An effective Request for Proposal (RFP) is the result of thoughtful consideration by the buyer who is seeking help with a problem or challenge. The quality, completeness, and specificity of your RFP will determine the success of the overall RFP process — a process that will impact the success of your contingent workforce goals for potentially years to come. Considering the desired length of the eventual Staffing Supplier relationship, you are not only evaluating the provider’s current operations but exercising judgment about its apparent capacity to meet future strategic needs.
A well-written RFP contains specific information about your Staffing Supplier needs and clearly states your expectations and requirements. It should encourage bidders to respond to each question in a way that clearly states and quantifies the added value they will deliver (together with any dependencies), making it easier to evaluate on an “apples- to-apples” basis. You should dissuade respondent from simply reaching into their answer library for pre-existing answers that are irrelevant or difficult to evaluate. You want to let providers propose creative, relevant, and cost-effective solutions by focusing on the end, not only on the means.
It is good practice to put the bidder in the mindset of having secured the business, to encourage them to respond from a position of reality rather than theory. You should encourage the bidder to respond that they ‘will’ rather than they ‘would’. To further encourage this, it is advisable to give the bidder the freedom to make (and clearly state) any assumptions they like (in the absence of factual data/information), rather than use terminology such as “depending on.”
Investing the time and effort in creating a quality RFP will help to mitigate risk and should deliver several benefits including:
- Enabling respondents to clearly understand the requirements and needs.
- Allowing respondents to more accurately price their proposal.
- Minimizing ambiguity that can delay the initiative or cause you to select the wrong bidder(s).