Evaluation and Award
The scoring methodology, weightings and contract award criteria must be clearly defined in the procurement documents to ensure transparency of the process and a common understanding by all bidders of how tender responses will be evaluated and scored. They must be proportionate to the works, supplies or services that are the subject-matter of the contract.
Criteria must allow objective comparison of tenders and not discriminate against or favour potential contractors. There must be a clear methodology to evaluate responses, and the evaluation panel should be provided with appropriate guidance in advance on how to evaluate and score tender responses.
Subject matter experts such as human resources and employability colleagues can provide valuable input when evaluating tender responses. This is in addition to the role they play in helping to develop relevant requirements for a procurement, such as how bidders will deliver skills and training opportunities to new and / or existing staff.
Weightings should be determined on a case-by-case basis to ensure they are relevant and proportionate and to maximise the impact of employment, skills and training outcomes in the contract. Guidance on evaluation of tenders is available in the Procurement Journey.
In some instances, it will be appropriate to require bidders to complete a Gantt chart demonstrating at which stage in the project they expect to achieve the varying jobs and training opportunities.
In limited instances, a voluntary, non-scored question may be included. This approach should only ever be taken when it is not possible to accurately specify community benefit requirements. For example, because the procurement is for a new requirement and data is not available on what community benefits might be achieved.
Following contract award, it is appropriate to discuss your employment, skills and training ambitions, the supplier’s response, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and practical implementation. These should be monitored as part of contract and supplier management to ensure delivery of intended outcomes.
See Annex A for examples.
Knowledge Checklist
- Transparent scoring
- Use KPIs to measure social impact