Patent Application
20090177534
The present invention generally relates to personnel evaluations in an organization. More particularly, the present invention relates to a computer system and computer program for use in performing such evaluations and that enable a supervisor to input performance evaluations for members of a group and to view evaluation results graphically.
Generally, supervisors are directly responsible for the productivity and actions of small groups of employees or members. As such, supervisors need constantly to monitor and evaluate the performances of the group of members to determine strengths and weaknesses of each of the members' skills and performances. This enables supervisors to identify areas in which improvement may be required, and to address problems. It is often difficult, however, to keep track effectively of all the individuals and their performance. Furthermore, pinpointing areas in which improvement is necessary may be difficult. Time constraints and a lack of effective tools in the present market also impede supervisors in effectively and efficiently evaluating members within their supervisory group, leading to missed opportunities for improvement of efficiency.
If it is sometimes difficult for the individual supervisor to keep track of and manage skill and performance development among the members of the supervisor's group, it can be even more difficult for a higher-level manager to obtain an accurate and up-to-date overall view of the performance, skill level, etc., of staff in various portions of the business organization for which the manager is responsible, or to identify portions in which particular problems are occurring.
Given the foregoing, a need exists for a computer system and computer program product that effectively and efficiently enables a supervisor of a group of members to evaluate members in the group. There is also a need to be able to quickly view the results of these evaluations in a useful format quickly, and especially for results from a number of evaluations to be collated and the results viewed in a way that is convenient and easy to understand.
To avoid confusion, the following terms will be used herein with specific meanings, as follows:
As used herein, “supervisor” means anyone who is responsible for the performance of another person or a group of people.
As used herein, “member” means a person who, either alone or as part of a group, is under the supervision of another.
As used herein, “organization” means an entity comprising a group of people working towards at least one goal.
As used herein, “user” means any individual operating a computer implementing one or more aspects of the present invention.
As used herein, “business area coordinator” means an individual who oversees the activities and/or performance of one or more supervisors.
As used herein, “interface” is means by which a user interacts with a computer program or system.
As used herein, “personnel” means any person or persons employed by an organization.
As used herein, “authorized user” is a user who has the authority to perform functions that at least some other users do not.
As used herein, “parameters” are characteristics or factors that can be relevant in evaluating an employee.
As used herein, “sub-parameters” are subsets of “parameters,” in which characteristics or factors that can be relevant in evaluating an employee are broken down in further detail. As an example, a broad category such as “functional” might be chosen as one parameter, and a number of more specific abilities, e.g., knowledge of accountancy, efficiency, business knowledge, might be used as sub-parameters.
The present invention meets the above-identified need by providing a system and a computer program product that allow a supervisor of a group in an organization to input performance evaluations for one or more members of the group. The product presents an electronic evaluation form to the supervisor that includes evaluation items that are to be answered by selecting one of a plurality of options for each item.
An advantage of the present invention is that the electronic evaluation form is user-friendly, making it easy for a supervisor to input answers into the electronic evaluation form. Furthermore, each evaluation item is categorized, further simplifying the evaluation. Another advantage is that the program can graphically display the results, and can do so in accordance with a user's preference, and in a way that is most meaningful to the particular user.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, an authorized user performs maintenance to the evaluation program, which includes, among other things, adding, deleting and editing evaluation items. The evaluation items are categorized by, for example, parameters, sub-parameters, skill types (more-specific skills within a given sub-parameter) and skill levels. There can be any number of evaluation items for which a member of a group can be evaluated. To ensure that only authorized users perform maintenance, password security is provided. Once the authorized user has established evaluation items and completed maintenance, the file can be transmitted electronically to a supervisor or stored for later use by a supervisor. The supervisor, after logging in, uses the evaluation items in the form to input answers and complete his or her evaluation of the member. After a supervisor has evaluated a member of the supervisor's group, the supervisor can either save the evaluation for updating or completion at a later time, or indicate its completion by a finalizing feature. The computer program also has a feature to export files once the evaluation form has been completed and indicated as finalized. The export feature copies the data contained in the evaluation file and compresses it, if necessary.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, a computer program product comprising a computer-usable medium having control logic stored therein for an evaluation program is provided. This computer program product causes a computer to enable a supervisor of a group in an organization to input performance evaluations for members of the group. The control logic includes first computer-readable program code for causing the computer to present to the supervisor an electronic evaluation form that includes evaluation items that are answered by selecting one of a plurality of options, wherein the evaluation form evaluates at least: a plurality of parameters, a plurality of sub-parameters, a plurality of skill types, and a plurality of skill levels, and wherein each evaluation item is categorized by at least: a parameter, a sub-parameter, a skill type, and a skill level. The control logic also includes second computer-readable program code for causing the computer to receive answers to the evaluation items inputted by the supervisor for each of the members of the group. The control logic further includes third computer-readable program code for causing the computer to produce a graphical evaluation result based on the answers inputted by the supervisor.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a computer system comprising a processor and a memory storing control logic for causing the processor to enable a supervisor of a group in an organization to input performance evaluations for members of the group is provided. The control logic includes first computer-readable program code for causing the computer to present to the supervisor an electronic evaluation form that includes evaluation items that are answered by selecting one of a plurality of options, wherein the evaluation form evaluates at least: a plurality of parameters, a plurality of sub-parameters, a plurality of skill types, and a plurality of skill levels, and wherein each evaluation item is categorized by at least: a parameter, a sub-parameter, a skill type, and a skill level. The control logic also includes second computer-readable program code for causing the computer to receive answers to the evaluation items inputted by the supervisor for each of the members of the group. The control logic further includes third computer-readable program code for causing the computer to produce a graphical evaluation result based on the answers inputted by the supervisor.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when considered in conjunction with the attached drawings. Additionally, the left-most digit of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.
The present invention is directed to a system and a computer program that enable a supervisor of a group in an organization to evaluate and assess personnel by using an electronic evaluation form. In a preferred embodiment, the evaluation program is a spreadsheet program.
Maintenance feature 101 permits updating or other modifications of the electronic evaluation forms, including adding, editing and deleting evaluation items. Maintenance of an evaluation form updates one or more of a parameter, a sub-parameter, a skill type and a skill level. Maintenance of the program is, preferably, limited to authorized users. To ensure that only authorized users perform maintenance, at least one login interface with password security is provided. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, only a business-area coordinator of the organization performs maintenance.
Maintenance feature 101 also permits adding, editing and deleting of mapping between an individual and a supervisor, and/or an individual's job profile and the supervisor. Maintenance feature 101 also permits adding, editing and deleting of supervisors, other members or management and department features, e.g., directors, department heads and department title. This feature allows an authorized user to set a hierarchical structure in order for a report to be generated and viewed in different forms, as discussed in detail below.
Preferably, yes/no questions or other quantitative formats, such as rating a person's performance as minimal/acceptable/exceeding, are established during maintenance to allow the supervisor to input evaluations quickly.
Export feature 102 allows a user to store the file and also to transmit files to another user. Files to be exported using the export feature can be compressed to reduce file size, for example, in a zip file format, prior to exportation. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an authorized user, following completion of maintenance, exports a file to the supervisor(s) who will use it.
Evaluation or assessment feature 103 allows a supervisor to assess an individual against the parameters, sub-parameters, skill type and skill level established in maintenance feature 101 by inputting information relating to the individual to be assessed. Once information is inputted, the computer program presents a ‘finalize’ option so that a user can indicate that the evaluation has been completed. Once the evaluation has been finalized, it is deemed to be ready for submission to another user, such as an authorized user. Once the ‘finalize’ option has been selected, the report may then be available for a user to view one or more aspects of the evaluation, e.g., areas that may affect an overall departmental score.
Consolidation feature 104 combines information from several evaluations. In particular, during consolidation, answers inputted by one supervisor can be correlated with answers inputted by at least one other supervisor. (This may be done to permit the authorized user to see how well the employees working for one supervisor compare with those working for another, but it is also within the scope of the invention for permit consolidation if for some reason a particular staff member reports to, and is evaluated by, more than one supervisor.) If consolidation is performed, a graphical evaluation result may be used to depict a combination of the answers, or of a subset of the answers, from the respective evaluations that have been consolidated. A graphical evaluation result can be generated comparing at least a subset of the answers inputted by one supervisor and at least a subset of the answers inputted by the other supervisor(s). Graphical evaluation results are discussed further in detail below. These supervisors can be in the same or different business areas of the organization. Consolidation and/or correlation may be performed at essentially any level within the organization, and thus the number of evaluations being consolidated may range from two up.
Report feature 105 generates a graphical evaluation result based on one or more of the evaluations before or after consolidation. Various types of reports can be generated, and the invention is not limited to those explicitly listed herein. Graphical evaluation results can be in the form of a spreadsheet, a pie chart, a bar-graph chart or a histogram, to name a few. Examples of types of reports are a graphical parameter report, a graphical sub-parameter report, a graphical profile report, a top-ten report, and a department comparison report, relating to at least one of the plurality of skill levels. The computer program and system also allow these reports to be printed.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a user or authorized user can select a subset of answers inputted by a supervisor and obtain a graphical evaluation that depicts the selected subset.
In a preferred embodiment, the computer program according to the present invention may be stored on the server 1902 and accessible by computing systems 1904. In another embodiment, the computer program may be stored directly on the computing systems 1904, in which case the computer program would be reloaded every time an update is made.
Optionally, to ensure security, communications may occur indirectly with server 1902 through a security filter (not shown) such as, for example, a firewall, which may be implemented with hardware, software, or a combination thereof. Other types of security measures may be employed, as will be appreciated by persons of skill in the relevant art(s).
In step 201, an authorized user can log in to access the system. The authorized user then performs maintenance 202 of the evaluation program, which includes adding, editing and deleting evaluation items. After the authorized user has completed maintenance, it is confirmed at step 203 that the evaluation program and evaluation items have been updated.
In the event that the authorized user indicates that the evaluation items have not yet all been updated as intended, the process returns to step 202 for further maintenance. If it is determined that the evaluation items will not be further updated at present, the files can be stored and are available for exporting to another user in step 204, typically to a supervisor for use in an evaluation.
Once the files have been saved or exported, a supervisor may begin an evaluation. The supervisor can log in at step 205. For each of the evaluation items established by the authorized user in step 202, the supervisor inputs answers for individuals in his or her group into the evaluation form in step 206. Once the supervisor has completed his or her evaluation of the individual, the supervisor can either save the inputted data for later (not illustrated) or mark the evaluation as complete (‘finalize’ the evaluation).
Once the evaluation has been indicated as finalized in step 207, the user can choose to generate a graphical evaluation report from the information inputted during the evaluation. The report can be any type of report, but for example, can be a spreadsheet, a pie chart, a bar-graph chart, a histogram, or any combination thereof.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, once the supervisor in step 207 finalizes the evaluation, the file can also be forwarded to an authorized user. This authorized user can be the same authorized user who prepared or updated the form, or a different authorized user. After logging in at step 209, the authorized user can perform consolidation in step 210. Consolidation involves unifying a plurality of evaluations. A particular manner in which the consolidation is to occur can also be specified. For example, area-level consolidations can be performed to determine the strength of a business area and enable comparisons between different business areas.
Once the consolidation has been completed, a graphical evaluation result for the some or all of the consolidated information can be generated as a report in step 208. These reports can be one or more of the types of reports listed above.
‘Master Profile’ 303 provides access to updating and other modification of the evaluation forms, including adding, editing and deleting evaluation items. ‘Administer Employee’ 304 provides access to updating and other modification of employee profiles, for example, linking an employee to the appropriate supervisor. ‘Administer Skill’ 305 provides access to updating and other modifications for skills parameters, sub-parameters, skill types and skill level, for example. ‘Change Password’ 306 provides access for updating and other modifications relating to passwords for various users. ‘Exit’ 307 navigates the authorized user away from the screen and to another interface (and can also log the authorized user out).
The present invention may be implemented using hardware, software, or a combination thereof, and may be implemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems. Useful machines for performing some or all of the operations of the present invention include general-purpose digital computers or similar devices.
In fact, in one embodiment, the present invention is directed toward one or more computer systems equipped to carry out the functions described herein. An example of such a computer system 1800 is shown in
Computer system 1800 includes at least one processor 1804. Processor 1804 is connected to a communication infrastructure 1806 (e.g., a communications bus, a cross-over bar device, or a network). Although various software embodiments are described herein in terms of this exemplary computer system 1800, after reading this description, it will become apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the invention using other computer systems and/or architectures.
Computer system 1800 includes a display interface 1802 that forwards graphics, text, and other data from communication infrastructure 1806 (or from a frame buffer (not shown)) for display on a display unit 1830.
Computer system 1800 also includes a main memory 1808, which preferably is a random access memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 1810. Secondary memory 1810 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 1812 and/or a removable-storage drive 1814 (e.g., a floppy disk drive, a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, and the like). Removable-storage drive 1814 reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit 1818 in a well-known manner. Removable storage unit 1818 may be, for example, a floppy disk, a magnetic tape, an optical disk, and the like, which is written to and read by removable-storage drive 1814. As will be appreciated, removable storage unit 1818 includes a computer-usable storage medium having stored therein computer software and/or data.
In alternative embodiments, secondary memory 1810 may include other similar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions to be loaded into computer system 1800. Such devices may include a removable storage unit 1822 and an interface 1820 (e.g., a program cartridge and a cartridge interface similar to those used with video game systems); a removable memory chip (e.g., an erasable programmable read-only memory (“EPROM”) or a programmable read-only memory (“PROM”)) and an associated memory socket; and other removable storage units 1822 and interfaces 1820 that allow software and data to be transferred from removable storage unit 1822 to computer system 1800.
Computer system 1800 may also include a communications interface 1824, which allows software and data to be transferred between computer system 1800 and external devices (not shown). Examples of communications interface 1824 may include a modem, a network interface (e.g., an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (“PCMCIA”) interface, and the like. Software and data transferred via communications interface 1824 are in the form of signals 1828, which may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or another type of signal that is capable of being received by communications interface 1824. Signals 1828 are provided to communications interface 1824 via a communications path 1826 (e.g., a channel). Communications path 1826 carries signals 1828 and may be implemented using wire or cable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radio-frequency (“RF”) link, or the like.
As used herein, the phrases “computer program medium” and “computer usable medium” may be used to refer generally to removable storage unit 1818 used with removable-storage drive 1814, a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 1812, and signals 1828, for example. These computer program products provide software to computer system 1800. The present invention may be implemented or embodied as one or more of such computer program products.
Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) are stored in main memory 1808 and/or secondary memory 1810. The computer programs may also be received via communications interface 1824. Such computer programs, when executed, enable computer system 1800 to perform the features of the present invention, as discussed herein. In particular, the computer programs, when executed, enable the processor 1804 to perform the features of the present invention.
Accordingly, such computer programs represent controllers of computer system 1800.
In an embodiment where the present invention is implemented using software, the software may be stored in a computer program product and loaded into computer system 1800 using removable-storage drive 1814, hard drive 1812, or communications interface 1824. The control logic (software), when executed by processor 1804, causes processor 1804 to perform the functions of the present invention as described herein.
In another embodiment, the present invention is implemented primarily in hardware using, for example, hardware components such as application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”). Implementation of such a hardware arrangement so as to perform the functions described herein will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s).
In yet another embodiment, the present invention is implemented using a combination of both hardware and software.
As will be appreciated by those of skill in the relevant art(s), the present invention may be implemented using a single computer or using a computer system that includes multiple computers each programmed with control logic to perform various of the above-described functions of the present invention.
The various embodiments of the present invention described above have been presented by way of example and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents. It is also to be understood that the steps and processes recited in the claims need not be performed in the order presented.
In addition, it should be understood that the attached drawings, which highlight the functionality and advantages of the present invention, are presented as illustrative examples. The architecture of the present invention is sufficiently flexible and configurable, such that it may be utilized (and navigated) in ways other than that shown in the drawings.
Further, the purpose of the appended Abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially scientists, engineers, and practitioners in the relevant art(s), who are not familiar with patent or legal terms and/or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical subject matter disclosed herein. The Abstract is not intended to be limiting as to the scope of the present invention in any way.
