ting close to the people-not only to serve their needs, but to see things with their eyes.

The work brings up all the conditions that relate to public health or social service work of any nature. From the outlook of public health the best reason for work inside a factory, in its value to the community, is because there one finds and can strike at the root of evils which are powerful in undermining health, and which are the target of the efforts of hospital clinics and social workers. The proper structure and care of toilets is closely allied to the work of the medical profession in finding the causes and cures of venereal disease, the destructive effects of which on innocent victims are daily shown in hospitals and clinics. The careful washing and sweeping of floors in industries where poisonous dusts accummulate is an effort in harmony with that branch of medicine which is seeking to prevent occupational disease.

It is therefore a work which is educational to the employer as well as the employed. I feel that when an employer has awakened so far as to realize that the force which turns out his product is composed of people-not machines or power, or money-but human beings like himself, this education has commenced. It is broadened when conditions affecting these people are brought to him again and again, and he sees that their point of view is the same as his would be, could places be changed. If still further he realizes that what affects the people to their detriment must, in its widening circle, affect the community, and ultimately, like a boomerang his own prospects, he will finally see that the first and last analysis reads very much like the old-fashioned golden rule. He will find then too, perhaps to his surprise, that he is one of the forces working for the public weal, when he had only intended to "keep his employes happy."

When our industries have recognized their responsibility for the human lives in their employ, and by compelling health and efficiency have raised the standards of the working people, there will be fewer derelicts to cast on the mercies of hospitals and charitable societies.

PERSONNEL AND MEDICAL AUDIT

THE SELECTION, TESTING, TRAINING AND WELFARE OF

EMPLOYES

BY F. E. WEAKLY,

Manager, Department of Efficiency, Montgomery Ward and Company of Chicago.

One of the biggest problems in our business aside from the fundamental one of making a profit is the study of our employes. Much time, thought and expense have been devoted to this subject of human relations and it seems as though our work has only begun. The analysis and reduction of labor turnover depend upon a thorough knowledge of the employes as well as of the business itself. "Know thyself" was said several thousand years ago, but it has been left for modern industry to place a real interpretation upon it. Scientific management and efficiency methods have made it possible for us to appreciate in a way, at least, what it means to know yourself. This article, then, is only one chapter of a story dealing with how this business is endeavoring to learn and know itself. To know our faults is the first step forward in the correction of them. A scientific study and willingness to recognize the facts, as well as take definite steps to correct them, will strike a staggering wallop to labor turnover.

In order to get a clear understanding, we first began to study the reasons why employes leave. Quite naturally, in classifying these causes we were governed by local conditions in Chicago, as well as conditions in the plant.

The first thing we did was to take a map of the city and plot with colored tacks all the main sections of the city in which our employes live. This told an interesting story indeed. It enabled us to analyze transportation conditions; it explained why many people were constantly late-it was of immense use during the various street car and elevated strikes in enabling us to assist in getting our employes to and from work. It gave us something concrete. It aided us as well in suggesting proper places for new employes to live. Every new employe is now charted on the map

by the district of the city in which he lives. This shows on his card in the permanent index in the employment department.

WHY EMPLOYES LEAVE

We then made up a weekly employment record which lists under ten main heads the reasons why employes leave. This analysis gave the total number of "leavers" for a series of seventeen different payroll groups, as is shown in Chart A.

This chart began to furnish concrete data and enabled us to get at things. This report was made up weekly. In the course of time we began to accumulate comparative figures. This report did not tell us enough. Today the analysis of why employes leave is carried much further.

Chart B shows a detailed analysis of the various causes, especially those causes in which we may or may not be directly to blame, and is the key for reading Chart C.

Chart C shows an analysis of "leavers" by detailed causes by department. Another chart is kept of the "leavers" in the various office departments similar to Chart C which covers the operating divisions.

Still another analysis is maintained to show a classification of "leavers" by department and by activity. This is illustrated in Chart D. Part I of Chart D shows the average length of service by the same classification.

It will be seen with this series of analyses carefully and regularly compiled we are able to know something about why people leave our employ. It is thus possible to put our finger upon the cause. We work upon the theory that to cure the disease, remove the cause instead of treating symptoms. The diagnoses which these several charts explain have enabled us to go quite a long way in understanding some of our labor turnover problems. At least we have obtained the facts, something tangible, a real basis upon which to work.