Employee safety and accountability methods and systems

• US 9,015,079 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2013
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SteadyCare, LLC
• Original Assignee: SteadyCare, LLC
• Inventors: Clifford, Arthur Phillip, Marrin, Patricia A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gart, Matthew
• Assistant Examiner(s): CRAWLEY, TALIA F
• Application Number:
  US14/135,028
• Publication Number:
  US 20140304018A1
• Time in Patent Office: 488 Days
• US Class Current: 705/342
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1091 Recording time for administrative or management purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 1/10 together with the recording, indicating or registering of other data, e.g. of signs of identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals

Abstract

Systems and methods for verifying and monitoring employees are provided. Employees call-in to the system at scheduled times. If an employee misses a scheduled call-in, an alert can be generated. An employer notification process can generate the alert, notifying a supervisor of the employee'"'"'s missed call. The alert can include the employee'"'"'s name, the location of the employee, and the time he/she was supposed to call. Such systems and methods can be used to verify that a worker is at the proper location at the proper time and awake and alert during the entire time period that he/she is supposed to be working.

Claims

1. An application server system configured to facilitate employee monitoring, the application server system comprising:

an interactive voice response (IVR) system, executing on one or more computer processors, configured to computationally process electronic employee identification data to determine associated time and geographic location parameters;

an alert system executing on one or more processors, in communication with the interactive voice response (IVR) system, the alert system configured to generate a real-time electronic alert in response to a potential problem condition detected using defined expectation parameters associated with the electronic employee identification data that are not satisfied, the defined expectation parameters including at least one of;

a scheduled location from which the electronic employee identification data is expected to be received, or a scheduled time at which the electronic employee identification data is expected to be received;

the alert system configured to transmit the electronic alert at expiration of a delay period, such that the transmission of the electronic alert is delayed for a period of time to allow the employee additional time to cure the potential problem condition;

the interactive voice response (IVR) system configured to attempt to contact the employee during the delay period by transmitting one or more electronic communications directed to the employee; and

the alert system configured to transmit the electronic alert, after the expiration of the delay period, the electronic alert being transmitted if the potential problem condition is not cured at the expiration of the delay period.

2. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the defined expectation parameters associated with the electronic employee identification data are not satisfied if at least one of the following occurs:

the employee identification data is not received from the scheduled location, or the employee identification data is not received by the scheduled time, or no employee identification data is received.

3. The application server system as in claim 2 further including determining that the employee identification data is not received from the scheduled location by:

determining a geographical location associated with the employee identification data;

comparing the determined geographical location with the scheduled location; and

determining the determined geographical location and the scheduled location are not substantially the same.

4. The application server system as in claim 3 wherein the geographical location is determined using, at least in part, information about a geographical location of a device from which the employee identification data originates.

5. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the scheduled location is at least one respective work site at which the employee is expected.

6. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the interactive voice response (IVR) system is configured to computationally process the employee identification data by:

forming, using a data engine, a data tuple in response to an incoming communication from the employee, the data tuple including at one of;

the employee'"'"'s PIN, or employee'"'"'s user identifier, or date/time parameters, geographical location, or voice message, or text message;

where the data tuple is employee identification data that received by the interactive voice response system (IVR) and compared with the defined expectation parameters to assess whether a potential problem condition is present.

7. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the potential problem condition is cured if the employee identification data is received by the expiration of the delay period, where the delay period is a threshold.

8. The application server system as in claim 7 wherein the threshold is fifteen minutes.

9. The application server system as in claim 1 further including an administrator profile implementation process enabling an administrator to define preferences for receiving electronic alerts in real-time.

10. The application server system as in claim 9 further including an administrator notification preference enabling the supervisor to define the type of electronic alert to be received, where the type of alert is at least one of the following:

an instant message, text message, a telephone call, voicemail message, or an email.

11. The application server system as in claim 9 wherein the defined administrator preferences in the alert system are specified by a supervisor of the employee using a web-based interface to the alert system.

12. The application server system as in claim 11 wherein the expectation parameters are defined by the supervisor using the web-based portal interface.

13. The application server system as in claim 12 further including the telephony server system, interfacing with a voice packetizer, the telephony server system executing a computer telephony integration application that, in combination with the voice packetizer, implements the interactive voice response (IVR) system enabling the telephony server system to handle and monitor incoming communications from the employee.

14. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the interactive voice response (IVR) system enables the alert system to generate real-time electronic alerts.

15. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the employee identification data includes a representation of the employee'"'"'s voice;

the system further including;

an authentication process, in communication with the interactive voice response (IVR) system, comparing at least a portion of the employee identification data with a previously stored sample of the employee'"'"'s voice; and

the authentication process confirming the authenticity of the employee identification data by verifying that the at least one portion of the employee identification data and the previously stored employee voice sample are substantially the same.

16. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the determined location is based on a detected phone number that the employee is calling from.

17. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the employee is unsupervised while working at the scheduled location, and the employee is monitored while working at the scheduled location using interactive voice response system (IVR).

18. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the alert system is designed to intentionally delay the electronic alert during the delay period to allow the employee additional time to call into the interactive voice response (IVR) system.

19. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein during the delay period, the interactive voice response system (IVR) attempting to contact the employee by sending one or more communications to the scheduled location where the employee is supposed to be;

and

if no response to the one or more communications is received, the alert system transmitting the electronic alert.

20. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the alert system is component of the IVR system.

21. The application server system as in claim 1 wherein the employee is any person working for another person or a business, where the employee is any staff member, independent contractor or agent.

22. The application server system of monitoring employees as in claim 1 wherein the electronic communication directed to the employee includes the interactive voice response (IVR) system sending the electronic communication via a text message to a device associated with the employee, or an email to a device associated with the employee, or a call to a device associated with the employee, or a call to a device associated with the scheduled location at which the employee is supposed to be present.

23. The application server system of monitoring employees as in claim 1 wherein the application server system is a telephony application server.

24. The application server system of monitoring employees as in claim 1 wherein the telephony application server executes a computer telephony integration application that, in combination with a voice packetizer, implements the interactive voice response (IVR) system.

25. A computer telephony integration system configured to facilitate employee monitoring, the system comprising:

a data engine in communication with an interactive voice response (IVR) system, which is configured to computationally process electronic employee identification data to determine associated time and geographic location parameters;

the data engine configured to receive at least one real-time alert in response to a potential problem condition detected using defined expectation parameters associated with the electronic employee identification data that are not satisfied, the defined expectation parameters including at least one of;

a scheduled location from which the electronic employee identification data is expected to be received, or a scheduled time at which the electronic employee identification data is expected to be received;

wherein the electronic alert is generated using the interactive voice response system (IVR) with a delay period, such that the transmission of the electronic alert is delayed for a period of time to allow the employee additional time to cure the potential problem condition;

the data engine configured to receive the electronic alert, after the expiration of the delay period, the electronic alert being transmitted to the data engine if the potential problem condition is not cured at the expiration of the delay period.

26. The computer telephony integration system as in claim 25 wherein the data engine is executed by a mobile device of a supervisor of the employee.