EMPLOYMENT M4NAqER. The profession of employment manager has within the past few years come to be recognized as one of the most vital factors in industry. Ten years ago,, workmen were hired by foremen or clerks simply because they happened to apply for jobs that were vacant but without regard for any particular fitness for the work to be .performed. Naturally, there was general dis satisfaction, both on the part of employer and employee, and as this greatly increased the labor cost and tended to reduce production, a closer study of the question of the human ele ment in the industrial organization was made, with the result that many manufacturing con cerns have placed their employment work in the hands of a trained executive, with the power to hire, place and handle the working force with a view to more efficient labor management.
The employment manager occupies the posi tion of the representative of his company in the labor market. He must be familiar with all sources of labor supply -.and be- capable of selecting the men and women needed for the different positions in his plant in accordance with their fitness for the jobs, for the duties of the employment manager are not only to keep the machines running but to• see that they are operated by workers who are able to maintain a high standard of efficiency in the quality and :quantity of the goods produced, As the connecting link between the manage ment and the worker, the employment manager is entrusted with all matters Of personnel con nected with the company. The hiring of the help, their assignment to tasks that they are ,fitted to perform, their change of Jobs or trans fer from one department to another; and, when pecessary, their discharge, are matters that rest in his hands. He is the efriend at court' to whom all requests for assistance art made and it is he • who must sit as a judge upon all grievances that are brought to his attention, separating the imaginary from the real. .
The employment manager must• not only-en :force the policies of his CompanY and see that all rules- for the management of ' the help•are understood and obeyed, but he must also see that there is effective co--.operation between his office and the heads of departments:' for his duties require, that he ,Iceep as fully in accord with the various foremen as- with the -workers. The successful maintenance of these varied relations requires both intelligence and executive ability, of a high type.
This plan of delegating all personnel prob lems 'to a skilled employment manager has proved so successful, -both in improving pro duction and in promoting an esprit de, corps, that it has been adopted in nearly all important industrial concerns and in. many and mercantile establishments: Employment Managers' Associations.-L The development of the profession, of employ ment manager has resulted in the organization of associations, or clubs, where the employ ment managers could meet to discuss the prob lems arising in their work; exchange experiences and otherwise -fit themselves to handle more efficiently the human element • so -vital to the success of an industrial enterprise. The first
employment management society was organized in Boston, about five years ago, and soon proved so helpful to its members that similar employ ment executives' organizations have since been formed in nearly all of the industrial centres of the country. Three conventions have been held, Minneapolis, Minn., 1916; Philadelphia, Pa., in 1917, and Rochester, N. Y., in 191& At the latter, on 11 May 1918, the several organizations formed a permanent association to be known as the National Association of Employment Managers.
Employment Manager's Course.—The suc cess of the employment manager in promoting production and stabilizing industrial employ ment came to be so generally recognized that, in 1918, as one of its war measures, the United States government established an intensive course in employment management, under the direction of the employment management divi sion of the War Industries Board. The first course was inaugurated at the University of Rochester, where the first class graduated on 9 May 1918, and courses have since been estab lished at Harvard, in connection with the Massa chusetts Institute of Technology; Boston Univer sity, Boston; Columbia University, New York; Carnegie Institute of Technology and the Uni versity of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh; the Case School, Cleveland; the University of Washing ton, Seattle, and the University of California, at Berkeley. The courses of instruction occupy from six weeks to two months, and the classes, which are conducted by the foremost employ ment executives and industrial authorities in the country, devote themselves to such subjects of study as the following: Functions and organization of an employ ment department ; labor turnover, its causes and how to reduce it; character analysis; science of hiring; transfer and promotion; discharge; fol lowing employees' progress in the plant; educa tional work for employees; recreational work for employees; safety and sanitary engineering; method of wage payment; bonuses and profit sharing; hours of labor and fatigue; industrial organization;,, sources of labor supply; public employment offices and methods of co-operating with them; labor statistics; causes of labor un rest; employers' liability and compensation; history of the labor movement, etc.
In outlining this course of study, the War Industries Board stated that the introduction of the employment manager into industry and the standardization of the services of an employ ment department is one of the greatest move ments taking place in the manufacturing indus try in this country, and employers of labor, particularly those having war contracts, were urged to suggest men or women from their organizations as candidates for the government courses.
Jonx R. MEADER.