SOLVING STAFF PROBLEMS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 196, 20 July 1937, Page 7

SOLVING STAFF PROBLEMS.

EMPLOYERS FIND THE WAY. Hundreds of employers have reason to know that men who are recommended by the State Placement Service for consideration as employees can be relied upon to give good service. - The enquiries regarding the industrial histories of enrolled men are thorough, and if the former employers of some of them cannot be communicated with, the trained officers of the service are able to estimate fairly accurately an applicant’s suitability for the position under consideration.

There is, of course, always the possibility that a former employer, with the idea of helping a man to get a job, will stress only his good points and ignore information regarding those considered by the service to be of special importance. Such instances,- however, arc rare, and the records show that the number of square pegs that slipped into round holes during the first year of the service’s operations is practically negligible. A LOGICAL SYSTEM.

It would seem that employers have not been slow to recognise how advantageously this scrupulous care ill verifying the general suitability of candidates for private work applies when they need to increase their staffs. Their reaction is indicated by a decision to leave the whole of their staffing arrangements in the hands of the local placement officer. Details of the number 'required, with particulars of the class of work to be done, are supplied, and when the men have been chosen they are sent to the employer for selection, or otherwise. Any business man will appreciate the soundness of this method of selecting staffs, because it ensures that only the best of the available labour is sent for consideration ; it completely eliminates the often tiresome job of searching through, possibly, hundreds of applications, and, as far as is reasonably possible, it is an. efficient safeguard against the appointment of unsuitable men. It is necessary to point out that in recommending a man. the placement officers are influenced by tile applicant’s declaration of his usual occupation and his ability therein, next by previous employers’ opinions of his capability, and thirdly by his personal appearance and demeanour. There is no question of inducing employers to accept the service nominees. The sole responsibility for the appointment rests with the employers, and if they are not satisfied with the men recommended, and ask that others be sent for interrogation, this request will he promptly and cheerfully acceded to. FAITH IN SERVICE.

A striking example of faith in the service’s methods of selection was given in a city in the South Island. Owing to’the nou-arrival from England of steel and iron supplies, a big firm had to shorten its staff, most of the men being thoroughly capable tradesmen. Smaller firms in the same lines were canvassed by the discharged men. hut were told that there was no work for them. Their last hope was the placement service. Having verified the capabilities and suitability of tho men, the officers interviewed several of the smaller concerns, with the result that a job for almost every man was found, mostly with firms that had declined their personal request for work.