System and method for monitoring employee productivity, attendance and safety

• US 20050273381A1
• Filed: 06/02/2004
• Published: 12/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corporation
• Inventors: Thomas, Stephen Michael
• Application Number:
  US10/859,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20050273381A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function

Abstract

An employee productivity, attendance and safety system maintains safety identifiers, and occupation identifiers for employees. The system may track training sessions completed and/or required, attendance and productivity.

Claims

1. A method of organizing employee safety information, comprising:

maintaining, in a computer-readable medium, a set of safety identifiers, wherein each safety identifier relates to at least one safety-related job procedure, and wherein each safety identifier also corresponds to at least one occupation identifier;

obtaining an employee identifier that corresponds to an employee;

linking the employee identifier with an occupation identifier;

identifying which safety identifiers correspond to the linked occupation identifier to yield the identified safety identifiers that may apply to the employee; and

reporting information corresponding to at least one of the identified safety identifiers.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each safety identifier in the set corresponds to at least one training session, and wherein the method further comprises:

accessing, from a memory, a set of completed training session identifiers, wherein each completed training session identifier represents a training session that the employee has completed; and

after the identifying step, determining whether any of the identified safety identifiers have corresponding training sessions that are not represented in the set of completed training session identifiers; and

in the reporting step, reporting information corresponding to safety identifiers having corresponding training sessions that are not represented in the set of completed training session identifiers so that a user is informed of the job procedures for which the employee requires additional training.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each training session comprises an oral safety-related communication to the employee and/or a written safety-related communication to the employee.

4. The method of claim 2:

wherein one or both of the job procedures and the training sessions may be modified; and

wherein the reporting step informs the user of job procedures and/or training sessions that have been modified so that the user is informed of the job procedures for which the employee requires additional training.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising generating an alert if there is any job procedure for which the employee requires additional training.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising generating an alert if there is any job procedure for which the employee requires additional training.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the safety identifiers corresponds to at least one training session, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving time and attendance data for the employee;

determining whether any training session occurred at a time when the employee was not in attendance; and

generating an alert if there are training sessions that occurred at a time when the employee was not in attendance.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein a user must enter a security identifier before time and attendance data will be received for the employee.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting step includes reporting any job procedures for which the employee has not received required training.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the employee is a supervisory employee; and

the occupation identifier corresponds to an occupation for which the supervisory employee has supervisory responsibility.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining, in the computer-readable medium, a record of safety-related communications made to the employee;

allowing a user to view the record of safety-related communications; and

allowing the user to modify the record of safety-related communications if the user has entered a security identifier.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising generating an alert if a safety-related communication in the record corresponds to an unsafe act by the employee.

13. An employee safety reporting system, comprising:

an employer computing system having a memory and a processor;

wherein the memory stores computer program instructions that instruct the employer computing system to perform the steps of;

maintaining, in the memory, a set of safety identifiers, wherein each safety identifier relates to at least one safety-related job procedure, and wherein each safety identifier also corresponds to at least one occupation identifier;

obtaining an employee identifier that corresponds to an employee;

linking the employee identifier with an occupation identifier;

identifying which safety identifiers correspond to the linked occupation identifier to yield the identified safety identifiers that may apply to the employee; and

reporting information corresponding to at least one of the identified safety identifiers.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the instructions also instruct the employer'"'"'s computing system to perform the steps of:

accessing, from a memory, a set of completed training session identifiers, wherein each completed training session identifier represents a training session that the employee has completed; and

after the identifying step, determining whether any of the identified safety identifiers have corresponding training sessions that are not represented in the set of completed training session identifiers; and

in the reporting step, reporting information corresponding to safety identifiers having corresponding training sessions that are not represented in the set of completed training session identifiers so that a user is informed of the job procedures for which the employee requires additional training.

15. An employee timekeeping system, comprising:

an employer computing system having a memory and a processor, wherein the memory includes data corresponding to safety-related training sessions and times at which the training sessions were delivered, wherein each training session is linked to at least one occupation code;

an input module that accepts employee identifiers and employee time and attendance data, wherein each employee identifier corresponds to an individual employee; and

a safety reporting module that;

links the employee identifier for an individual employee to an occupation code to yield a linked occupation code;

identifies the training sessions that correspond to the linked occupation code;

based on the employee time and attendance data for an individual employee, determines whether the individual employee was present at the time when a training session that corresponds to the linked occupation code was delivered; and

generates an alert if the individual employee was not present at a time when the training session that corresponds to the linked occupation code was delivered.

16. An employee productivity monitoring system, comprising:

a computing apparatus having a memory and a processor;

a productivity input module that accepts measurements of productivity from a production environment; and

a time and attendance input module that accepts employee identifiers, occupation codes and employee time and attendance data, wherein each employee identifier corresponds to an individual employee;

wherein the memory includes a set of occupation codes that are linked to the production environment;

wherein the processor is programmed to determine, based on the occupation codes and the time and attendance data received via the input module, which measurements of productivity correspond to an individual employee; and

wherein the system further includes a reporting module that generates reports of the measurements of productivity that correspond to the individual employee.

17. The system of claim 16 further comprising:

a security module that prevents the input module from accepting employee time and attendance data unless a security identifier is first accepted.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein the memory also includes a set of safety procedure identifiers, each safety procedure identifier corresponds to at least one occupation identifier, and the system also comprises:

a safety training module that based on at least one occupation code entered for an employee, identifies which safety procedure identifiers correspond to the entered occupation code to yield the safety procedure identifiers that apply to the employee; and

wherein the reporting module also generates reports of the safety procedure identifiers that apply to the employee.

19. The system of claim 18 further comprising an alert module that generates an alert if there is any safety procedure for which the individual employee requires additional training.