US20080091441A1 - Employee management - Google Patents

Abstract

Among other things, at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise is displayed to a manager, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships, and elements are displayed on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.

Description

BACKGROUND
• This description relates to employee management.
• A person who manages other people in a business, for example, is typically charged with a variety of human resource tasks. These may include performance reviews, goals setting, salary and bonus allocations, filling open positions, training assignments, and succession planning, for the people who are positioned below the manager in the organizational chart of the business. To perform one or more of these tasks, the manager may invoke software processes of a software application running on his workstation. The software application may also enable the manager to view the organizational chart in various display styles.
SUMMARY
• In general, in an aspect, at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise is displayed to a manager, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships, and elements are displayed on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.
• Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Displaying at least part of an organizational chart includes displaying information about the status of at least one of the positions. The status includes displaying at least one of: planned but not authorized, authorized but not filled, and filled. The actions include viewing information about the position. The actions include at least one of planning a position, budgeting for a position, requisitioning a person for a position, and reviewing candidates for a position. Displaying at least part of an organizational chart includes displaying information about a particular person who occupies one of the positions. Displaying the elements that can be invoked includes displaying the elements visually in association with employee positions to which they relate. The displaying of at least part of an organizational chart and the displaying of elements are determined based on a role being played by the manager. The manager is enabled to control a style in which the organizational chart is displayed, including a chart style, and a tree style. A control element is displayed that enables the manager to toggle between displaying information about a position and information about actions that can be taken to change a status of the position.
• In general, in an aspect, a user interface paradigm includes a display to a manager of at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships, and a display to the manager of elements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.
• Other aspects of the invention may include other combinations of one or more of the aspects and features recited above and other aspects and features, expressed as methods, apparatus, systems, and program products, and in other ways, as will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.
DESCRIPTION
• FIGS. 1 through 16 and18 through21 are screen shots.
• FIG. 17 is a block diagram.
• As shown inFIG. 1, aportal page10 of a user interface to a software application for a manager offersmanager navigation buttons12 that are selected to enable him to see information and perform functions that relate to a role that he performs in the enterprise. In the example, shown inFIG. 1, the portal page is for the role of a hiring manager, Robert Alamar, the director of finance. The functions and views offered by the buttons include adashboard14, a view of the manager'steam16, a way to requisitionnew people18, a view of information aboutcandidates20, and ageneral contacts function22. The buttons (and hence the subsequent views that can be invoked by the manager) can be selected based on functions and tasks that are available from the underlying software application, on choices made by the manager to configure his interface, and in other ways.
• Thedashboard view24 provides panes that display to the manager information about (and enable him to perform) hiring tasks to be done26,requisitions28,candidates30, andothers27. The requisitions and candidates panes display top levelnumerical status information29 about the numbers of requisitions and candidates that have certain respective statuses, for example, of 146 candidates under consideration, 24 have evaluations pending, one has an interview pending, and six have offers pending. Eachtask pane28,30 includes abox32 in which a query can be entered to locate requisitions or candidates and alink34 to display recently viewed records.
• The particular panes that are displayed on the dashboard view will depend on the information needed and tasks to be done for the role played by the manager to whom they are presented, in this case the role of the manager being as a hiring manager. As will be seen later, Robert Alamar is the director of finance of the enterprise. In that position, he could have a variety of different roles. The particular role for which the dashboard view ofFIG. 1 applies is as a person who hires people for his group.
• The particular panes that are displayed also depend on the available information and functions provided by the software application that underlies the dashboard view. In addition, among a larger set of available panes, the manager who uses the dashboard can control the selection of panes to be displayed, and their layout and style.
• When theteam button16 is invoked by the manager, ateam window40 is displayed as shown inFIG. 2. The team window displays to the manager information about a set of employee positions of the enterprise, in this case including the position (Director of Finance) of the manager himself41 and of the positions of the people who are situated below him on the organizational chart of the finance department.
• In the team window,icons42,44, and46 and associatedradio buttons48 enable the manager to choose the graphical organization of the view of his team, either as anorganizational chart50, a tree, or a table.
• As shown inFIG. 2, theorganizational chart50 is displayed as a hierarchically arranged set ofpanels52, each panel related to one employee. In some examples (not shown), a panel would relate to a group of positions of people who work under a manager and that group panel could be toggled to roll down and roll up hidden parts of the organizational chart under that group panel. Connectinglines54 on theorganizational chart50 indicate reporting relationships among employees in the typical way.
• The organizational chart represents the positions and their relationships in the enterprise hierarchy. The status of a position may change over time. The position may be, for example, planned but not yet budgeted, budgeted but not yet filled (open), or filled. When a position is filled, thepanel52 may show thename53,title55, andphotograph57 of the employee who occupies the existing position on the chart.
• In some cases, if the existing position is not filled, thepanel60 is displayed in a different color and indicated by anOpen flag56. An unfilled position panel shows theposition title61 and either arequisition62 that has been opened or anindication64 that no requisition has been authorized, but the position has been budgeted. Alternatively, for example, the position could be shown as planned but not yet opened.
• In general, the organizational charts of the kind described here are active charts that enable the manager to do more than merely look at different portions of an organizational structure to see the positions in the structure and who occupies the positions. The organizational charts described here also enable the manager to perform personnel management tasks associated with one or more of the positions or of people who occupy them by directly invoking links that are graphically associated with the people or positions. Invoking the links leads directly to activities or information useful in the manager's role or roles.
• Because the organizational chart is active, it can effectively serve as a user interface paradigm much as the Microsoft Windows desktop paradigm serves as a general interface to applications managed by the operating system. In the organizational chart paradigm, the manager can rely almost entirely on the window that displays the organizational chart as a mode of using the processes of the software application. The user is able to align his understanding of the structure of the organization that he manages directly with the functions that he may need to perform and the information that he may need to obtain with respect to positions in that organization, rather than needing to learn a set of interfaces that are directed to the functions while using the organizational chart only occasionally as a passive chart.
• For example, as shown inFIG. 2, the manager can take actions with respect to unfilled positions in the organizational structure. In addition to obtaining additional information by invoking alink70 titled info and navigating to the list of tasks (similar to the list shown inpane26 ofFIG. 1) using the link labeled mytasks72, the manager can click on theactions links74 or76.
• When an info link is invoked, a list78 (as shown inFIG. 3) drops down to identifycategories80 of information available to the manager in the context of the role that is represented by the interface at the current time. Other examples of information that may be available include salary and performance information as shown inFIG. 21. The categories of information depend both on the manager's role for which the interface is configured and on the available information in the underlying database. If the manager invokes one of the categories on the list, that information is displayed on the screen. For example, if the View Requisition entry were invoked, the requisition associated with the position would be displayed as shown inFIG. 18.
• As shown inFIG. 4, when theactions link74 is invoked, a drop downlist80 identifies actions that may be taken by invoking anentry82 on the drop down list. The selection of available actions depends, as inFIG. 3, not only on the actions that are available from the software application but also on the context of the manager's role that is active in the interface.
• In the example shown, by invoking the Add New Position Reporting to Finance Manager item, the manager is taken to a process in the application that enables a new position to be added to the organizational chart as shown inFIG. 19. In general, whenever an invocation by the manager of a link that leads to windows in which information is presented or the features of a process of the software application can be used, the interface automatically (or by invocation of a link by the manager) returns to the organizational chart paradigm when the manager is finished using the information or working with the features.
• Enabling the manager to build and manage the organizational chart directly in this way, and to navigate back and forth from the organizational chart paradigm to other informational and action screens, emphasizes to the manager the paradigmatic nature of the interface. That is, he can not only use the organizational chart interface for navigation through the functional features of the application, but he also can create and manage the structure, positions, and people of the chart itself.
• FIG. 5 shows the drop downlist84 that appears when the “my tasks” link is invoked. The list oftasks86 is a shortened version of the task list shown inFIG. 1. When any of the items on the task list is invoked inFIG. 5, more detailed information about the task is revealed.FIG. 20 shows other examples of tasks, including tasks related to compensation and performance.
• When the user invokes thetree display style44, the information about the organizational chart is portrayed as ahierarchical list88 as shown inFIG. 6. Theroot entry90 at the top of the list represents the manager, Robert Alamar. Each position is shown in acompact panel92 in the list. The information displayed in a panel is similar to but more compact than the information shown in a corresponding panel ofFIGS. 2 through 5. For example, icons87 correspond to the icons on earlier figures. The hierarchical levels of the list can be rolled up and rolled down by invoking + and −icons93 in much the same way that portions of folder structures displayed by operating systems can be rolled up and rolled down.
• FIG. 7 shows similar information in the form of a table95 (which is displayed when thetable icon46 is invoked) containing fields fortitle97, reporting to99,requisition ID101,candidates103, andtasks105. Within the table view, the selection of which records are displayed can be determined by the manager by invoking one or another of the choices in a drop down list94. For example, by invokingOpen Positions107, the table is limited to positions that have not been filled (as in the table shown inFIG. 7).
• Some examples of an interface useful for a manager also could include features for building and managing the representation of all or a portion of an organizational structure.
• For example, as shown inFIG. 8, aportal page100 for a CEO, Lynn Hobart, could include panes similar to the ones shown inFIG. 1. By invoking theMy Team button102, the manager is taken to the display, shown inFIG. 9, of theorganizational chart104 in which she is in the root position. (in some figures thesilhouette images115 represent specific people whose photographs are not available).
• Graphical elements shown onFIG. 9 allow the manager to navigate and perform functions that help to render the organizational chart active and to serve as a user interface paradigm. For example, if the manger hovers over thedown arrow icon108 below aposition panel110, amessage111 is displayed (FIG. 10) indicating a number of additional positions that lie immediately below the position associated with theelement108. Clicking on theelement108 produces the display shown inFIG. 11 of the portion of the organizational chart that has at its top the position ofFIG. 9 from which the screen ofFIG. 11 was reached, and under it the positions that are under that top-level position in the organizational structure.
• The uparrow112 inFIG. 11 can be invoked to return to the display ofFIG. 10, that is to the portion of the display that shows at its root the position above Robert Alamar, and also shows the rest of the positions under the new root position.
• Referring again toFIG. 9, a panel that represents a position that is not currently filled can be displayed differently to enable the manager to invoke other functions associated with the status of the position. For example, thepanel114 that relates to Maria Josephs is shown with an offsetunderlying box116 and a smalldiagonal arrow118. As shown inFIG. 12, hovering over the arrow causes themessage120 “Toggle to requisition associated with this position” to appear. Clicking on the arrow causes theunderlying box116 to be displayed overlying thepanel114, as shown inFIG. 13. Thebox116 displays information about theposition117 and a link119, in this example, to a requisition for the position. Atag122 associated with thebox116 identifies the position as In Process and that a Draft of the requisition exists. Thearrow118 inFIG. 9 can be toggled to switch between the overlay ofFIG. 9 and the reverse overlay ofFIG. 13.
• Other kinds of information and other tags could be displayed in connection with thebox116.
• By clicking on thequestion mark icon124 to the right of the word Draft, the manager can view a help message125 (FIG. 14) explaining what is meant by Draft.
• Returning toFIG. 13, by hovering over theclipboard icon126 next to the question mark icon, the manager can see (FIG. 15) amessage128 indicating actions that the manager can take, in this case, viewing the requisition. By clicking on the available action description, the manager is taken to that process of the software application.
• In addition to being In Process, a position can be identified asPlanned129 and Budgeted (FIG. 16). Hovering over theclipboard130 of such a position triggers a message132 to be displayed that enables, for example, to request a requisition in accordance with the budget.
• The identities and numbers of items that can be displayed as help messages, actions, and in other ways in the panels, panes, and windows of the interface can vary and can depend on available features of the underlying software application, available information in a database, roles played by the manager, and preferences expressed by the manager.
• As shown inFIG. 17, the techniques described above can be implemented using typical, generally available software, hardware, database, and communication platforms. A server (or multiple servers)202 run asoftware application206 that includesprocesses208 that provide functions and information to managers useful in managing employees in an enterprise. The software application may in some implementations be run on user devices instead or on a combination of user devices and servers in a client-server mode. The software application creates, manages, and uses information in adatabase210 that can be located with the server or servers, coupled to them, or located remotely and accessed by anycommunication link203. The database itself may be distributed or centrally located.
• The database contains, among other information,organizational information212 that includes positions in anenterprise214, theirconnections216, actions that can be performed with respect to thepositions218, status of thepositions220; display information that can define thestyles224 of display elements, and their arrangement and presentation;information226 about the managers who use the system including theirroles228, theirpermissions230, and details about theirregistrations236 to use the system; personnel records of the usual kind maintained by anenterprise234; and other information.
• The server is accessible touser devices238,240,242 through one or more communicationlinks including networks236 such as local area networks, wide area networks, and publicly accessible networks, including the Internet. Each of the user devices presents aninterface244, for example, interfaces of the kind described above that include organizational chart paradigms. The user devices can be workstations, notebook computers, and telephones and other hand-held devices. Each of the devices can be used by one ormore managers246,248,250.
• Other implementations are also within the scope of the claims.
• For example, the manager may be permitted to access and work with portions or all of organizational charts for positions and people that he does not manage. For instance, a human resources manager may have permission to see and take actions with respect to any part of the organizational chart of an enterprise.

Claims (14)

1. A method comprising

displaying to a manager at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships,

displaying elements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.

2. The method ofclaim 1 in which displaying at least part of an organizational chart includes displaying information about the status of at least one of the positions.

3. The method ofclaim 2 in which the status includes displaying at least one of: planned but not authorized, authorized but not filled, and filled.

4. The method ofclaim 1 in which the actions include viewing information about the position.

5. The method ofclaim 1 in which the actions include at least one of planning a position, budgeting for a position, requisitioning a person for a position, and reviewing candidates for a position.

6. The method ofclaim 1 in which displaying at least part of an organizational chart includes displaying information about a particular person who occupies one of the positions.

7. The method ofclaim 1 in which displaying the elements that can be invoked includes displaying the elements visually in association with employee positions to which they relate.

8. The method ofclaim 1 in which the displaying of at least part of an organizational chart and the displaying of elements are determined based on a role being played by the manager.

9. The method ofclaim 1 also enabling the manager to control a style in which the organizational chart is displayed, including a chart style, and a tree style.

10. The method ofclaim 1 including displaying a control element that enables the manager to toggle between displaying information about a position information and information about actions that can be taken to change a status of the position.

11. A method comprising

displaying to a manager at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizational chart including (a) employee positions and their relationships, (b) information about the status of at least one of the positions, the status including at least one of: planned but not authorized, authorized but not filled, and filled information, and (c) information about a particular person who occupies one of the positions,

displaying elements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions, the actions including at least two of: viewing information about the position, planning a position, budgeting for a position, requisitioning a person for a position, and reviewing candidates for a position, the elements being displayed visually in association with employee positions to which they relate, and

the displaying of at least part of an organizational chart and the displaying of elements being determined based on a role being played by the manager.

12. An apparatus comprising

storage for information about positions of an organizational chart and actions that can be taken with respect to the positions, and

a processor configured to display to a manager (a) at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships, and (b) elements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform the actions with respect to the employee positions.

13. A medium bearing instructions to cause a processor to

display to a manager (a) at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships, and (b) elements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform the actions with respect to the employee positions, and

enable the manager to perform the actions.

14. A user interface paradigm comprising

a display to a manager of at least part of an organizational chart of an enterprise, the displayed organizational chart including employee positions and their relationships, and

a display to the manager of elements on the displayed organizational chart that can be invoked by the manager to perform actions with respect to the employee positions.

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