TICKLER SYSTEM. See MAIL ORDER BUSINESS.
TIME CHECKING.—Directly an employer has more than twenty bands the problem of keeping check of their time becomes a matter of importance in the economy of his business, and it may be said that the larger the number of employees on his wages list, the greater will be the necessity for having an accurate record sho \‘ing whether they punctually observe the hours of labour. The smaller employer of labour in the old days was content with a hand-to-mouth check of his employee,,, as it was not worth the cost of maintaining a department to watch the incoming and outgoing of the hands —or at least he did not think so. The employer of many hands has always realised the importance of enforcing punctuality, and for that purpose has usually maintained a clerk in a lodge leading to his works, trusting to the observation of this official to keep check on his employees' lime. Since then experiments have been made with mechanical timekeepers, and there have been many recorders placed on the market. To-day, in most up-to-date works, a mechanical timekeeper has superseded the human timekeeper at the entrance, It not only does its work better and quicker, but is more economical in working and less liable to mistakes. Modern labour con ditions make it necessary that an employer should not lose any of the time for which he has bargained with his employees. In the old days, when labour conditions were more elastic, a great element of give and take entered into this agreement, but to-day the employer is less and less a free agent in the management of his anirs, and must protect himself in every legitimate way to secure the utmost advantage which law and a spirit of common fair ness will permit.
Any student of business economics will appreciate the fact that if A. is to receive nine shillings per day of nine hours and arrives at the factory, workshop, or office half-an-hour late, if the unpunctuality goes unchecked, that discrepancy has cost the employer sixpence for which he has received no equivalent in service. This may appear a small matter in itself, and would be a small matter if A. was the only employee concerned, but if this experience were duplicated a dozen times a day it would mean twelve shillings a day, and if it happened three times a week in each case the cost to the employer would be thirty-six shillings. A simple calculation
will show that such discrepancies between the time bargained for and the actual time worked, if they remain unchecked, result in a to the manufacturer or business man employing unpunctual men—heavy enough in a year and increasingly heavy in proportion to the number of staff engaged. It should not be forgotten that where time is lost by workers, it not only involves the loss of wages paid for the time they ought to have worked, but also means that a'percentage of the fixed charges on the establishment is wasted. Such costs as rent, insurance, depreciation, and interest are con stantly running on, and a portion of them must be charged against all time lost. Also it would be legitimate to charge a part of the cost for super intending the work done, the cost of providing power, a proportion of office and selling expenses, and so on right through the cost of running the whole business. The loss of an hour means the loss of the value of that hour's work and a proportion of establishment charges which might reasonably amount to as much as the value of the labour itself.
The best and most efficacious way of checking time to-day is the installa tion of a time-recorder in each department or workshop, which mechanically records the employees' time at the moment they arrive in the department where their work is to be performed. The old method of checking time on the entrance to the works must always result in a loss of minutes per each employee. They sign on or pass in their checks some distance from their actual employment, and the time taken in get ting from the entrance to the particular department where they are employed is a distinct loss on the part of the employer. The establishment of a thne-recording machine at the entrance to each department obviates such loss, besides setting a higher standard of accuracy for the time-checking methods employed throughout the works. This recorder is equally useful in checking the time of piece work within the department itself, and by its accurate working does away with the employment of several members whose duty it is to take the tim.! of employees ou various tasks throughout the departments.