and the preceding chapter, may be summarized under the following topics:

For the school, this work implies:

1. Broadening the child's occupational horizon through an educative process.

2. Assistance and advice in selecting a vocation and making the right preparation for it.

3. Placement.

4. Employment supervision.

For industry, vocational guidance implies:

1. Careful initial selection of workers.

2. Supervision of transfers and promotions in the light of personal qualifications.

3. Records and objective rating of all employees.

The technical problems involved in this work are already fairly well formulated, but the administrative details are not yet completely worked out.

CHAPTER XV

RATING EMPLOYEES

Necessity of Rating Method

The efficiency of any promotion scheme depends in large part upon the availability of complete records regarding each individual in the organization. Even in companies where employment management practice is fairly well standardized, it is uncommon to find any objective method for determining the relative abilities of those who comprise the rank and file of the organization. In concerns where less attention has been given to keeping personnel records there is usually no source to which one can turn for information upon which to base wage increases, decisions as to transfers or promotions, the selection of persons to fill emergency positions, or recommendations to other employers.

As more provisions are made for training employees, and as the necessity for promotion machinery becomes more urgent because of the company's increase in size and the consequent loss of personal contact between workmen and higher executives, the need for some form of merit-rating or record of achievement becomes increasingly apparent. In what follows some account will be given of experiments in this direction which have proved satisfactory in various concerns, and certain principles, outgrowths for the most part of psychological research and educational experience, will be set forth.

Rating Apprentices

1. Brown and Sharpe Company. Nearly all apprentice or corporation schools have some formal method of rating or

grading their apprentices. This is necessary not only to weed out undesirable students but also to give some basis for checking up those who are failing in their work in order that they may be given individual instruction. Thus the apprentice school maintained by the Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Company of Providence, Rhode Island, requires from the foreman a report for each apprentice under his charge on industry, workmanship, deportment, and judgment. In case the apprentice is not doing satisfactory work, a special report is made in the manner indicated in Figures 55a and 55b. Whenever such a deficiency report is received by the supervisor of apprentices, he either transfers the boy to some other job or endeavors through special instruction to bring him up to a passing standard.

2. Westinghouse Company. The Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, of East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, requires department heads to render a report on apprentices under their care, using a form (Figure 56) which supplements a more complete apprentice record maintained by the training school. It includes marks for attendance, speed, neatness, accuracy, memory, reasoning power, observation, effort, and aptitude for academic classes in drawing, English, and mathematics, as well as a tabulation of the amount of time. spent on each class of operation and total earnings on productive work.

Another firm makes use of the form shown in Figure 57, upon which is plotted the daily wage, thus giving a graphic picture of the development of the earning capacity of the student.

3. Plan of H. F. Markus. The form shown in Figure 58 was devised by H. F. Markus, a teacher of electrical work at the Arsenal Technical Schools, Indianapolis. It gives a daily record of the pupil for five weeks, together with the necessary identification data. During the shop period, each

APPRENTICE PIECE-WORK DEFICIENCY REPORT

This form must be filled out for all contracts on which the apprentice does not exceed his hour pay and forwarded to the Supervisor of Apprentices at once.

Used by Brown and Sharpe Company to report progress of apprentices.

Figure 55. (b) Form for Report on Apprentices (reverse).

Name.

APPRENTICE RECORD

WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC & MANUFACTURING COMPANY

Section...

Machine Tool or Work

Speed. The rate at which he works as compared with the speed expected.

Workmanship. The grade of the finished work as compared to standard practice.

Attitude. Personal interest shown in his work and his conduct toward superiors and fellow-workmen.

Knowledge. The amount of general information he has, in line with his work.

Figure 56. Apprentice Record Form

Used by Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company.

pupil keeps his card in a special pocket in his tool-box so that it is easily available for reference. A daily record of the kind of work done is kept on the reverse of the card by the student. At the end of the period, the instructor gives