In the case of larger offices, where there are one hundred or more employes, the planning department can be used to especially good advantage.
11. Personnel of the planning department.—The permanent membership of the planning department will correspond in a general way with that of the pro duction department in the factory. No general rule as to members and the division of their work can be laid down, but we give below the judgment of Mr. H. A. Hopf, of the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Com pany of Hartford, Connecticut. His methods as ap plied to office organization have proved themselves very efficient.
The permanent staff' of the planning department should consist of a manager and a male clerical employe. Steno graphic and typewriting service should be supplied by the stenographic department, but it might be deemed advisable to assign a special stenographer to the planning department, by reason of the fact ,that much work of a confidential nature would have to be performed, and it might, therefore, be best tio locate the stenographer in the planning department itself.
Upon the manager of the planning department a consider able share of the responsibility for the success of the work would naturally rest. It is a matter of course, therefore, that Ile should be carefully chosen with respect to his qualifications for the work. The clerical employe, apart from the usual qualifications, would make himself especially valuable if he possessed capabilities as a draftsman. Furthermore, he should have an analytical mind and be able to obtain informa tion from various departments without &eating friction.
To make the work of the planning department really effec tive, it should reach out into all the departments of the organization and endeavor to supplement its functions by special planning in the individual departments themselves.
This could best *be done by the temporary assignment to the planning department of well-qualified and ambitious employes of various departments, who would serve in the planning department in rotation, usually for a period of thirty to sixty days. This arrangement, if carried out systematically, would enable specially qualified employes from all over the organization to gain the broad viewpoint so essential to proper development, and would put them in a position more effectively to study the special needs of their own depart ments.
In this manner, the better grade of clerks in the organiza tion would be encouraged to develop reasoning and observa tion faculties, and would gradually form a special group from which undoubtedly many promotions to various lines of work in the office could be made as vacancies might occur. Employes would serve one at a time in the planning depart ment, preferably during the slack periods in their own departments. This would enable the planning department to develop from six to twelve men per annum by means of special training, and the individuals so chosen could perform the regular functions of the planning department and act as scouts in securing information from all directions.
The period of service might be termed a course in plan ning, and it may be taken for granted that when the depart ment representative returned to his own department he would not only have a much better grasp of the work thereof but also a far clearer conception of the needs and requirements of different departments all over the organization.