System and method for identifying excellence within a profession

Abstract

The present invention provides for a system and method of identifying excellence within a profession. In one embodiment, excellent performing candidates within a profession group are identified by creating a candidate pool from independent research and a peer nomination process. Identified candidates then obtain a score according to an independent research and objective evaluation process. Peer evaluators contribute to this score by evaluating top-scoring candidates, and a total score is compiled for each identified candidate. Candidates with scores in a top percentage of the candidates are then recognized as demonstrating excellent performance in the profession group.

1 . A method for identifying excellent performance of candidates within a profession group, comprising:
 creating a candidate pool by selecting individuals from a profession group, including:
 receiving and processing a survey of peer professionals working within the profession group, wherein the peer professionals nominate other individuals within the profession group, wherein a minimum set of qualifications exist for each of the peer professionals to provide nominations; 
 performing independent research to identify individuals, the independent research comprising data mining to identify the individuals who satisfy predefined criteria for outstanding performance within the profession group, wherein the data mining includes querying electronic data sources containing relevant biographical information for the individuals within the profession group; and 
 selecting candidates for the candidate pool based on a combination of the results produced by the survey of peer professionals and the independent research, wherein the combination is performed using a computer operation which removes duplicate candidates; 
 wherein biographical information about individuals identified via the survey and the independent research is compiled for each individual within the candidate pool and stored in a data store; 
   evaluating individuals within the candidate pool, including:
 performing independent research to evaluate performance of the individuals, the independent research comprising data mining to retrieve performance information for the individuals relevant to objective criteria specific to the profession group, wherein the performance information is compiled for each individual in the candidate pool and added to the information compiled for each individual stored within the data store; and 
 deriving a numerical evaluation for each individual within the candidate pool based on each of the objective criteria, wherein each objective criterion is correlated with a point scale to produce a score for each individual based on the performance information of each individual stored in the data store; 
 compiling a point total for each individual based on the combination of the score produced from the numerical evaluation of each of the objective criteria; 
   conducting peer evaluations of individuals with point totals in a predetermined top percentage of individuals in the candidate pool, including:
 performing evaluations by peer evaluators to produce an averaged peer evaluation score for each individual in the predetermined top percentage, wherein the peer evaluators are selected from a sub-group of highly performing individuals within the profession group; 
 correlating the averaged peer evaluation score to the point scale of the objective criteria to produce a weighted peer evaluation score for each individual in the predetermined top percentage; and 
 adding the weighted peer evaluation score to the point total for each individual in the predetermined top percentage; 
   selecting individual candidates with point totals in a second predetermined top percentage of individuals in the candidate pool; and   identifying the selected individual candidates as demonstrating excellent performance in the profession group.   
     
     
         2 . The method as in  claim 1 , further comprising dividing the individual candidates with point totals in a predetermined top percentage of individuals in the candidate pool into groups based on common characteristics. 
     
     
         3 . The method as in  claim 2 , wherein the common characteristics include firm or organization size of the individuals. 
     
     
         4 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein the profession group is limited to practitioners located within a defined geographic area. 
     
     
         5 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein the nominations of peer professionals are tracked to prevent peer professionals from engaging in reciprocal voting. 
     
     
         6 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein the number of nominations provided by each of the peer professionals is limited to a predefined number. 
     
     
         7 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein creating a candidate pool further includes providing a point value for individuals who are nominated by professionals outside of the individual's firm or organization, wherein the point value is added to the point totals for the individuals. 
     
     
         8 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein the peer evaluation score provided by the peer evaluators is weighted based on some predefined value. 
     
     
         9 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein independent verification is performed of all information material to the numerical evaluation of the selected individual candidates. 
     
     
         10 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein a website is used to provide an interface to input and display data. 
     
     
         11 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein a report is generated onto a tangible medium showing the identified candidates and relevant information used in creating the report, the relevant information including one or more of profession group, profession sub-group, geographic area, predetermined time period, and point totals. 
     
     
         12 . A method for identifying excellent performance of candidates within a profession group, comprising:
 creating a candidate pool through a combination of surveying peer professionals within the profession group and conducting independent research on individuals within the profession group to identify candidates for recognition of excellent professional performance;   conducting objective evaluations of candidates in the candidate pool by performing independent research of the candidates, wherein the objective evaluations include producing a score for each of a plurality of defined objective criteria, wherein each of the plurality of defined objective criteria have minimum and maximum point ranges and recommended point values for common professional achievements;   conducting peer evaluations of a subset of the individual candidates in the candidate pool by receiving from peers within the profession group a score of the professional performance for each of the individual candidates in the subset, the subset comprising individual candidates having scores within a predefined top percentage of candidates according to the plurality of defined objective criteria;   scoring the performance of the individual candidates according to a weighted combination of the scores produced for each of the plurality of defined objective criteria and for the peer evaluations, wherein total scores produced for the individual candidates are reviewed for accuracy;   selecting individual candidates having total scores that place the individual candidates in a predefined top percentage of candidates in the candidate pool; and   identifying the selected individual candidates as demonstrating excellent performance in the profession group.   
     
     
         13 . A computer program on a computer readable medium, for execution by a computer to identify excellent performance of candidates within a profession group, the computer program comprising:
 a code segment for creating a candidate pool by selecting individuals from a profession group, including:
 processing a survey of peer professionals working within the profession group, wherein the peer professionals nominate other individuals within the profession group, wherein a minimum set of qualifications exist for each of the peer professionals to provide nominations; 
 performing independent research to identify individuals, the independent research comprising data mining to identify the individuals who satisfy predefined criteria for outstanding performance within the profession group, wherein the data mining includes querying electronic data sources containing relevant biographical information for the individuals within the profession group; and 
 selecting candidates for the candidate pool based on a combination of the results produced by the survey of peer professionals and the independent research, wherein the combination is performed using a computer operation which removes duplicate candidates; 
 wherein biographical information about individuals identified via the survey and the independent research is compiled for each individual within the candidate pool and stored in a data store; 
   a code segment for evaluating individuals within the candidate pool, including:
 performing independent research to evaluate performance of the individuals, the independent research comprising data mining to retrieve performance information for the individuals relevant to objective criteria specific to the profession group, wherein the performance information is compiled for each individual in the candidate pool and added to the information compiled for each individual stored within the data store; and 
 deriving a numerical evaluation for each individual within the candidate pool based on each of the objective criteria, wherein each objective criterion is correlated with a point scale to produce a score for each individual based on the performance information of each individual stored in the data store; 
 compiling a point total for each individual based on the combination of the score produced from the numerical evaluation of each of the objective criteria; 
   a code segment for conducting peer evaluations of individuals with point totals in a predetermined top percentage of individuals in the candidate pool, including:
 performing evaluations by peer evaluators to produce an averaged peer evaluation score for each individual in the predetermined top percentage, wherein the peer evaluators are selected from a sub-group of highly performing individuals within the profession group; 
 correlating the averaged peer evaluation score to the point scale of the objective criteria to produce a weighted peer evaluation score for each individual in the predetermined top percentage; and 
 adding the weighted peer evaluation score to the point total for each individual in the predetermined top percentage; 
   a code segment for selecting individual candidates with point totals in a second predetermined top percentage of individuals in the candidate pool; and   a code segment for identifying the selected individual candidates as demonstrating excellent performance in the profession group.