In detail these items of expense may be summarized as follows: (1) In figuring the cost of hiring include (a) the salaries of employment department officials and clerical help; (b) the cost of ad vertising and printing; (c) the cost of physical examinations; (d) all such miscellaneous ex penses as fees to labor bureaus, cost of badges, etc. In regard to the item of employment de partment salaries, Boyd Fisher (in
(3) In finding the cost of wear and tear include (a) the excess time spent by mainte nance department on machines used by learn ers and new operatives; cost of excess materials used for repairing these machines; (c) excess breakage and wear on tools, etc., and, when possible, (d) the cost for premature depreciation of machinery.
(4) The loss through spoiled work and other waste may be found by comparing the total scrap and waste made by new men with that made by old men. By dividing the differ ence by the number of men in the group, the total per new employee will be obtained.
(5) The loss to reduced production de pends, of course, upon the value of the article produced and the skill and experience neces sary for its production, but there are various ways in which the cost can be estimated with approximate correctness. One of these is pre sented by Mr. Fisher in his study of turnover costs. He says: °C(a) Select a number of ma chines worked by new men and an equal num ber of like machines worked by men over a year in service; (b) record the production of each group until the total of new men reaches the total of old men; (c) time required to reach this may be taken as average learning time; (d) total difference of production during this time may be spread over the number observed and the average taken as the loss for the average man hired; (e) for men dropping out of the group while under consideration sub stitute other men with approximately equal pro duction and equal length of service.° The ex
cess plant cost and the loss due to reduced pro duction should be figured separately and then added together, because, as Mr. Fisher points out, °the burden is not the same man for man and department for department.° For example, gin departments where wages are in proportion to efficiency,
In accomplishing these results it is not necessary that all, or even a greater part, of the suggestions embodied in this article should be adopted. The ideas suggested represent many of. the plans that have been put into practice by a large number of different employ ers in various sections of the country and all tend toward the same end by giving assurance to the worker that it is the purpose of the em ployer to that he receives a square deal. In other words, so-called "welfare work" is successful only when it assumes a logical place in the program of a "square shop?) The first step in the reduction of the labor turnover is the establishment of a properly equipped employment department under the di rection of a high grade man who must be given all necessary authority and one of his first duties will be to ascertain, by the study of care fully compiled statistics, the sources of the ex cessive turnover and, as far as possible, its causes.