business processes (please specify).

Allows authorized users to delegate responsibilities, either temporarily or permanently, to specified user roles (such as a manager or assistant manager).

9. End of pay period processing, retroactive calculations, and adjustments Requirement Yes/No Comments

Able to support multiple pay groups, multiple payroll export (different companies) and different pay period dates.

Allows prior-period amendments and automatically generates pay and accrual adjustments.

Saves original and amended timesheets for a complete audit trail.

Ability to automatically route amended timesheets for approvals as required.

Ability to perform mid-period rate changes and status changes retroactively.

Ability to restrict who can perform amendments and what pay codes can be amended.

Ability to perform off-cycle payments related to employee departures/terminations.

Adjustments can automatically be paid in the next scheduled pay period or in an off-cycle payment.

Ability to verify that timesheet data is complete and correct before being sent to payroll for processing.

Ability to securely lock timesheets from additional changes before sending to payroll for processing.

Only allows authorized personnel to unlock locked timesheets.

Ability to support configurable payroll reporting requirements.

Ability to reconstruct a complete audit trail of historical changes.

Ability to import updated employee data from HR/payroll and automatically determine when changes to prior periods require retroactive adjustments.

10. Scheduling Requirement Yes/No Comments

Offers robust scheduling capabilities.

Ability to accommodate unlimited schedule changes and adjustments on demand.

Employees can view upcoming schedules online or through the app.

Allows employees to swap shifts with qualified employees, automatically triggering manager notification for review and/or approval.

Allows managers and/or administrators to create and edit schedules for individuals and/or groups.

DEMAND BASED SCHEDULING   INTERNAL NOTE: This section is designed for organizations that do not have predefined shifts but rather want the system to generate the best shift times to align with forecasted business demand drivers, such as a sales or transaction forecast. Forecasts and demand are generally granular, often down to a 15-minute increment. If your organization’s project has advanced scheduling needs for forecasting business demand, auto generating shift times to align with that business demand, managing coverage of the forecasted demand, monitoring skills, managing employee preferred availability, and offering out open shifts then include this section. This is typical for retail, restaurants, and hospitality. You will want to remove this section if this is for manufacturing, utilities, or similar job-based organizations. Remove this section prior to sharing if this is not applicable.

Requirement Yes/No Comments

Ability to compare employee costs on scheduling view.

Prevents unqualified employees from being assigned jobs or shifts that require specific skill sets.

Predictive scheduling that automatically builds shifts based on demand.

Ability to schedule in any specific date range: one day, weekend, one month.

Ability to add custom details to schedules (what to work on, bill rate, job #, etc.).

Automatically flags shifts that may be going into overtime or additional pay.

Automatically flags shifts that don't have required rest periods or other compliance/business preference needs.

Automatically flags shifts that may have complications (e.g., employee is on leave, unavailability, shift clash).

Ability to create and manage unlimited number of schedule templates for various shift patterns that can be repeated automatically or rolled forward to future weeks.

Ability to schedule different jobs at different pay rates.

Ability to define schedule rotation cycles.

Ability to see schedule statistics live like over budget, total cost, projected wage % of revenue, etc.

Schedule templates can easily be copied and edited.

Ability to post available vacant shifts for employees to pick up.

Ability to publish a vacant schedule, which employee can request to fill.

JOB BASED SCHEDULING INTERNAL NOTE: This section is designed for organizations with job-based scheduling needs. Job based scheduling is needed for organizations that have predefined set shifts and patterns but want a solution to easily manage pattern assignments, ensure coverage of those shifts, and provide easy tools to make ad hoc schedule edits. If your organization’s project has advanced scheduling needs such as creating assigning shift patterns, managing shift coverage, monitoring skills, managing employee preferred availability, offering shifts, and running complex call-outs such as overtime equalization then include this section. Job Based Scheduling is typical in manufacturing, utilities, distribution centers, and other job or shift-based scheduling practices. You will want to remove this section if this is for retail (front end), hospitality, restaurant, or similar customer centric organization

Requirement Yes/No Comments

Ability to generate schedules for multiple units whose staffing and business rules differ.

Allows employees to indicate availability and work-hour preferences.

Ability to define simple and complex work patterns.

Ability to assign work patterns to an individual.

Ability to assign work patterns to a group of employees in mass.

Ability to auto assign work patterns from an interface.

Ability to define and monitor staffing levels (e.g., five staff members required for a particular shift or post).

Optimizes schedules to reduce overtime and fill unplanned gaps with qualified employees.

Ability to automate call-outs or shift offers.

Quickly generates call-out lists based on skills, costs, and fitness for duty and automatically contacts employees via their preferred contact method (phone, email, and/or text message).

Allows unlimited call-out lists.

Identifies the best-fit employees to fill open shifts based on predefined criteria.

Ability to schedule employees in compliance with overtime rules based on seniority and other complex union requirements.

Supports overtime equalization.

11. Self-service Requirement Yes/No Comments

Gives managers the ability to view, edit, and approve timesheets; view/approve time-off requests; view employee bank balances; view and edit schedules; and punch in/out on behalf of individual employees or groups of employees via mobile.

Ability for managers and employees to communicate directly through the app and receive important work-related messages via email, text message, or in-app notifications.

Provides a graphic calendar view by individual or group.

Shows how many staff are currently working, and which teams or locations have the largest variance from the shift schedules.

Allows users to access historical timesheets.

Allows users access to view leave balances.

Administrators can readily add, or change pay rules.

Administrators can be trained to configure policy rules/changes without the need for custom coding.

Provides prioritized view of items that require action by manager or employee.

12. Leave management Requirement Yes/No Comments

Allow for the intake and management of regulatory leaves, such as family, medical, and military leaves required under federal, state, and/or provincial legislation.

Provide a dynamic questionnaire (the “Leave Questionnaire”) which collects information necessary to determine if the leave can be approved under any qualified leave program.

The preliminary leave eligibility determination must be automated and shall be based on the Leave Questionnaire, HR information about the employee, work history, absence history, and a vendor-supplied database of the eligibility requirements of each leave program.

Support for leave case management through a defined workflow that includes all tasks to be performed and documents to be sent throughout the life of the case with defined due dates.

System must allow for the definition of company-specific leave eligibility criteria in order to automatically establish leave determination.

Employees must have the ability to initiate their own case, view the status of their leave request, and upload forms and certifications through self-service.

System must have proper levels of data encryption for data that is considered private to the employee and subject to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

13. General (employee experience) Requirement Yes/No Comments

All task management, communications, and document repository modules are available in one coherent experience/application.

Ability to create multilingual content.

Ability to create user accounts without corporate emails, relying only on employee ID.

Mobile friendly application providing deskless shift workers access to relevant communication, information, documents, etc.

Seamless transition from web to mobile ensuring the platform is user friendly and accessible on web and mobile.

Feature parity between web and mobile applications.

Ability to select chosen language to engage and navigate in the application. Ability for users to consume and engage in their local language.

Ability for admins to create, set and modify permission for various users through an easy-to-use admin panel.

Communications workflow matrix and rules can be defined within the applications admin panel and hierarchy.

Ability to automate employee roles, locations, and attributes. Ability to automate employee updates to ensure all employees who require access to the application will be able to do so with their correct roles and profiles.

Task reports capability and flagged content notifications to admins/users based on permission.

Ability for push notifications and email reminders to be triggered when task or communication is targeted to a user.

Ability for dual-hierarchy workflows and communication flows to be supported within the application.

14. Task management (employee experience) Requirement Yes/No Comments

Ability to create and assign single-select and multi-select surveys to target users.

Real-time survey and task responses available for review to managers.

Ability to create and assign checklists to users based on roles, attributes, and locations.

Ability to create and assign multi-media tasks with the following items: Photos, videos, attachments, polls, numeric, open texts, and action items.

Ability to attach reference documentation and video to tasks for assignees to view.

Ability to determine minimum/maximum number of images and attachments for image and attachment task items.

Ability for task assignees, creators, and managers to have a custom dashboard to view open, upcoming, and overdue tasks and progress status.

Ability for task due date, enforced due date, and auto archive dates to be pre-determined during task creation.

Ability to schedule tasks for a specific date, recurrence, etc.

Ability to target task assignment based on a specific or a combination of user roles, places, attributes, groups, etc. using dynamic hierarchy.

Ability for managers and observers to be added ad-hoc to tasks for review and access. Ability for task managers to also be added to tasks automatically based on organizational hierarchy.

Easy to use task templating capability.

Ability to set up complex workflows based on dual hierarchy configuration.

Ability to trigger approval process when task is submitted based on task type, requiring managers to review task submission approval/decline submissions.

Ability for managers and task creators to review and provide visual and text feedback on both individual task item details and overall task submission.

Ability for task assignees and managers to draw on task images submitted.

Ability to provide visual reporting and analytics of all surveys and task results.

Task calendar capability is specifically curated based on the user's role and available tasks.

Ability for task creators and managers to trigger task reminders to all incomplete task assignees easily. Ability for task reminders to be triggered 24 hours prior to task due date.

Ability for tasks to be edited prior to and post go-live date.

Ability to create training tasks that share training materials with the employee

Ability to share training materials in real time in response to employee feedback in chat or messages.

Ability to trigger the sending of employee training tasks based on schedule, time capture (clocking) or task activity in real time.

Ability to share training tasks with groups of employees.

Ability to require employees to confirm they have read/consumed training materials shared in tasks.

Ability to require employees to complete an evaluation task (quiz or similar) to ensure knowledge transfer from the training materials.

Ability to maintain a record of all training tasks and evaluations undertaken by the employee.

Ability to create employee surveys or sentiment tasks.

Ability to trigger the sending of employee sentiment tasks based on schedule, time capture (clocking) or task activity in real time.

Ability to send surveys to different groups of employees depending on role and hierarchies.

Ability to maintain a record of all survey / sentiment tasks and feedback by the employee.

Ability to aggregate feedback from survey/sentiment tasks to identify trends and action areas.

15. Communication (employee experience) Requirement Yes/No Comments

Ability to support communication (feeds and posts) channels consisting of various users based on role, department, initiative, attributes, etc., which allow groups of users to communicate and collaborate with one another.

Ability for posts and polls to be created within the channel facilitating real-time peer-to-peer collaboration.

Ability to send and receive real-time messages peer to peer, group level and channel level.

Ability to delete/edit a message in a chat, group, and channel (in conjunction with permissions).

Read receipts and typing indicators available in direct messaging and channel posts.

Ability for conversation threads to be created in channel posts to provide context.

Ability for users to edit and draw on images to provide visual feedback.

Ability to attach different file types such as PDF, JPEG, MP4, Excel, Word, PPT and common media files to channel posts and direct messages.

Ability to add hyperlinks in chat, groups, and channels.

Ability for admin to edit or remove other user’s posts.

Ability for permissions for chats/groups/channels to be managed through the admin panel. Ability to add, remove users from a group/channel and set posting/commenting permissions by role, attribute, or user.

Ability for users to direct message one another when looking to swap shifts.

Ability for managers to identify trends for users with missed punches and direct message them within app to check in.

Ability for hyperlinks to employee schedule data to be auto added to the direct message to provide context when a manager reaches out regarding a missed punch, swapped shift, error in scheduling etc.

If issues are identified in scheduling, ability for the assistant managers to immediately direct message the impacted users.

If time sheet exceptions are triggered. (e.g., too much overtime for one employee) managers have the ability to be notified and are prompted to direct message the employee.

Ability for two-way, real-time communication to allow users the ability to connect with their managers regarding scheduling concerns and/or requests through private direct messaging.

Ability for broadcast feature that targets messaging using dynamic hierarchy to target users based on role, place, department, or attributes.

Ability for admins to set select users as broadcaster users to create content for targeted messaging.

Select users can be set as gatekeepers to review, edit, approve, or decline submitted broadcast messages.

Ability for targeted communication to surface as a push notification and trigger in-app badging.

Ability for multiple broadcast users to collaborate on content creation.

Ability to attach different file types such as, PDF, JPEG, MP4, Excel, Word, PPT, video and common media files to targeted messages.

Ability for content to be saved as draft and revisited as needed prior to go-live.

Ability to archive date to be set for broadcast messages sent to target users.

Ability to archive broadcasts to be easily accessed and copied to be reused.

Ability for targeted messages to be scheduled for immediate release or publish on a future date and time.

Ability for targeted messages to be pushed through a communication workflow requiring approval by a gatekeeper prior to go-live.

Ability to store/organize documents, attachments, and video content within a repository.

Version control within the document repository to ensure writers can upload up-to-date versions of content while preserving historical versions. Ability for content to be updated throughout the system.

Access control capability to define read and write access to folders within the repository. Ability for permissions to be set by role, department, user, etc.

Ability to store/organize documents, attachments, and video content within a repository.

Folders covers can be set to match the company brand.

Multi-level subfolders can be created.

New and updated content shared with users is clearly identified and easy to find.

Unlimited documentation and content storage available at no additional cost.

Activity reporting that identify trends – ability to track commenting, posting, liking, viewing, direct messages, and content views.

16. Technical architecture Requirement Yes/No Comments

Out-of-the-box functionality supports integration with leading HR, payroll, and ERP systems.

Supports importing and exporting data via web services, APIs, and batch files.

Allows users to choose their preferred language.

Supports the use of templates to quickly configure common timesheet scenarios.

Allows configuration to be easily migrated from an internal QA environment to a production environment.

Ability to support local labor laws in any country without custom programming, add-on products, or manual workarounds.

17. Privacy/security Requirement Yes/No Comments

Maintains industry-standard security like SOC 2 certifications.

Uses industry standard encryption of data at rest and in transit.

Authenticates users upon signing in.

Supports Single Sign-On (SSO).

Restricts access to confidential employee information.

Users can delegate their authority to another user for a specific period of time or permanently.

Maintains a full audit trail for all changes to any policy, timesheet, schedule, or screen, including the user who made the change, the date/time of the change, the original value, the modified value, and the IP address of where the change was initiated.

Requires strong passwords, including the use of specific number of special characters, digits, mixed case letters, and minimum password lengths.

Security must be role-based and allow only authorized users to access sensitive information.

18. Reporting Requirement Yes/No Comments

Makes essential data (such as key performance indicators, real-time alerts and notifications, dashboard exceptions, time-off requests, and more) readily available for analysis and decision making.

Tracks wage costs in real time and delivers to managers reports on projected labor cost vs. actual.

Includes an integrated report writer.

Provides dozens of standard reports.

Reports are available in multiple languages and support multiple data and currency formats (please specify).

Can create custom business intelligence reports.

Can create embedded BI reports into the platform.

Can create live dashboards to monitor custom reports.

Allows reports to be scheduled and automatically distributed via email.

Allows reports to be exported in a variety of formats, such as PDF and CSV (please specify formats required).

Allows data to be exported to a data warehouse for enterprise reporting.

Allows other business data to be imported and reported on within the system (e.g., budgets, production, sales, safety, HR, payroll, project, or financial information).

Allows managers to run their own reports and see their information and/or information for their employees.

Allows managers to monitor absence and labor cost trends live in real time.

19. Analytics Requirement Yes/No Comments

Offers an ad hoc analytics solution that an authorized end user can use to create reports from a web browser without needing to write SQL scripts.

The data model is prebuilt and integrated with the solution to minimize configuration effort.

The tool is user friendly; no software developer is needed to create reports and dashboards.

Power users can create complex reports and dashboards.

Has the ability to create dashboards with various KPIs, graphs, charts, tables, and other metrics. List the visualization types supported.

Formulas are included into the tool to support our own calculations.

Column and row summaries can be added to tables. Averages, minimum, maximum, and other calculations can also be supported.

Supports table grouping such that data can be grouped by location, year, month, or other attribute.

Analytics can be exported to PDF, Excel, and CSV.

20. Integrations Requirement Yes/No Comments

Offers an open API.

Interfaces with our existing HR, payroll, ERP, and other business systems (please specify).

Supports a large variety of data exchange methods, including file-based and Web Services APIs.

Import/export frequency be real time, on demand, or scheduled.

Allows data to be exported to a data warehouse for enterprise reporting.

20. Help, documentation, and support Requirement Yes/No Comments

Describe the documentation provided with the solution.

Allows users to upload training videos in account.

Provides supporting documentation.

Provides context-sensitive online help.

Users can easily search for help when needed.

Provide an overview of your customer training methodology.

In-person and virtual training courses are available.

Describe your support methodology.

Provides access to an interactive customer community to address common concerns and share best practices.

Describe your internal quality assurance practices.

Describe your user-acceptance testing policies and procedures.

Includes 24x7 support for critical issues.

Links to reviews [You can’t just take a vendor’s word for how things will go once you choose their solution. You can always ask for referrals, but a good first step is to see what type of public reviews they have. Trusted industry analyst firms like Gartner are helpful as well as software review sites, but don’t forget to ask about frontline worker reviews of their app on the App Store and Google Play store, too. Sometimes they tell a different story.]

Links to case studies [This is your chance to directly ask about their experience and success with companies like yours in the past.]

RFP timeline and project timeline The following timeline shall be observed: Action Item Date

Issuance of RFP [Issue date]

Questions about RFP due [Question deadline]

Response to questions distributed [Answers distributed]

Response to RFP due [Closing date]

Respondents notified regarding participation in Phase 2 [Phase 2 notify date]

Presentations at [company location] [Demo date]

Selected vendor notified [Award notify date]

Implementation schedule or time to value of your solution [You need to know whether implementation of this new software will take a month or a year. This is where you can require vendors to give you a high-level view of what their implementation process will look like to see if it matches your organization’s culture. You should also ask if they have an estimate on time to value. If their solution promises to provide you time or cost savings, how long might it be before you start to see that value promise realized?]

Pricing [You can leave this open ended if you like because there is always room for negotiation, but if you want a specific breakdown of the pricing based on your use case it’s faster to just provide that information upfront.]

Proposal evaluation criteria The decision process will be based upon the following criteria to ascertain the viability of your company and solution: Product features: Current features and capabilities and their ability to meet our business processes, extensibility without customization, flexibility, ease of use, maturity, and future direction. Company strength and maturing: Financial standing, experience, customer service, organizational maturity, and market share. Technical architecture: Application and hardware technical architecture, technical support abilities, integration capabilities. Services: Implementation methodology, needs assessment, roll-out methodology. Cost of ownership: The total system and other costs related to implementation, resource requirements, software and hardware maintenance, hosting, and licensing costs.

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