System and method for automatically generating work environment goals for a management employee utilizing a plurality of work environment survey results

• US 8,781,884 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2010
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Normandeau, Sallie M., Reinhardt, Karin L., Kenney, Barbara M., O'Shea, Daniel P. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jarrett, Scott L
• Application Number:
  US12/859,462
• Publication Number:
  US 20120047000A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.39
• US Class Current: 705/7.39
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/105 Human resources

Abstract

Employees of an organization are surveyed concerning their opinions about the work environment provided by the organization. A computer system that includes a survey question storage module, a survey administration component, a survey results storage module, and a survey analysis component is used to administer the survey and to analyze the survey results. The computer system generates work environment index (WEI) scores for the managers in the organization to summarize the results of the survey as to employees who are within the managers'"'"' departments. The WEI scores are made the subject of performance goals for the managers and are displayed to the managers via their personal computers.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a survey results storage module for storing survey data indicative of employees'"'"' responses to a set of survey questions, the survey questions for measuring attitudes of the employees towards their work environment and including all of;

(a) a question measuring employee intent to seek other employment, (b) a question measuring employee inspiration toward good work performance, and (c) a plurality of core questions;

a survey analysis component coupled to the survey results storage module, the survey analysis component analyzing the survey data to generate a plurality of work environment index results each expressed as a single score for each of a plurality of management employees, each of said work environment index results corresponding to a respective management employee and derived from survey data which corresponds to a respective group of the employees, the respective group consisting of ones of said employees who report directly or indirectly to the respective management employee, the survey analysis component including a processor programmed to analyze the survey data stored in the survey results storage module, the respective management employee being one of said plurality of management employees selected based on having a number of employees who report directly or indirectly that is greater than a predetermined threshold, wherein said processor is programmed to analyze the survey data by;

(a) establishing a result of the question measuring employee intent to seek other employment and a result of the question measuring employee inspiration toward good work performance as dependent variables, (b) establishing results of the plurality of core questions as a set of independent variables, (c) regressing each dependent variable on the set of independent variables to calculate a relative weight for each independent variable, and (d) calculating said work environment index result for each management employee using a sum of weighted responses for each independent variable;

a performance review component coupled to the survey analysis component for receiving said work environment index results and, for each of said management employees, (a) identifying a category of said respective one of said work environment index results, the category selected based on work environment index results of management employees having similar results, (b) comparing a respective one of said work environment index results with a respective current year work environment goal for said each one of said management employees, and (c) automatically generating, based at least in part on the respective one of said work environment index results and said identified category, a respective subsequent year work environment goal for said each one of said management employees, the respective subsequent year work environment goal including an improvement objective based on said identified category; and

a display component, coupled to the performance review component, for displaying said respective one of said work environment index results and the respective subsequent year work environment goal to said at least one of said management employees.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the display component displays the respective one of the work environment index results as part of a dashboard display.

3. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the survey analysis component calculates the work environment index results as weighted averages of average scores assigned to the survey questions by the groups of employees.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the work environment goals are expressed as target ranges for said work environment index results.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein each group of employees includes at least five employees.

6. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the work environment goals and the work environment index results are expressed as decimal values within a range of one to five.

7. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing, in a data storage device, survey data indicative of employees'"'"' responses to a set of survey questions, the survey questions for measuring attitudes of the employees towards their work environment and including all of;

(a) a question measuring employee intent to seek other employment, (b) a question measuring employee inspiration toward good work performance, and (c) a plurality of core questions;

analyzing, with a processor, the survey data to generate a plurality of work environment index results each expressed as a single score for each of a plurality of management employees, each of said work environment index results corresponding to a respective management employee and derived from survey data which corresponds to a respective group of the employees, the respective group consisting of ones of said employees who report directly or indirectly to the respective management employee, the respective management employee being one of said plurality of management employees, wherein said analyzing comprises;

(a) establishing a result of the question measuring employee intent to seek other employment and a result of the question measuring employee inspiration toward good work performance as dependent variables, (b) establishing results of the plurality of core questions as a set of independent variables, (c) regressing each dependent variable on the set of independent variables to calculate a relative weight for each independent variable, and (d) calculating said work environment index result for each management employee using a sum of weighted responses for each independent variable;

storing said work environment index results in the data storage device;

for each of said management employees, the processor processing said work environment index results to (a) identify a category of said respective one of said work environment index results, the category selected based on work environment index results of management employees having similar results, (b) compare a respective one of said work environment index results with a respective current year work environment goal for said each one of said management employees, and automatically generate, based at least in part on the respective one of said work environment index results and said identified category, a respective subsequent year work environment goal for said each one of said management employees, the respective subsequent year work environment goal including an improvement objective based on said identified category; and

displaying, on at least one display component, said respective one of said work environment index results and the respective subsequent year work environment goal to said at least one of said management employees.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the display component displays the respective one of the work environment index results as part of a dashboard display.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the processor calculates the work environment index results as weighted averages of average scores assigned to the survey questions by the groups of employees.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the work environment goals are expressed as target ranges for said work environment index results.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein each group of employees includes at least five employees.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the work environment goals and the work environment index results are expressed as decimal values within a range of one to five.

13. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing program code executable by a computer processor to:

store, in a data storage device, survey data indicative of employees'"'"' responses to a set of survey questions, the survey questions for measuring attitudes of the employees towards their work environment and including all of;

(a) a question measuring employee intent to seek other employment, (b) a question measuring employee inspiration toward good work performance, and (c) a plurality of core questions;

analyze, with a processor, the survey data to generate a plurality of work environment index results each expressed as a single score for each of a plurality of management employees, each of said work environment index results corresponding to a respective management employee and derived from survey data which corresponds to a respective group of the employees, the respective group consisting of ones of said employees who report directly or indirectly to the respective management employee, the respective management employee being one of said plurality of management employees, wherein said analyzing comprises;

(a) establishing a result of the question measuring employee intent to seek other employment and a result of the question measuring employee inspiration toward good work performance as dependent variables, (b) establishing results of the plurality of core questions as a set of independent variables, (c) regressing each dependent variable on the set of independent variables to calculate a relative weight for each independent variable, and (d) calculating said work environment index result for each management employee using a sum of weighted responses for each independent variable;

store said work environment index results in the data storage device;

for each of said management employees, process said work environment index results to (a) identify a category of said respective one of said work environment index results, the category selected based on work environment index results of management employees having similar results, (b) compare a respective one of said work environment index results with a respective current year work environment goal for said each one of said management employees, and automatically generate, based at least in part on the respective one of said work environment index results and said identified category, a respective subsequent year work environment goal for said each one of said management employees, the respective subsequent year work environment goal including an improvement objective based on said identified category; and

display, on at least one display component, said respective one of said work environment index results and the respective subsequent year work environment goal to said at least one of said management employees.

14. The medium of claim 13, wherein the display component displays the respective one of said work environment index results as part of a dashboard display.

15. The medium of claim 13, wherein said work environment index results are calculated as weighted averages of average scores assigned to the survey questions by the groups of employees.

16. The medium of claim 13, wherein the work environment goals are expressed as target ranges for said work environment index results.

17. The medium of claim 13, wherein each group of employees includes at least five employees.

18. The medium of claim 13, wherein the work environment goals and said work environment index results are expressed as decimal values within a pre-determined range.