Patent Application
20150120399
The invention generally relates to a motivation system and in particular to a system which recognizes employee, consumer, and distribution channel behaviors which benefit or support commercial processes.
Only 45% of employees feel rewarded and recognized in meaningful ways. Furthermore, four employees out of ten are not engaged worldwide. Engagement level by region varies. While almost three-fifths (58%) of employees globally are considered in the engaged status, 42% of employees are somewhat or completely disengaged.
Employees' motivation to stay and exert extra effort falls short. While engagement levels are relatively stable, at least some employees seek new opportunities outside their organization as a result of limited career development and advancement opportunities.
Some engagement drivers have been improved in the last years, but not the ones that matter most. Across all possible engagement drivers that were examined, some improvement in Business Unit Leadership, HR Practices and Brand Alignment (fulfilling the employment contract or value proposition with employees) has been seen. However, none of these areas showed up consistently as a top driver of engagement.
Career opportunities, recognition, and organization reputation are consistently top engagement drivers. There is a need for a software platform which addresses these top engagement drivers. There is a need for a platform which allows companies to focus their efforts on improving these areas in order to have the most immediate positive impact on overall engagement. Since engagement drivers vary by business focus, the platform should have a flexibility that allows it to work within different commercial processes for different clients.
In one form, at least some embodiments of the systems and methods described herein provide an integrated platform for motivating participants (employees, consumers, distribution channels, and distributor employees).
In one form, a system includes several subsystems implemented by one or more processors executing processor executable instructions stored on a tangible, non-transitory storage device. Data defining various aspects of the system, such as rules, goals, policies and/or programs are stored in a database and/or a tangible, non-transitory storage device. An aggregation subsystem aggregates achievement events. An accumulation subsystem accumulates the events and, optionally, applies rules to the accumulated events to categorize the events. An evaluation subsystem selects and implements a reward/motivation program based on the accumulated events and based on a predetermined goal. A publication subsystem applies rules to implement selected notifications via social media.
In another form, a processor executable method including processor executable instructions stored on a memory device for execution by one or more processors is described.
In another form, a tangible, non-transitory computer readable media including processor executable instructions for implementing the system or method is described.
Referring to
Via one or more event monitoring channels 101C, an aggregation subsystem 102 monitors and aggregates achievement events within the IT systems 101. The aggregated achievement events are called accomplishments. In general, an achievement event may be any event, action, happening, occasion, milestone and/or dealing and an accomplishment may be one or more related events. An accumulation subsystem 104 accumulates the accomplishments 106 from an employer network and, optionally, applies categorizing rules 108 executed by the one or more processors of the system 100 to the accomplishments 106 to categorize the accomplishments. For example, the aggregation subsystem 102 can collect emails and/or IM messages or other communications within an employer network from various employees regarding accomplishments of employees noted by the employees themselves or noted by other employees. As another example, the aggregation subsystem 102 can collect emails and/or IM messages or other communications within an people network from various people regarding accomplishments of people noted by the people themselves or noted by other people.
An evaluation subsystem 110 selects a reward/motivation program 112 executed by the one or more processors of the system 100 based on the categorized accomplishments 106 and/or based on a predetermined goal 114, such as selected by an employer or an interested party willing and able to provide the reward/motivation. A publication subsystem 116 applies implementing rules 118 executed by the one or more processors of the system 100 to implement the selected reward/motivation program 112 via configurable broadcast channels 120 connected to social media 122. Optional fulfillment subsystems 124 may be linked to and responsive to the evaluation subsystem 110 to implement one or more awards consistent with the reward/motivation programs 112 selected by the evaluation system 110.
In one form, the system 100 platform supports the association of motivation processes and principles with incumbent systems, such as Enterprise Resource, Customer Relationship Supply Chain Management and Consumer Loyalty systems. In general, it is contemplated that other associated processes and principles are supported in addition to or instead of such incumbent systems. It does this through three main components. Considering the system from a component level:
Each of these components amounts to one interaction type, which the component name reflects. Interaction will vary considerably according to the client's IT system, and can be adapted according to a client's program needs. The specific process flows implementation which define the interaction are based on commercial processes and client program needs and provide a combination of technologies (services, data aggregation, and rule driven achievement publication), motivation context, and event-driven integration with incumbent large-IT solutions, with high durability.
The system 100 platform may be integrated with enterprise systems or other than enterprise systems such as email clients, wiki sites, web sites or other consumer-based opportunities. For example, in one form, the system 100 platform is implemented by processors executing enterprise software (e.g. enterprise application software (EAS)) which are purposed-designed computer software used in the furtherance of the needs and objectives of the organization. The EAS software is intended to solve enterprise-wide problems, and/or departmental problems. For example, system integration may be implemented for EAS contexts. Alternatively or in addition, system integration may be implemented for departmental contexts. It also should be recognized that departmental goals may roll up to enterprise ones, but not all and not necessarily. As a result, integration of the system 100 platform with enterprise level software (EAS) expands the aims of EAS to improve the enterprise's productivity and efficiency by providing business logic support functionality to motivate participants. Such integration may be implemented on servers hosting the EAS to provide simultaneous services to a large number of users, typically over a computer network.
Additional components of the system 100 platform further include:
The system 100 platform may include APIs and/or an optional link to one or more fulfillment subsystem.
The following illustrates some examples.
Examples of Achievement Events and Operation of the Aggregation Subsystem 102
Achievement events range across all business processes for which clients my desire a motivational component. Note all of these will then be fed to a rules engine that is applied in the accumulation subsystem in next step. Some examples of achievement events which may be monitored by the aggregation subsystem 102 are:
The aggregation subsystem 102 monitors the various IT systems 101 for one or more of the above noted achievement events, or other events, and aggregates the events into accomplishments 106. The events may be aggregated according to each individual involved, according to each individual's involvement, according to project, by time, and/or according to other factors.
Examples of Optional Category Rules 108 Applied by the Accumulation Subsystem 104
Examples of Categories of Events Defined by Optional Category Rules 108:
Each category may have one or more subcategories as defined by the category rules 108.
Examples of how the Evaluation Subsystem 110 Operates
The evaluation subsystem 110 is programmed to invoke a rule when a criterion for accomplishment is reached. The operation of the evaluation subsystem 110 is optional because is may not be utilized for each accomplishment processed. Thus, whether or not it is invoked is optional. When invoked, the context (who, what, when, at which business and department) is provided to a software module that queries a database for the value of that accomplishment for the individual and their department. A value in an appropriate currency (reputation points, merchandise points, virtual points, legal tender, in kind, etc.) is credited to the individual and/or department.
Examples of Implementing Rules 118 Executed by the Publication Subsystem 116
Each customer can express their policies (stored in a database) defining the notification(s) to social media and messaging avenues (e.g., email, text, instant messaging, social media) for when the participants which they are sponsoring achieve a specified type or list of types of accomplishments. The implementing rules 118 (e.g., publication rules) are used by the publication subsystem 116 to express those policies and provide rewards and motivation to the participants. For example, when the sales staff sells more than $100K of a product, their employer may allow, with their agreement, for that achievement to be pushed to LinkedIn. As another example, when an employee achieves a particular goal, their employer may allow, with the employee's agreement, for the achievement to be posted on the employee's FaceBook website.
Examples of APIs for Use in Interfacing with Social Media 122
One strength and distinctiveness of the system when integrated with an incumbent enterprise system is that it pulls together three simple interactions into one powerful platform: the association of motivation processes and principles with incumbent Enterprise Resource, Customer Relationship, Supply Chain Management, and Consumer Loyalty systems and the like, by event-driven services, data aggregation, and rule driven achievement publication. The flow will vary considerably per partner IT system, and will necessarily be adapted according to a client's program needs.
Understanding the Motivation Gap: How the System 100 Platform Fills the Gap
The Maritz Institute connects a network of leading scientists, academics and business professionals in a collaborative approach focused on science-based business practice innovation. Insights into people, based on human science discoveries, have delivered the realization that business must change to more fully unleash the power of people. An early outcome of this collaboration has been the identification of three, core “people principles” based on current scientific research:
The system 100 supports these People Principles as the system 100 allows users to be the creator of their own reputation, enhancing their status by acquiring skills and knowledge and broadcasting their accomplishments publicly within ones social circle only to be self-obligated to defend their reputation through continuous accomplishments and self-improvement that supports their growth and benefits the organization as well as provides social influence and emotional contagion for the entity at large.
Neuroscience can be more easily translated into 5 key questions that a participant should be able to answer in order for a performance improvement solution to be successful.
What do you want people to do? and Why is it important? —These questions reinforce and are tied to the importance of communication and how critical it is to help people understand the goals 114 and strategies and align them with their own intrinsic goals. The system 100 facilitates clients to define goals 114 and encourages participants to have focus, and get on board with the client.
How do you want people to do it? —Because behavior is shaped by both emotional and rationale thought, the system 100 drives clients to ensure that participants have the tools and knowledge necessary to achieve the goals 114. This allows participants to perceive the client's request to be fair and achievable through communications and earning design, and at times training, technology or administration tools.
How do you provide Measurement and Feedback? —Because it is hard to learn new behaviors and focus, repetition and feedback are critical to wiring the brain. The measurement and feedback deliverables (e.g., reporting, event/accomplishment driven email, announcements provided to social media 122 via the configurable broadcast channels 120, or other communications), provided by the system 100 are a solution element.
What is in it for people? —Because the consequences drive behavior, in neuroscience the reward/motivation programs 112 are a collection of brain structures which attempt to regulate and control behavior by inducing pleasurable effects. The system 100 platform offers acknowledgements via the publication subsystem 116 and rewards, such as via an optional fulfillment subsystem 124, that ensure a meaningful, memorable and motivating consequence for all participants. The system 100 encourages participants to set goals consistent with the specified goals 114 and allows social reinforcement for greatest effectiveness.
Some additional benefits of the system 100 platform, method and software implementation of embodiments wherein participants are employees and the client is their employer include:
Similarly, the ERP processes can be defined to bring efficiency from a financial, operational and engagement perspective. For example, this may show up in a product or service in various ways:
Examples of One Specific Implementation
Supervisors click the “Blue Button” 202 to initiate an acknowledgement of behavior exhibited in accordance with the pre-established policy. In this example, the supervisor is able to issue points to employees. The “Blue Button” 202 executes a subroutine which presents to a supervisor a list of employees 206, identified as list of members of the program. The list can be searched by the supervisor to locate a particular employee. Supervisors select the particular employee(s). The name of each selected particular employee appears in window 208 as being chosen for a reward. Window 210 includes a pull down menu with earnings opportunities. Window 212 requires the supervisor to identify a criterion for the reward to be provided and in window 214 the supervisor assigns points within the recommended range, before submitting for implementation.
The “Blue Button” may be integrated into other business tools, such as Outlook and SharePoint allowing for a consistent methodology for addressing behavior modification within an organization. For the employees, they are recognized for their accomplishments in a consistent way and, importantly to them, all the points earned are in one basket, giving them the opportunity to redeem for a larger value reward, making the experience more meaningful, memorable and motivating.
In one form, the invention can be implemented as a processor executable method including processor executable instructions stored on a memory device for execution by one or more processors. The method comprises instructions stored on a tangible memory device, comprising:
In one form of the method, the aggregating instructions interface with at least one IT system and monitor one or more of the following achievement events within the monitored IT system: event, action, happening, occasion, milestone and/or dealing; and wherein one or more of the monitored events are aggregated as an accomplishment according to each individual involved.
In one form of the method, the accumulating instructions apply rules that reflect a value of a number of accurate entries applied to the accomplishments of an employee and that credit the employee.
In one form of the method, the accumulating instructions apply at least one of the following rules:
In one form of the method, the evaluating instructions invoke a rule when a criterion for a particular accomplishment is reached, wherein a context including at least one of who, what, when, at which business, and at which department is provided to a module that queries a database for the value of the particular accomplishment.
In one form of the method, policy instructions stored in a database regarding a notification to social media define messaging avenues for participant accomplishments and the rules implement policies and provide rewards and motivation to the participants.
In one form, the invention can be implemented as a tangible, non-transitory computer readable media (CRM) including processor executable instructions for:
In one form of the CRM, the aggregating instructions interface with at least one IT system and monitor one or more of the following achievement events within the monitored IT system: event, action, happening, occasion, milestone and/or dealing; and wherein one or more of the monitored events are aggregated as an accomplishment according to each individual involved.
In one form of the CRM, the accumulating instructions apply rules that reflect a value of a number of accurate entries applied to the accomplishments of an employee and that credit the employee.
In one form of the CRM, the accumulating instructions apply at least one of the following rules:
In one form of the CRM, the evaluating instructions invoke a rule when a criterion for a particular accomplishment is reached, wherein a context including at least one of who, what, when, at which business, and at which department is provided to a module that queries a database for the value of the particular accomplishment.
In one form of the CRM, policy instructions stored in a database regarding a notification to social media define messaging avenues for participant accomplishments and the rules implement policies and provide rewards and motivation to the participants.
The Abstract and summary are provided to help the reader quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. They are submitted with the understanding that they will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. The summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in simplified form that are further described in the Detailed Description. The summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the claimed subject matter.
For purposes of illustration, programs and other executable program components, such as the operating system, are illustrated herein as discrete blocks. It is recognized, however, that such programs and components reside at various times in different storage components of a computing device, and are executed by a data processor(s) of the device.
Although described in connection with an exemplary computing system environment, embodiments of the aspects of the invention are operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. The computing system environment is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of any aspect of the invention. Moreover, the computing system environment should not be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary operating environment. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with aspects of the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, mobile telephones, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
Embodiments of the aspects of the invention may be described in the general context of data and/or processor-executable instructions, such as program modules, stored one or more tangible, non-transitory storage media and executed by one or more processors or other devices. Generally, program modules include, but are not limited to, routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Aspects of the invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media including memory storage devices.
In operation, processors, computers and/or servers may execute the processor-executable instructions (e.g., software, firmware, and/or hardware) such as those illustrated herein to implement aspects of the invention.
Embodiments of the aspects of the invention may be implemented with processor-executable instructions. The processor-executable instructions may be organized into one or more processor-executable components or modules on a tangible processor readable storage medium. Aspects of the invention may be implemented with any number and organization of such components or modules. For example, aspects of the invention are not limited to the specific processor-executable instructions or the specific components or modules illustrated in the figures and described herein. Other embodiments of the aspects of the invention may include different processor-executable instructions or components having more or less functionality than illustrated and described herein.
The order of execution or performance of the operations in embodiments of the aspects of the invention illustrated and described herein is not essential, unless otherwise specified. That is, the operations may be performed in any order, unless otherwise specified, and embodiments of the aspects of the invention may include additional or fewer operations than those disclosed herein. For example, it is contemplated that executing or performing a particular operation before, contemporaneously with, or after another operation is within the scope of aspects of the invention.
When introducing elements of aspects of the invention or the embodiments thereof, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements.
In view of the above, it will be seen that several advantages of the aspects of the invention are achieved and other advantageous results attained.
Not all of the depicted components illustrated or described may be required. In addition, some implementations and embodiments may include additional components. Variations in the arrangement and type of the components may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as set forth herein. Additional, different or fewer components may be provided and components may be combined. Alternatively or in addition, a component may be implemented by several components.
The above description illustrates the aspects of the invention by way of example and not by way of limitation. This description enables one skilled in the art to make and use the aspects of the invention, and describes several embodiments, adaptations, variations, alternatives and uses of the aspects of the invention, including what is presently believed to be the best mode of carrying out the aspects of the invention. Additionally, it is to be understood that the aspects of the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The aspects of the invention are capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it will be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
Having described aspects of the invention in detail, it will be apparent that modifications and variations are configurable without departing from the scope of aspects of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It is contemplated that various changes could be made in the above constructions, products, and methods without departing from the scope of aspects of the invention. In the preceding specification, various preferred embodiments have been described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, without departing from the broader scope of the aspects of the invention as set forth in the claims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61895731 | Oct 2013 | US |
