Supporting Statement
OMB Information Collection (ICR) Approval Request to Conduct
Customer Satisfaction Research (OMB #)
Title of Research: IRS OCPO Industry Partners Survey 2020
JUSTIFICATION
Circumstances Making the Collection of Information Necessary
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enlists a balanced measurement system consisting of business results, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. This initiative is part of the Service-wide effort to maintain a system of balanced organizational performance measures mandated by the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act (RRA) of 1998. This is also a result of Executive Order 12862 that requires all government agencies to survey their customers.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) is conducting the survey to identify opportunities to enhance the procurement experience for its industry partners, so that OCPO can provide top-quality services that ultimately impact the taxpayer experience. The survey most directly supports 2 pillars of the IRS strategic plan FY2018-2022, which are “Collaborate with External Partners”, and “Advance Data Access, Usability and Analytics”.
Purpose and Use of the Information Collection
The survey is to understand industry experience with OCPO and doing business with the IRS. To that end, all current IRS contractors will be potential respondents to this survey.
In addition, there is a component in the survey that asks about industry impact resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal is to uncover opportunities for improvement in OCPO and IRS engagement with these firms currently doing business with IRS, and to find better ways of working with them as respective industry partners through feedback obtained in the survey.
Consideration Given to Information Technology
This survey will be conducted online. OCPO currently has the firm Forrester under contract as part of a broader Customer Experience (CX) initiative. Forrester will be emailing IRS industry partners via a predetermined list of email addresses available for firms doing business with the IRS. Forrester will send survey invitations to potential respondents. Each email invitation will include information about the purpose of the survey, and instructions to complete the survey via a web URL. Respondents will use this URL to log into the secure survey website and take the survey online. Forrester will be responsible for creating the survey website, compiling the data, and providing IRS the analytics once the survey responses are complete.
Duplication of Information
This survey will provide valuable information that is not available in any internal IRS data source.
Reducing the Burden on Small Entities
Many firms that do business with IRS are small firms. Their participation is critical to the purpose and goals of the survey. There is no cost burden for the survey.
Consequences of Not Conducting Collection
Without this feedback, OCPO will not have critical feedback from an important stakeholder constituency needed to assess success in meeting CX and strategic goals. OCPO also will not have the customer feedback on which areas within the strategy change management efforts to improve, making OCPO less effective in achieving its strategic goals.
Special Circumstances
There are no special circumstances relating to this request. The information collected will be voluntary and will not be used for statistical purposes.
Consultations with Persons Outside the Agency
Consultation with our contractor Forrester which is under contract to execute OCPO CX strategy, which this survey includes.
Payment or Gift:
OCPO will not provide payment or other forms of remuneration to survey respondents.
Confidentiality:
The IRS will apply and meet fair information and record-keeping practices to ensure privacy to the extent allowed by law protection of all taxpayers. This includes criteria for disclosure—laid out in the Privacy Act of 1974, the Freedom of Information Act, and Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code—all of which provide for the protection of taxpayer information as well as its release to authorized recipients.
The survey will not contain tax return or taxpayer information, nor is it related to tax information. Survey participants will not be identified in any of the documents or files used for this project. We will limit and control the amount of information we collect to those items that are necessary to accomplish the research questions. We will carefully safeguard the security of data utilized as well as the privacy to the extent allowed by law of the survey respondents.
Sensitive Nature
No questions will be asked that are of a personal or sensitive nature.
Burden of Information Collection –
The average time of survey completion is expected to be about 15-20 minutes.
Based on a sample of potential respondents of 1,410 and a response rate of 7%, we expect 98 completed survey participants, leaving 1,312 non-participants. Potential respondents will receive 1 survey invitation email and 1 reminder email. The contact time to determine participants could take up to 5 minutes to read the email invitation, with the resulting burden for potential respondents being 1410 x 5 minute/60 = 117.5 burden hours.
For participants, total time to complete the survey is 20 minutes. The time burden for participants is 98 x 20/60 = 33 burden hours.
The total burden hours for the survey is (117.5 + 33) = 150.5 burden hours.
Type of Collection |
Participation |
Response Time (minutes) |
Total Burden (hours) |
Potential Respondents Contacted |
1,410 |
5 |
117.5 |
Expected Participants |
98 |
20 |
33 |
Grand Total Burden |
|
|
Costs to Respondents
There is no dollar cost to respondents. The total estimated annual cost burden to respondents is $3,759.49. The surveys take place across the United States with all cross-sections of firms that represent IRS contractors (e.g. large firms, small firms to multiple socioeconomic designations, etc.). This estimate was created using the mean hourly wage for all occupations ($24.98) from the BLS May 2018 National Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates - United States.
Cost of Federal Government
$2,524.82 which is the cost for the contract with Forrester.
Reason for Change
This is the first year of survey after a pilot study was launched in 2019.
Tabulation of Results, Schedule, Analysis Plans
Analysis will be based on the entire sample. Analysis will include the frequency of scores from survey responses, in addition to written feedback compiled by Forrester. The results will not be published, but only used internally for program improvement purposes and used in accordance with the parameters of this ICR.
Display of OMB Approval Date
IRS is seeking expedited approval to not display the expiration date for OMB approval, as this is a one-time, limited-duration collection.
Exceptions to Certification for Paperwork Reduction Act Submissions
These activities comply with the requirements in 5 CFR 1320.9.
19. Dates Collection of Information will Begin and End – 7/15/2020 to 8/15/2020
B. STATISTICAL METHODS
Universe and Respondent Selection
OCPO will be providing Forrester the email addresses of potential respondents, which is composed of the contact information for all current IRS contractors on active, current contracts since June 15, 2020. All current IRS contractors will be sent the survey.
Procedures for Collecting Information
Respondents will receive the survey invitation to the online survey through email. The invitation email will include instructions on how to complete the survey. Respondents will be provided a URL to access the survey. A reminder email will be sent to non-respondents to remind them of the online survey.
Methods to Maximize Response
The questionnaire length is minimized to reduce respondent burden; purpose of the survey is clearly stated (improving OCPO services) as a benefit to the respondent’s organization; thereby, tending to increase response rates. Respondents are assured anonymity of their responses.
Testing of Procedures
The online survey has been approved by OCPO staff, in conjunction with Forrester.
Contacts for Statistical Aspects and Data Collection
For questions regarding the study or survey instrument design, contact
Mitchell D. Winans
Head of CX and Strategic Planning
Office of the Chief Procurement Officer
Internal Revenue Service
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Email: mitchell.d.winans@irs.gov
Office: 202-317-3488
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| File Title | DOCUMENTATION FOR THE GENERIC CLEARANCE |
| Author | 558022 |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-01-13 |