OFFICE BOYS : Their Selection and Development.—The ex perience of large business houses has persuaded them to believe that the merit system of promotion works to the best advantage, when the lowliest worker can be promoted continually to the top. This has incited a large demand for office boys and junior clerks who can be pushed ahead. In the selection of office boys it is well, therefore, to consider the country boy most favourably, as he not only holds his own with the city boy, but his greater patience and his willingness to learn and to stick have made the country boy a decided favourite. It is very hard to organise a staff of efficient office boys. They seem not to take interest in the business. They are careless, ill-mannered, and expert principally in the things they ought not to do, but the country boy knows when he goes to the city that he has to succeed or go back to the country, and that is one of the reasons why so many of them succeed as office boys where the city lad fails. The boy who can show a record for efficiency in office duties is the boy who should be promoted. In order to prevent slacking and to stimulate enthusiasm for the work, it is well to have a careful system of promotion. When a boy is engaged and put to fold circulars, stamp and seal letters, it should be so arranged that he works with the knowledge constantly before him that as soon as he proves himself capable and willing and there is an opening he will be advanced to another department. From this department he may be promoted to, say, a subordinate position in the book-keeping department. Here he is advanced step by step until he reaches the position of assistant to the head book-keeper. From here he may be sent to take charge of a branch office. In this way are secured not only capable men, but those trained in every department of the business, who are therefore able to judge if those under them are turning out all the work possible. That man certainly can best manage men who has been all along the line where those beneath him are. He commands respect and can give directions with the confidence his experience has afforded him.
Do not expect too much of the office boy. He is not a two thousand pounds a year official. He is only a boy, with not more intelligence than a boy should have. You do not expect a man's head on a child's shoulders, and it would be quite remarkable for an office boy to exercise mature judgment in matters of weight. It is not so much that boys have not
the brains to decide what to do, but rather that they do not possess the knowledge of all the facts of the case. Frequent and sometimes serious mistakes can be avoided if matters are explained in full to the office boy. He should be told the reason for everything.
A bad workman blames his tools, and an inefficient manager is apt to complain that his assistants are not efficient. Every one who has boys working for him should realise how the boy's nature is constituted, and a wise man will not send two boys to the same place at the same time. It is a manager's business, therefore, to handle boys properly, and to direct their efforts in such a way as to produce the most work.
Take a given number of boys, some lazy, some energetic, none over-anxious to work. There is a certain amount of latent power stored up within them, just as in a steam-boiler, but the boiler without the engine and the engine driver would be useless. The energy of the boiler must be controlled, and the energy which is stored up in boys must be brought into the right channels. Make the most of your material. 1)o not blame the boys entirely. They are all they were intended to be. Rather study for a way to handle them right, to issue instructions, and check up their work so as to make mistakes impossible. It is vital to your business that you should know the men who are making your success for you, and also that you should know the boys who will later be the men in your employ.
On the other hand, do not be afraid to let your employees know you. Always set a good example yourself. Command their respect by the integrity of your business methods, and let them know you have confidence in their ability until they prove themselves unworthy. Treat those beneath you with respect and they will return the compliment. The ideal relation is one of familiarity and loyalty, such that the employee puts himself in his employer's position and calculates from both standpoints what sort of an employee he would engage to get the most out of his business, and then tries himself to be that kind of man. In order to be able to expect as much as this of your employees they must expect a good deal from you, and they must be made to feel that your interests are theirs and their interests yours.
It. A. LEARNED.
Managing Director, Hapgoods, Ltd.