What a Maimed Man Can Do
Employment management is a thinking job—a matter of judgment, and organizing ability, and tact, and personality. If a man has lost an arm or leg, but still has a good head and a noble heart, he may become a success in this field. Without a leg, or even both legs, a man may still get about enough within a plant to keep in touch with his shops, and be known by the rank and file as something more than an armchair officer. If he has lost an arm, or even both arms, he may be able to work out, with his stenographers and secretarial aids, such a detailed and searching division of labor between hand and brain as to make a success. Robustness and dependable health may play the same role in this work as in other administrative positions. Nervous poise and stability of temperament are highly essential.
Remuneration
The employment manager’s remuneration is salary and not wages. This signifies that its amount is fixed rather by an estimate of the standard of living of the class of persons with whom the employment manager should associate on terms of equality in the business world than by an effort to measure his exact contribution to the income of the company. At present the salaries of employment managers—the great majority of which probably fall between $2,000 and $5,000—are not equal to those commanded by sales managers and production engineers of equal ability. This discrepancy is due partly to the recentness of the function and to its more subtle and indirect relations to the profit-making process. It is due further to the fact that the work of the employment manager is a form of social service which is deeply satisfying to many natures, and which in itself provides a reward able to compensate for some inadequacy of salary.
Educational Agencies, Literature, etc.
It may be remarked concerning untrained candidates for an important position that those who are best qualified by nature and general education will usually possess a certain insight which gives them warning of future difficulties, and makes them willing to take preliminary training, and to work at first in subordinate positions. Those without this insight are likely to argue that training is unnecessary and that they are qualified to take at once responsible posts. Thus the line is illustrated, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
To indicate the scope of any vocational course of training dealing with the art of employment management a brief analysis of the subject into its major and minor component parts is given herewith.
Organization and equipment of an employment department:
Causes which have produced the need of employment management.
Functions of employment departments.