BE1022325B1 - METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ESTABLISHING WORK CONTRACTS - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a computer-implemented method for drawing up employment contracts. When drawing up said employment contracts, the presence of required documents is taken into account and the validity of said documents is checked. Furthermore, the present invention also relates to a system and the use of such a system suitable for drawing up employment contracts. The system is provided for keeping and checking required documents when drawing up said employment contracts.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ESTABLISHING WORK CONTRACTS TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a computer-implemented method and a system for drafting employment contracts. More specifically for drafting temporary contracts in the temporary employment sector based on the presence of a number of required documents.

BACKGROUND

To perform some jobs, a number of official documents from an employee are required by law. Some of these documents have limited validity. The administration associated with keeping and checking whether these documents are still valid is cumbersome and systems and working methods for partially automating are known. LIS 2008/0027746 describes a system and method that makes it easier to comply with labor legislation. The system and method require that an employer or his representative extracts information from documents and that information is kept in a database. Reports are then generated from this data that are used in personnel policy, such as a checklist or a list of tasks. However, the system is not applied for drafting contracts and includes manual input from an employer or his representative. US 2013/0290200 describes a system and method for automating exploitation management based on updated data. This data relates to personnel planning, follow-up and monitoring of operation management. The system is able to generate reports on the basis of the tracked data and the generation of signaling. The system is used to keep track of data required for operation management, such as work time and location determination. This system or method is also not applied when drafting contracts.

There remains a demand for systems and methods or improvements to existing systems and methods for keeping and reviewing official documents required when drafting employment contracts. The invention aims to at least partially solve the shortcomings and problems described above. Such methods and systems are especially important for temporary work or when working with temporary contracts, which means that contracts must be renewed on a regular basis. Sectors such as employment agencies, social secretariats and personnel services can take advantage of such systems and methods.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect, the invention relates to a computer-implemented method for drafting employment contracts comprising the steps of: creating a file per employee on a database; digitizing documents via an input module; generating metadata from said digitized documents by a data analysis module and accommodating said metadata in said file per employee on said database; deciding on the basis of said metadata that a contract may or may not be drawn up by a decision module, said decision module comparing the metadata with predetermined standards.

The method described above ensures that a file is created per employee in which digitized documents are stored. In addition, metadata is generated from the digitized documents that extracts certain data from the documents through a data analysis module. This metadata is added to the employee file. Based on this metadata, a decision module can decide whether the metadata meets predetermined standards. If this is the case, you will be allowed to draw up a contract. This method makes it possible to draw up a large number of employment contracts in a short period of time and yet to check all these contracts to see if the necessary documents are present and whether the documents mentioned are still valid.

For example, in the temporary employment sector, weekly contracts are used. This generates a large amount of work to draw up all these contracts on a weekly basis and to check for the presence of valid documents. Following a method according to the invention will simplify and accelerate this process.

In a second aspect, the invention provides a system for drafting employment contracts comprising - a central server; - a database comprising a plurality of employee files, operatively in communicative connection with said server; - an input module for digitizing documents, operatively in communicative connection with said server; - an analysis module for generating metadata from said digitized documents; - a decision module for checking said metadata to a predetermined standard; - a display module for displaying a decision that an employment contract may or may not be drawn up.

A system according to the invention makes it possible to digitize metadata from documents required from a central server via an input module and data analysis module and to add it to an employee file. Said metadata is then checked via a decision module to predetermined standards in order to generate or not generate a contract in a display module. As a result, a large part of an employee file is digitized, which makes an archive superfluous. Data can also be exchanged quickly via the central server between different persons or branches of an employer or his representative.

In a third aspect, the invention provides a use of a system according to the second aspect of the invention in a method according to the first aspect of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The explicit characteristics, advantages and objectives of the present invention will further become apparent to those skilled in the art of the invention after reading the following detailed description of the embodiment of the invention and of the figures included herein. To that end, the figures should further illustrate the invention, without thereby limiting the scope of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a communication window according to an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 2 shows a communication window according to an embodiment of the invention.

Figure 3 shows an overview of an embodiment of an employee file.

Figure 4 shows an embodiment of a contract preparation module. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used in the description of the invention, including technical and scientific terms, have the meaning as generally understood by those skilled in the art of the invention. For a better assessment of the description of the invention, the following terms are explicitly explained. "A", "de" and "het" in this document refer to both the singular and the plural unless the context clearly assumes otherwise. For example, "a contract" means one or more than a contract.

When "about" or "round" is used in this document for a measurable quantity, a parameter, a duration or moment, and the like, variations are meant of +/- 20% or less, preferably +/- 10% or less, more preferably +/- 5% or less, even more preferably +/- 1% or less, and even more preferably +/- 0.1% or less than and of the quoted value, insofar as such variations of are applicable in the described invention. However, it must be understood here that the value of the quantity at which the term "about" or "round" is used is itself specifically disclosed.

The terms "include", "comprising", "consist of", "consisting of", "provided with", "contain", "containing", "include", "including", "contents", "contents" are synonyms and are inclusive or open terms indicating the presence of what follows, and which do not preclude or preclude the presence of other components, features, elements, members, steps, known from or described in the prior art.

The citation of numerical intervals by the end points includes all integers, fractions and / or real numbers between the end points, including these end points.

The term "employee" refers to a person who works for a company and receives financial compensation for this, either through a temporary employment agency, a temporary worker, or directly through the company itself. Potential employees for a company are also referred to as "employees", these have been involved in a selection procedure but may not have worked for the said company.

The term "employer or his representative" refers to a company or person who employs persons or an employee of said company who is responsible for at least part of the personnel policy. A temporary employment consultant is also understood as a "representative of an employer".

The term "employment agency" refers to a company that fills vacancies for other companies. Synonyms are recruitment office, selection office, interim agency, work shop, ...

The term "temporary employment consultant" refers to an employee of an employment agency. A temporary worker is a synonym for this.

The term "standard" refers to a minimum number of criteria that documents must meet to be approved. Preferably it is the employer or his representative who sets these standards and more preferably on the basis of legislation. The standards may include: the expiry date of a document, the type of documents required and a period that the expiry date may be exceeded.

In a first aspect, the invention relates to a computer-implemented method for drafting employment contracts comprising the steps of: creating a file per employee on a database; digitizing documents via an input module; generating metadata from said digitized documents by a data analysis module and accommodating said metadata in said file per employee on said database; - deciding on the basis of said metadata that a contract may or may not be drawn up by a decision module, wherein said decision module compares the metadata with predetermined standards.

The method described above ensures that a file is created per employee in which digitized documents are stored. In addition, metadata is generated from the digitized documents that extracts certain data from the documents through a data analysis module. This metadata is added to the employee file. Based on this metadata, a decision module can decide whether the metadata meets predetermined standards. If this is the case, you will be allowed to draw up a contract. This method makes it possible to draw up a large number of employment contracts in a short period of time and yet to check all these contracts to see if the necessary documents are present and whether the documents mentioned are still valid.

For example, in the temporary employment sector, weekly contracts are used. This generates a large amount of work to draw up all these contracts on a weekly basis and to check for the presence of valid documents. Following a method according to the invention will simplify and accelerate this process.

In a preferred embodiment, said documents are required by law.

Because the documents are digitized and stored, the requirements drawn up by preferably local legislation in relation to labor law are met. This legislation imposes a minimum of necessary documents before an employee can start working. Because the system keeps track of these documents and checks the expiry date, the condition that the aforementioned documents will always be met when renewing a contract and the new contract will always be legal in relation to the said requirement.

In a preferred embodiment, said documents are selected from the list of workshop file, medical certificate, driver's license, work permit, SCC documents, diploma, permit and / or training certificate.

The term "SCC" stands for Safety, Health and Environmental Checklist Contractors. VCA is a certification process of companies where companies commit to make more efforts than legally the minimum in terms of mainly prevention, safety, health and environmental policies. Preferably, said companies are active in the construction sector.

The term "VCA documents" refers to documents that an employee must have in order to work for a VCA classified company. For example, this VCA document is a safety passport, which is proof of training courses in accident prevention and safety. In addition, certificates related to first aid training, professional competence, medical certificates, vaccinations, etc. can be included in the safety passport or directly added to the employee file.

These documents are important when drafting a contract, the extent to which they are important is defined in the predetermined standard and depends on legislation, sector and requirements of an employer or employers' association. For example, the presence of a valid work permit is a legal requirement for foreign employees, a cook needs a chef's diploma or a food safety certificate, a truck driver needs a valid driver's license and medical certificate, ...

In a preferred embodiment, said metadata comprises the expiry date of said documents.

Because the metadata that is stored in the employee file includes the expiry date of said documents, the validity of the stored documents can be checked at any time. The validity date can also be used for timely notification of renewals of said documents.

In a preferred embodiment, said predetermined standards may preferably be exceeded 2 weeks, more preferably 1 week before the decision module decides not to award a contract.

Applying a period that one or more predetermined standards may be exceeded allows an employee to start working even though he has requested the necessary documents or is waiting for the delivery of certain documents. This allows an employee to respond more quickly to job offers and job offers to be filled faster. Preferably, an employer or his representative determines which standards may be exceeded during a certain period. Some standards do not allow exceedances. If a standard is exceeded for longer than the stated period, the decision module will not allow the drawing up of a new contract.

In a preferred embodiment, renewal tasks are generated and this preferably 2 months, more preferably 1 month before the expiry date of a document.

As a result, an employee and possibly the employer or his representative are informed in time that a document must be renewed. This allows timely action to be taken so that the document can be renewed before the old document expires.

In a preferred embodiment, said database comprises besides said metadata also other data about the employee, such as data about training, address, contact details, work history, ...

A file is created on the database for each employee that includes all the above information supplemented with information obtained from the documents belonging to that employee. The availability of all this data per employee file has the advantage that it can be used when drawing up a contract or making an appointment when renewing documents.

In a preferred embodiment, data from the employee file is forwarded to a third person for renewing at least one of said documents, preferably by a renewal module.

The term "third" or "third person" refers to a person or organization that is not part of the employer or his representative. This is for example a medical center, a doctor, a government agency, a training agency, ...

This gives the third person the necessary information when renewing a document. For example, a medical center can have the contact details of an employee and contact them to make an appointment for a medical examination.

In a preferred embodiment, a checklist of missing or renewable documents is generated in the display module.

The display module has an option to generate a list of documents to be renewed or documents that will expire in the foreseeable future. Preferably an employer or his representative decides for himself how long this foreseeable period is, for example 1 or 2 months. This list can then be used to draw up task lists. These tasks on the list can be, for example, making agreements to renew documents or contacting employees.

In a preferred embodiment, a contract is drawn up by a contract-drafting module where data is retrieved from the database and where other data is entered by an employer or his representative.

This considerably reduces the work of the employer or his representative, large parts of the contract are automatically generated. The risk of human error is also smaller.

In a second aspect, the invention provides a system for drafting employment contracts comprising - a central server; - a database comprising a plurality of employee files, operatively in communicative connection with said server; - an input module for digitizing documents, operatively in communicative connection with said server; - an analysis module for generating metadata from said digitized documents; - a decision module for checking said metadata to a predetermined standard; - a display module for displaying a decision that an employment contract may or may not be drawn up.

A system according to the invention makes it possible to digitize metadata from documents required from a central server via an input module and data analysis module and to add it to an employee file. Said metadata is then checked via a decision module to predetermined standards in order to generate or not generate a contract in a display module. As a result, a large part of an employee file is digitized, which makes an archive superfluous. Data can also be exchanged quickly via the central server between different persons or branches of an employer or his representative.

In a preferred embodiment, the system comprises a renewal module for timely notification that a particular document will expire, in which time is preferably 1 month, more preferably 2 month or most preferably is defined in time by the employer or his representative.

This means that an employee or an employer has enough time to request a renewal of a certain document and several contracts can follow each other without periods in which a contract cannot be drawn up due to the lack of a valid document.

In a preferred embodiment, the system comprises a contract-drafting module for drafting a contract with data from the database and optionally supplemented with data entered by a temporary employment consultant.

As a result, a contract is drawn up based on data from the employee file that is stored on the database. An employer or his representative can preferably adjust the data manually. The system allows at least part of the contract to be drafted without human intervention.

In a third aspect, the invention provides a use of a system according to the second aspect of the invention in a method according to the first aspect of the invention.

In the following, the invention is described a.d.h.v. non-limiting examples illustrating the invention, and which are not intended or may be interpreted to limit the scope of the invention.

EXAMPLES

Example 1

Figure 1 shows a communication window according to an embodiment of the invention. The field 101 displays a list of the digitized documents, with the name 102 of each document, the date 103 of the last change, the type 104 document, for example a scan, a text or a pdf, and the size 105 of each document. Field 106 shows a visualization of the digitized document, field 107 shows the type of document, for example a work sheet, field 108 indicates which employee or temporary worker, UZK, the document belonged, field 109 shows the function that the employee or the temporary worker. Box 110 is checked if a medical certificate is required when performing the aforementioned function. If it concerns temporary work, a name of an enterprise can be stored in field 111, this enterprise is the client of an employment agency. Fields 107-111 can be filled in automatically or adjusted manually by an employer or his representative. The changes made can be stored on the database via field 112.

Example 2

Figure 2 shows a communication window according to an embodiment of the invention. The field 201 displays a list of the digitized documents, with the name 202 of each document, the date 203 of the last change, the type 204 document, for example a scan, a text or a pdf, and the size 205 of each document. Field 206 displays a visualization of the digitized document, in this example a medical certificate. Field 207 indicates the type of document, here a medical certificate, field 208 indicates which employee or temporary worker, UZK, belonged to the document. Field 209 displays the expiration date of the said document. Fields 207-209 can be filled in automatically or adjusted manually by an employer or his representative. The changes made can be stored on the database via field 210.

Example 3

Figure 3 shows an overview of an employee file. Containing the name 301 of the employee and the file number 302. Furthermore, an employee file also includes the address 303 of the employee, the contact details 304 of the employee. The employee file comprises various parts 305, of which figure 3 shows the 'Documents' part 307. Further subsections of the 'Documents' 307 section are 'Personal documents' 308, 'Social documents' 309, 'Cards' 310 and 'VCA documents' 311. The personal documents 308 subsection is shown in Figure 3. The plane 312 gives a list of digitized documents. The figure further comprises the details 313 about a selected digitized document, such as the type of document 314, the possible customer 315 for which this document is relevant if it concerns temporary work, the name of the digitized document, the earliest validity date 317, the expiry date of validity and a field 319 in which comments can be formulated. The overview also gives the possibility to open a selected digitized document 320, and thus obtain a graphical representation of the digitized document.

Example 4

Figure 4 shows an embodiment of a contract preparation module. In this example, a contract is drawn up for temporary work. The module contains the file number 401, the name of the customer 402, this is the company where the temporary worker 403 will work, the duration 404 of the contract, the reason 405 why the contract is being issued, the type of contract 406 and the function 407 that the temporary worker is going to fill. The temporary employment module further comprises data 406 about which temporary employment consultant has drawn up or adjusted the contract. The contract preparation module comprises various components 409, of which the component 'General' is shown in Figure 4. This section includes a customer reference 410, who selects the employee 411, an employment agency or the customer himself, the place of employment 412, the characteristic of employment 413, the Joint Committee 414, the language in which the contract must be drawn up 415, a coefficient negotiated between temporary employment agency and customer 416, a coefficient with regard to the holidays 417. This part furthermore includes an indication if a medical check 418 is required or not and if the temporary worker must have SCC certification 419. Field 420 indicates to whom the statutory holidays are paid, the client or the employment agency. Field 421 indicates whether or not a contract can be drawn up based on all the data available to the system in the database. If the decision is negative, field 421 will also state why a contract cannot be drawn up. The decision is made by the decision module.

It is believed that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above and that some modifications or changes can be added to the described examples without re-evaluating the appended claims. For example, the present invention has been described with reference to broadcast sector, but it should be understood that the invention can be applied to, for example, headhunting.

Claims (14)

CONCLUSIONS Computer-implemented method for drafting employment contracts comprising the steps of: - creating a file per employee on a database; - digitizing documents via an input module; - generating metadata from said digitized documents by a data analysis module and placing said metadata in said file per employee on said database; - deciding on the basis of said metadata that a contract may or may not be drawn up by a decision module, characterized in that said decision module compares the metadata with predetermined standards. The method of claim 1, wherein said documents are required to be present by legislation. 3. Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein said documents are selected from the list of workshop file, medical certificate, driver's license, work permit, SCC documents, diploma, permit and / or training certificate. Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein said metadata comprises the expiry date of said documents. 5. Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein said predetermined standards may be exceeded for 2 weeks before the decision module decides not to grant a new contract. A method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein renewal tasks are generated by a renewal module. 7. Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein said database comprises other data about the employee in addition to said metadata, such as data about training, address, contact details, work history, ... A method according to at least one of claims 6-7, wherein data from the employee file are forwarded to a third person for renewing at least one of said documents by the renewal module module. A method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein a checklist of missing or renewable documents is generated in the display module. Method according to at least one of the preceding claims, wherein a contract is drawn up by a contract-drafting module in which data is retrieved from the database and wherein other data is entered by a broadcasting agent. 11. System for drafting employment contracts comprising - a central server; - a database comprising a plurality of employee files, operatively in communicative connection with said server; an input module for digitizing documents operatively in communication with said server; - an analysis module for generating metadata from said digitized documents; - a decision module for checking said metadata to a predetermined standard; - a display module for displaying a decision that an employment contract may or may not be drawn up. The system of claim 11, comprising a renewal module for notifying that a particular document will expire. A system according to at least one of claims 11-12, comprising a contract preparation module for drafting a contract with data from the database and optionally supplemented with data entered by a temporary employment consultant. Use of a system according to at least one of claims 11-13 in a method according to claims 1-10.