[0001] The present invention relates to the employment industry and, more particularly, to an automated workforce compliance management system.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Workers are becoming increasingly transient, moving frequently between different jobs with different employers in different areas. It is difficult for a prospective employer to quickly and easily verify information provided by a prospective worker. It is easy for a prospective worker to provide false information on their resume or omit prejudicial information. This presents a significant risk that an unsuitable or untrustworthy person will be employed.

[0003] For example, in the aged care industry, nurses often work on short stints with various hospitals. In 2015, a nurse called Roger Dean was employed by the Quakers Hill Nursing Home in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. His previous two employers dismissed him on the grounds that he had drug issues and mental health issues. Roger Dean avoided this problem by simply leaving his two previous employers off his resume. There was no means for a new employer to readily find that information. When he presented to the Quakers Hill Nursing Home, Roger was still registered as a nurse with the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency, so he appeared to be a suitable employee. Roger indicated that he was willing to work night shifts (which were unpopular with other employees), so he was hired. However, Roger wanted the night shifts so that he could have unsupervised access to the medication storage unit, which included restricted drugs that could be used for illicit purposes.

[0004] After a night shift, junior staff at the nursing home reported to the day shift manager that Roger had spent a significant amount of time in the medication storage unit. The day shift manager reported the matter to the police. The police visited the nursing home but were called away before they could conduct a thorough investigation of the medication storage unit. They indicated that they would return to the nursing home soon to conduct an investigation. The day shift manager told the evening shift manager, who then told Roger when he presented for the night shift. In order to destroy evidence of his tampering with the medication storage unit, Roger set the nursing home on fire. This resulted in the death of 14 residents of the nursing home.

[0005] This problem could have been avoided if Roger had been forced to give an accurate record of his employment history to the nursing home. [0006] Some industries are requiring progressively more workers. In many instances, the demand for these workers cannot be met locally. However, in many instances, the time and cost associated with employing foreign workers is prohibitive. For example, if a foreign nurse wants to apply for a job in Australia, then the nurse has to ask the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency if they will provide her with a licence if she completes the requisite course. If the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency replies in the affirmative, then the nurse then has to apply to a Registered Training Organisation in Australia to enrol in the relevant course. If the Registered Training Organisation replies accepts the application, then the nurse must take documentation from both the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency and the Registered Training Organisation to the immigration department of Australia to apply for a visa. The immigration department has to conduct a police check. A health organisation then has to verify the documentation from immigration department, the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency, the Registered Training Organisation and the police checks, before they can consider employing the foreign nurse. This verification process is slow and expensive.

[0007] In order for a doctor to enter into a contract of service with a health organisation, the doctor must present their credentials, scope of practice and registration documents to a prospective employer. There is no standard system for verifying this information. Each prospective employer has to manually verify the employment details of the doctor. This process often takes several weeks. Some regional areas have a high demand for doctors, but the doctors cannot readily be put to work until their credentials have been verified. If their credentials are not verified then the health organisation will put their insurance policy at risk.

[0008] It can take some time for a health organisation employing a doctor to establish whether a doctor has been suspended for malpractice. Doctors tend to operate as independent contractors for various health organisations at different locations. In the event of a malpractice claim, the government may suspend the authorisation of a doctor to practice. In that instance, a health organisation contracting the doctor cannot claim a rebate from the government for a component of the fees from the doctor. The government advises the doctor of their suspension, but not the various health organisations where the doctor is working. The health organisations are continuing to allow the doctor to practice at their workplace, and pay the doctor based on the number of patients they have seen, but the health organisation is not receiving the rebates from the government. It typically takes around six weeks for the health organisation to discover that a doctor’s authorisation to practice has been suspended. It would be advantageous if the personnel records of doctors were more easily accessible by health organisations. [0009] The object of the present invention is to provide a workforce compliance

management system which enables a prospective employer to quickly and easily verify the employment records of a prospective worker.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0010] According to the present invention, there is provided an automated workforce compliance management system comprising:

(a) a server for hosting a software application; and

(b) a device for running the software application, wherein the software application is adapted to enable workers to: i. aggregate a personnel profile using data from various sources which verify aspects of the personnel profile, and ii. share that personnel profile online with multiple third parties concurrently.

[0011] Preferably, the worker can submit aspects of their record to the personnel profile and the system contacts the third party to request verification. More preferably, the software application allows the worker to choose the aspects of their personnel record they expose to third parties via the system.

[0012] It is preferred that the software application allows the worker to undertake training via the system and keep records of the training in the personnel profile.

[0013] It is also preferred that the software application allows the third parties to upload data regarding the worker which can be automatically imported into their personnel record.

[0014] The software application may be adapted to verify the identity of a worker by looking for multiple matching items of identity, and more preferably three matching items of identity.

[0015] The data may include data about background checks, residency or visa status, immunisation history, licences, registrations, and other credentials.

[0016] The software application may allow the worker to upload documents to their personnel profile using a barcode so that the data is not stored on the device of the worker. [0017] Any of the features described herein can be combined in any combination with any one or more of the other features described herein within the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0018] Various embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the following drawings, in which:

[0019] Figure 1 is a conceptualization diagram of a prior art workforce compliance management system.

[0020] Figure 2 is a conceptualization diagram of the automated workforce compliance management system of the present invention.

[0021] Figure 3 is a screen shot of a resume produced by the system of the present invention.

[0022] Figure 4 is a screen shot of a user portal within the system of the present invention.

[0023] Figure 5 is a screen shot of an accreditation plugin within the system of the present invention.

[0024] Figure 6 is a screen shot of a worker dashboard within the system of the present invention.

[0025] Figure 7 is a screen shot of a compliance tab of a personnel profile for a particular worker, according to the present invention.

[0026] Figure 8 is a screen shot of a police check tab within the system of the present invention.

[0027] Figure 9 is a screen shot of a police check dashboard within the system of the present invention.

DETAIFED DESCRIPTION

[0028] Figure 1 shows a conceptualization of a prior art workforce compliance management system. In this prior art system, each circle represents an IT platform within an organisation.

The platform may be for human resources, payroll, rostering, e-learning, etc. Each platform directly connects to another platform. Each platform has to‘intimately know’ the other platform (i.e. they must be programmed to communicate). For this reason, prior art workforce compliance management systems lock an organisation into those particular platforms. Prior art workforce compliance management systems are not well adapted to connect with any outside third-parties, including other employing organisations and verification systems.

[0029] Figure 2 shows a conceptualization diagram of the present invention. In this embodiment of the invention, each platform has one connection to the central event stream. The present invention can connect to any other event platform connected to the same event stream. This reduces the amount of work and cost involved because the platform provider only has to pay for one connection. These connections can be both internal (such as between payroll, rostering and human resources) as well as external - connecting organisation A to organisation B, or a regulatory compliance provider, or a licensing authority, etc.

[0030] Figure 3 shows the product of the system of present invention in the form of a resume 10 containing a mix of both verified and unverified information from various sources. The resume 10 has been automatically formatted by the software application of the present invention.

[0031] All information presented on the resume 10 is initially input into the software application via the user portal 12 shown in figure 4. The portal allows the worker to input data about their education history, employment history, background checks, residency and visa status, registration, licences, permits, immunisation records, language skills, information about short courses or mandatory training they have undertaken, scope of practice, and other miscellaneous attributes. For example, miscellaneous attributes may include the ownership of a vehicle which can carry a wheel chair, which would be an asset for jobs such as home care nursing. The worker can select a button 14 to toggle whether to display a particular aspect of their data on the resume of figure 3.

[0032] Figure 5 shows the accreditation plugin 16 for the system of the present invention. The accreditation plugin 16 displays the list of requirements to perform any particular job. In the embodiment of the plugin shown in figure 5, the accreditation list is for an aged care worker. It includes the requirements that the worker has 100 points of identification, this year’s flu vaccination, a current police check, the appropriate qualification for the role, and induction training.

[0033] The accreditation plugin 16 displays which requirements the worker has fulfilled and which requirements the worker is yet to fulfil. In this way, the accreditation plugin prompts the worker to supply all relevant data.

[0034] Due to the connection system of the present invention (figure 2), an organisation can choose to have the accreditation information flow into their rostering system and thereby prevent the worker from being rostered. This lowers the risks to the workplace stakeholders, such as the employer and their clients. The information stream is instantaneous and updated in real time. In prior art systems, this data is either not available, or is manually transmitted (which creates a time lag in the stream of information). This aspect of the invention functions as an automatic alert process.

[0035] The‘common induction training’ 18 appearing in figure 5 refers to the induction training which is delivered via system of the present invention. In a dashboard profile (not shown) of the software application of the present invention, the user is able to access training modules relevant to their field of expertise. The training modules are delivered online (typically via video), along with other training and testing deliverables, which can verify whether the worker has completed the training. For example, the training module may contain a set of multiple-choice questions. Those questions can change from worker to worker, so that one worker cannot convey the answers to another worker. Thereby, the system ensures that the training modules truly test the comprehension and understanding of the individual worker.

[0036] The list on the accreditation plugin 16 also includes a‘current police check’ item 20. The worker can request a police check via the system. The system is linked to a third-party source, which may be, for example, a company which provides background checks. The company can then deliver the results directly back into the software application of the present invention. This enables a prospective employer to ensure that the data in the background check report was not changed by the worker before presentation.

[0037] Immunisation records are relevant for many professions, but particularly for workers in the care industry, such as nurses, doctors and child care workers. There is currently no ‘immunisation register’ . The system of the present invention provides such a register. A worker would request that their doctor use the system of the present invention to directly input data about their immunisation history. This information would show up on the worker personnel profile of figure 4, the accreditation plugin 16 and the resume 10 (see figure 3) for viewing by prospective employers.

[0038] Each worker inputs data regarding their identity into the system. However, in some instances, there may be various ways of expressing the data. For example, a worker may go by an abbreviated version of their name, rather than the formal version of their name. Accordingly, if a third-party source wishes to input information about a particular worker into the system, then more than one aspect of the worker’s identity can be used to verify that the information is being input for the correct worker. For example, a doctor wishing to input the immunisation records of a worker must match the name and another item of the worker’s identity, such as their date of birth, email address or street address.

[0039] Another aspect of the invention is the information which the system delivers to the employers. An employer is presented with a list of all of their workers in the worker

dashboard 22 shown in figure 6. A user representing the employer, such as a human resources manager, can select the name of any particular worker in the dashboard in order to access any particular aspect of the worker’s resume. For example, the records of the worker Vicky Chiu 24 can be selected. Thereafter the human resources manager is taken to the personnel profile 26 for Vicky Chiu 24.

[0040] Figure 7 shows the compliance tab of information on the personnel profile for Vicky Chiu 24. The personnel profile 26 has other tabs such as‘about’,‘short courses’,‘experience’ and‘other’. Within the compliance tab, the human resources manager can see details of Vicky’s tax declaration, employee contract, statutory declarations, police checks and residency information. The human resources manager can see which items of information have been independently verified by third parties. In this way, the present invention provides a reliable and up-to-date source of information for the human resources manager.

[0041] A human resources manager can nominate the items of a worker’s record which require compliance. As shown in compliance dashboard 28 of figure 8, relevant items for compliance may include, for example, the employee contract to be signed, a statutory declaration to be provided, a tax declaration to be provide and a valid visa status. A human resources manager can see all of the workers’ compliance records simultaneously in the compliance dashboard 28. The records are designated as either valid or invalid, so that the human resources manager knows which workers’ records require attention.

[0042] As shown in figure 2, the platforms of the present invention are connected, so that if any aspect of a worker’s personnel profile is non-compliant, then the human resources platform can notify the rostering platform not to roster any shifts to the non-compliant worker. In prior art systems, such functionality is not available.

[0043] Referring to figure 8, the human resources manager can select any particular aspect to find more information about that aspect of the worker’s records. For example, the human resources manager could select the‘police check’ tab 30 to be taken to the police check dashboard 32 shown in figure 9. The police check dashboard 32 shows the date that the police check was signed by a police officer and its expiry date. The human resources manager can thereby determine when new police check needs to be conducted. A human resources manager can notify the worker to obtain a new police check. The worker can request the police check via the system, or the human resources manager can request the police check via the system.

[0044] Various other aspects of a human resource management system can be integrated into system of the present invention. As long as those aspect contain information which can be dynamically and automatically verified within the system of the present invention, then they are within the scope and ambit of the present invention.

Concluding Remarks

[0045] In the present specification and claims (if any), the word‘comprising’ and its derivatives including‘comprises’ and‘comprise’ include each of the stated integers but does not exclude the inclusion of one or more further integers.

[0046] Reference throughout this specification to‘one embodiment’ or‘an embodiment’ means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases‘in one embodiment’ or‘in an embodiment’ in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more combinations.

[0047] In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific to structural or methodical features. It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to specific features shown or described since the means herein described comprises preferred forms of putting the invention into effect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms or modifications within the proper scope of the appended claims (if any) appropriately interpreted by those skilled in the art.