EMPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT. Em ployment management embraces the work of re cruiting, placing, retaining and discharging the working force. This modern method of handling personnel problems was inaugurated by one or two employers of labor a compara tively few years ago, but the plan quickly dem onstrated its value so clearly that it has now come to be quite generally adopted, not only in important industrial plants but by many large mercantile establishments and financial institu tions as well.
The development of the present system of egnployment management began when large em ployers commenced to realize the fact that the greatest labor problem confronting industry was that of the proper handling of the worlcing organization. The studies of the efficiency engineer proved conclusively that a plant, to operate effectively, must have something more tn the number of hands required to run the machinery. If the highest possibilities of pro duction were to be reached it was necessary to obtain and retain the goodwill and active co operation of the operatives.
This was a problem that had steadily been assiuning more serious proportions for many years. In the old days of industry, when master and man worked side by side at the bench the spirit of co-ordination in the average shop was similar to that in the family, but with the growth of industry came the development of the impersonal corporation and the loss of the human touch that had been so largely the source of the loyalty and friendship ousting between the "boss* and the worker. The great industries, therefore, found themselves face to face with the necessity of finding a substi tute for the human relations which they had sacrificed and employment management, under a trained director of personnel, is their solution of this problem.
The primary purpose of employment man agement is to stabilize the working organization by reducing the number of men employed to maintain the necessary average working force, or, in other words, by reducing the alabor turn over.* To accomplish this end, employment management includes many and varied func tions, ranging from the preliminary work of securing the help to the larger social problems involved in guiding and protecting them.
The functions of the department devoted to employment management begin with the selec tion of the right type of person for the °jobs* to be performed and this naturally includes an analysis and classification of the various tasks, as it is necessary that all prospective employees shall conform as closely as possible to the specifications of the ajob-analysis.” Once em ployed, the new operative, if he is a ((learner,* must be placed under competent instruction, preferably in a segregated school under a spe cially trained teacher. Close watch must be kept upon his progress, not only during this period of instruction, but during the length of his stay with the concern, in order that he may find no occasion for discontent or discourage ment in the fact that he does not profit in pro portion to the degree of efficiency which he attains. The performance of these functions, as well as those of a so-called °welfare* char acter (which are almost as closely allied to the work of employment management), require close personal contact with the workers, the ability to inspire confidence in the genuineness of the firm's intentions to deal justly with its individual employees and the careful mainte nance of a system of records through which thorough supervision may be kept over the development of the plant personnel.
Broadly stated, these are the functions of an employment department. Described in de tail, the scope of employment management em braces: 1. Maintaining a Constant Survey of the Labor Market and a List of Available Ap plicants for Positions,— Both are necessary if the organization is to be maintained at its normal standard. It is assumed that an em ployment department will receive advance notice from foremen of places to be filled and the men to take these °jobs" must come from one of two sources of supply: the outside labor market or prospect files built up from informa tion obtained from voluntary applicants or from inside the organization, through personal recommendations by operatives already em ployed. To accomplish this purpose, however, the data must be easily available, which means that the information must be secured and properly filed in anticipation of every possible demand.