Request for Proposals: HR Specialist
Stockton, CA, US
Build Edge WIth Us – Operations /
Advisory /
Remote
The Context
As a civic incubator, Edge Collaborative partners with public, private, and nonprofit organizations to tackle systemic economic challenges in Stockton. With a focus on three key areas – jobs and workforce, climate, and community wealth – Edge seeds and supports partner-led initiatives with a range of tools including access to capital, talent, policy support, and coalition-building. Edge Collaborative is a fiscally sponsored project of the San Joaquin Community Foundation.
To date, the Edge Collaborative team has successfully attracted philanthropic investment in community-led projects to bridge local efforts with public investment priorities. That work will continue. As we look to grow the organization, we're keen to identify, recruit and contract with talent from both local pools and across the country to accelerate key community-driven climate, community wealth and workforce priorities.
RFP Overview
Edge Collaborative and the San Joaquin Community Foundation are seeking proposals from qualified vendors to develop organizational infrastructure within Edge that maximizes and accelerates current efforts. To accelerate our efforts, we're looking for an experienced and savvy HR vendor to advise the leadership team as we bring new talent to the Edge team and amplify our impact. The candidate should command a strong understanding of the 1099 contractor ecosystem, and associated compliance considerations (example: AB5).
What We Want to Learn From You
Edge is curious to learn more about your firm and how you might be able to facilitate accomplishing our HR goals through your talents, experience, and services. To assist us in our search for a firm, please provide a proposal that includes responses to the following questions:
1. Please describe your firm’s background, history, and areas of specialization. Have you worked in the past with nonprofit organizations and specifically, fiscally sponsored projects that work with independent contractors?
2. Please describe your project methodology. How would you go about understanding our detailed HR needs? Who would you want to talk to? What information would you need? Who from your team would we work with?
3. Please provide a conceptual work plan that describes each other’s duties and responsibilities and what work you would specifically do to meet the goals listed above.
4. Please detail the fee proposal to the greatest extent possible for each phase (e.g., cost for service, hourly rates, anticipated or typical reimbursable out-of-pocket expenses, etc.).
5. Please share any additional information that may make your firm uniquely qualified.
6. Please list three client references and their contact information for whom you have completed similar work.
How to Submit Proposal
Your proposal should be submitted via LEVER prior to Monday, March 18, 2024. There are no page length or formatting requirements. Feel free to be creative, but please be sure that your response addresses the organization's outlined needs (listed below). Your proposal will be reviewed by Edge Collaborative’s leadership team and its fiscal sponsor. Once a final decision has been made, you will be notified no later than April 1, 2024.
Edge Collaborative's Needs
- Provide high-level HR guidance and/or legal expertise to complement existing guidance as it pertains to guidelines, processes and prospective processes around 1099 contractors;
- Recommendations for next steps - based on interviews with the teams at both Edge Collaborative and its fiscal sponsor, the San Joaquin Community Foundation (to understand the current landscape and emerging needs);
- Lead in the crafting of a talent handbook/manual with team management best practices;
- Document standard operating procedures that can be implemented by Edge or its fiscal sponsor in handling process implementation (onboarding and exits, etc); and
- Identify service providers to offer consulting services on DEI best practices
Terms of Engagement
- Scope of work & term: between March 2024 and December 2024
- Budget: Proposed by vendor, based on depth of expertise
- Submissions: Bids reviewed on a rolling basis, beginning March 18, 2024
Work Expectations
- Ability to develop and refine detailed work plans - based on dynamic needs of clients
- A problem solving "can do" orientation and willingness to find creative solutions
- Strong critical thinking capabilities and a deep sense of curiosity about how to carry out the work in novel, non-traditional ways
- High-level of emotional intelligence and patience when collaborating with smaller organizations
- Demonstrated commitment to equity and justice
- Responsiveness and strong communication skills
Team Values
Beginner’s mindset - we love asking the ‘stupid questions’ to understand what is possible. Our greatest asset is our curiosity as beginners (not experts). We want to discover how and why particular systems and people have been historically neglected by the public and private sectors.
Undaunted - we believe that bold solutions emerge from the margins (or edges, as we might say). The first answer is usually never right, but we’re not afraid of being wrong. We bring a passionate persistence to breaking through the stalemates and road blocks.
Boundless creativity - we thrive as a team. We take inspiration from “keystone species” in ecology - modeling our work after the resourcefulness of penguins and the vibrancy of bees. We cross-pollinate ideas, sectors, and institutions to help manifest the untapped potential of the people we serve.
Humility in service of community - we care deeply about the communities in which we work, and endeavor to put their needs at the center of how we design and incubate new initiatives. We strive to balance the boldness of our imagination with the recognition that slow, sustained trust building with partners is critical to the long-term viability of the work.
Sheer whimsy - we believe that serious work calls for a playful attitude, as we imagine what is possible. Play is derived from a place of joy and speaks to how we aspire to brighten our days. Plus, what’s life without a lil bit of whimsy?
