OFFICE MANAGEMENT STUDENTS' BUSINESS BOOK SERIES A. W. SHAW COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK LONDON STUDENTS' BUSINESS BOOK SERIES Corretpondencg How TO WHITE BUSINESS LITTERS SALES CORRESPONDENCE BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE THE SYSTEM BOOK or STANDARD PARAGRAPHS AND FORM LETTERS BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE LIBRARY ( Three volume*) Advert i ting How TO WRITE ADVERTISING ADVERTISING GOOD WILL, TRADE-MARKS AND UNFAIR TRADING BANK ADVERTISING METHODS Finance CREDIT AND COLLECTION METHODS How TO FINANCE A BUSINESS CREDITS, COLLECTIONS AND FINANCE Buying PURCHASING PHOBLI -BUYING AND HIBINQ Selling SALESMANSHIP AND SALES MANAGEMENT SELLING METHODS SELLING METHODS RETAILING SELLING METHODS REAL ESTATE SELLING METHODS FIRE INSUHANTE SELLING METHODS LIFE INSORANCJS Salesmanship PERSONAL SALESMANSHIP DEVELOPING TACT AND PERSUASIVE POWER THE KNACK OF SELLING Retailing STORE MANAGEMENT KEEPING UP WITH RISING COSTS Management PERSONAL EFFICIENCY IN BUSINESS OFFICE MANAGEMENT BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION BUSINESS MANAGEMENT PERSONALITY IN BUSINESS Office Work ACCOUNTING AND OFFICE METHOD* COSTS AND STATISTICS THE COST OF PRODUCTION Production .. . OUTLINES ojr FACTORY Offii.\ ri INDUSTRIAL 'ORGANIZATION * THE KNACK OF MANAGEMENT . . How 9tiE>rtM{ XftitAWJW 1 KArtLiBD- MoB*PowiJ8* *-'X CO/L" I 1 1 \ ,' \ . ' Factory Management (Six volumn in Ihr sfriet) BUILDINGS AND MACHINEUT AND MAINTENANCE EQUIPMENT MATERIALS AND SUPPI U.H L.VBOK OPERATION AND Cos EXECUTIVE CONTROL A. W. SHAW COMPANY PUBLISHERS or SYSTEM AND FACTORY NEW Y CHICAGO LONDON COPYRIGHT, 1014, KV A. W. SHAW COMPANY OFFICK' CONTENTS PART I PUTTING THE ORGANIZATION IN TRIM Making Office Expense Go Further CHAPTER PAGB I LAYING *OuT THE WORK ON STRAIGHT LINES .... 7 II SHOWING EVERY DEPARTMENT ITS JOB 15 III MORE WORK THROUGH BETTER OFFICE CONDITIONS . 21 PART II HIRING, HANDLING AND PAYING OFFICE HELP As the Workers See It IV BETTER WAYS TO Do WORK 31 V MAKING ADVANCEMENT FILL VACANCIES 36 VI EMPLOYMENT METHODS THAT HOLD HELP 42 VII MAKING PAYDAY PAY 48 VIII GETTING THE FORCE TO PULL TOGETHER 56 PART III FIFTY WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES Economy as a Policy IX SAVING TWO-THIRDS THE COST OF CORRESPONDENCE . 63 X SHORT CUTS IN HANDLING AND FILING MAIL ... 71 XI Low COST AND DISPATCH IN HANDLING ORDERS . . 79 XII How TO KEEP UP MAILING LISTS 84 XIII WHERE OFFICE APPLIANCES CUT COSTS 92 XIV HANDLING OFFICE SUPPLIES LIKE CASH 97 XV PLANS THAT STOPPED MONEY LEAKS 104 306342 4 CONTENTS PART IV DESK METHODS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT Filling the Manager's Chair XVI AT THE OFFICE MANAGER'S DESK 115 XVII INTERPRETING REPORTS AND PLANNING AHEAD . . , 121 OFFICE MANAGEMENT CHARTS AND FORMS FIGURE PAGE I CHARTING ROUTES FOR OFFICE WORK 9 II LAYING OUT PATHS FOR AN ORDER TO FOLLOW ... 18 III ESSENTIALS OF OFFICE PROCEDURE 17 IV HOW TO PLAN EFFECTIVE LIGHTING 27 V A DEFINITE ROUTINE FOR ADVANCEMENTS 39 VI WHERE TO SAVE ON LETTERS 73 VII SCHEDULING DUTIES FOR A YEAR 117 FORM I ORDER DEPARTMENT PRODUCTION RECORD 19 II REQUISITION FOR EMPLOYEES 45 III PAYROLL DISTRIBUTION SHEET 51 IV COMBINED PAY ENVELOPE AND RECEIPT 52 V SALARY REQUISITION BLANK 53 VI PAYROLL RECORD CARD 54 VII ADDRESSING CLERK'S PRODUCTION CARD 65 VIII EFFICIENCY SUMMARY OF ADDRESSING CLERKS ... 65 ix STENOGRAPHERS' DAILY SCHEDULE 67 x COPYISTS' REPORT OF DAILY OUTPUT 67 XI NOTICE OF INCORRECT REMITTANCES 72 XII STAMP AND MAIL RECORD 72 XIII INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION ENVELOPE ... 75 XIV FILE RECORD OF BORROWED CORRESPONDENCE ... 76 XV-XVIII ORDER BLANK WITH CARBON COPIES 81 XIX-XX PROSPECT AND CUSTOMER RECORD 85 xxi CUSTOMERS' CARD 86 XXII CARD FOR SMALL MAILING LISTS 87 XXIII CHANGE OP ADDRESS PROSPECT CARD 89 XXIV REQUISITION FOR SUPPLIES 98 XXV PACKAGE LABEL AND INVENTORY CARD 99 XXVI RECORD OF SUPPLIES BY DEPARTMENTS 101 XXVII DEPARTMENT EXPENSE RECORD 123 xxvm "CUSTOMERS HANDLED" RECORD 125 11 - PUTTING THE ORGANIZATION IN TRIM Making Office Expense Go Further /BETTING money to go further means ^-* making it follow straight lines. Directness is the main point to remember when you begin to shift office desks and revise office methods. As you tramp through the plant after hours, the shop will display its results in product and the sales corps in cash receipts, but the office will be empty. Don't be fooled. Don't tell your office manager to "go after" the overhead. Look deeper with him. Don't slash blindly. Find the uses and products of the office; then improve their quality and cut their cost. Study your office as the most valuable and intricate mechanism in your enterprise the carrier of service and selling ideas, the bank for your factory and sales department, the clutch that joins product and trade, the range- finder for next year's business. Economize space, not brains trim lost mo- tion, not system reduce friction, not power. Find the short cuts in your office work, and "overhead" will be an economy to your business. IIP Ill IB WHAT DUTIES IS EACH DEPART- MENT RESPONSIBLE FOR? How to Assign Your Office Work Ordr Fj-ndUog Credit Control and Collections Shipping Purchasing Storekeeping Interning :issifyipg and Registering , X X Eyesight X X X X X I X Hearing X X Penmanship / 1 X X X X X Pretence i X I X X When you hire your next man, put a sheet of paper alongside this list of points in character. Then check his required qualities and see how he stacks up. Any other qualities deemed necessary may be placed in the II III CHAPTER IV Better Ways to Do Work GROWTH of business brought a crisis in the office of an Eastern manufacturer not long ago. More room, more clerks, more people to take charge of work- ing groups, seemed to be urgently needed. Under the grind of steady overtime, stenographers, bookkeepers and other employees were becoming restive. The strain of the afternoon rush had begun to increase errors, delay work and unfavorably affect relations with cus- tomers. Facing conditions he felt he could not remedy while carrying his usual office duties, the manager asked for help. Not merely for an assistant to take part of his load, however. He had watched the application of scien- tific principles to management in neighboring factories and had laid hold of the idea that one right way could be worked out for writing letters, filing correspondence, keeping books and completing other office operations as certainly as for turning an engine crank shaft. So he asked for expert aid to study office conditions, equip- ment and methods, and to find the best way of perform- ing each task and the proper tools to perform it with, so 31 32 OFFICE EMPLOYEES that the employees could be shown how to do things correctly. 'After balancing the initial outlay involved, against the current wasted expense, the directors consented to the reorganization. The scope of this included every officer and clerk in the place and even the least of their functions. It looked at everything without prejudice but with a fixed purpose to find a better way. Time study, scrutiny, analysis and experiment were the means by which the reorganization went forward, detail by detail. There was no hurry; the investigator, first of all, had been made a member of the organiza- tion. He wanted, of course, to show immediate returns, though it was plainly understood that his work was to be judged by final results alone. While, therefore, the complete reorganization required two years, as he found leaks or losses, these were stopped at once. As soon as he worked out a new and better way of doing anything and had tested and checked it in practice, it was adopted as the standard operation; the program of economy and efficiency went forward one more step. Where confu- sion and waste were most apparent the investigator naturally turned first. One of the basic rules of the scientific method is to gather and preserve in concrete shape detailed knowl- edge about conditions, materials, processes, and so on, and the right way to handle them. In every business it has happened more than once that in the absence or after the resignation of some executive or employee, spe- cific tasks have had to be left to men who knew little or nothing about them. To acquire the necessary knowl- edge requires time, and blunders are almost certain to occur. BETTER WAYS TO DO WORK 33 With the more scientific program in force, however, such a dilemma never needs to be faced. Instead of re- lying on the judgment or inspiration of the men when a task presents itself, experience and proved knowledge are drawn upon to point the way. For, just as soon as the right way is worked out for any operation, whether by time study of processes and investigation of materials, equipment and the like, or from the experience of men who have conducted the operation successfully, this right way is adopted and recorded as standard. Making a Standard of the Right Way and Recording It Depending on the size of the business and its char- acter, these standards may require for their recording only one or two scrap books or a large group of filing cabinets. In this office, the record was made in two blank books a Book of Standards and a supplementary volume containing exact instructions for the minor oper- ations peculiar to the business. One book might have served for both ; division and classification simply saved time for the person consulting the records; and time- saving and efficiency are the primary purposes. The Book of Standards thus grew week by week to be a text-book of the business in its office phases. By study of the instructions, blank forms, blue prints, and spe- cifications for supplies posted in the stores section, for example, any intelligent man could equip, arrange and operate an exact duplicate of the company's storeroom and furnish every supply needed by any department without consulting anyone in that department. The same thing was true, in time, of every office activity. 34 OFFICE EMPLOYEES Wherever a process is routine, it is analyzed and a right way built up for it, whether it pertains to the president or an office boy. Everybody regardless of rank is given standard means of getting his work com- pleted. In the bookkeeping department, ledger posting work was timed with the result that those postings re- quiring some thought were standardized at sixty per hour. Two hundred was the figure decided upon for posting direct from carbon sheets of invoices. Thus in an eight hour day a worker should make sixteen hundred entries of the latter class. Another standard described the exact procedure to obtain abatement of customs duties on certain materials imported. This was usually the task of the general manager: during his absence it had two or three times fallen to lesser executives, who, for lack of knowledge, had bungled it. Yet after the correct method had been reduced to writing and inserted in its proper place in the Book of Standards, any one of the forty men in the office could secure the abatement. Exact methods make a strong point of identification. Where there is any division of duties, everything is labelled. Even the office boys wear number badges. They are required to put their numbers on all documents which they handle, as in filing, so that responsibility can be traced. The same rule applies to all throughout the office. When executive or subordinate knows that a resulting loss is certain to be laid at his door, he will be careful not to break the rules. Every part of every office has a "best" way in which a particular item of work may be performed. A west- ern manufacturing company secures a higher grade of general clerical service by making it a point to acquaint BETTER WAYS TO DO WORK 35 the new employees with every kind of work in the office. They figure that the new man is in a receptive mental state and can be taught how to perform his work cor- rectly before his habits crystallize into inefficiency. Showing him all parts of the plants gives him the "why and wherefore" of his duties. There are two general ways in which employees are shown how to perform their duties. The first, more common and human, is to put the newcomer under the wing of an experienced employee. The length of time during which the guiding hand is kept over the novice depends upon the complexity of the work and the in- telligence of the new employee. The second way, more scientific and thorough, is the use of the standard book, showing exactly and completely the way to perform "Job 18 ". Both have their advantages. A combination of the two has often proved best. In one firm where written rules are given each employee, the management sees that they are read and understood, by giving semi-annual examinations to the workers. Re- wards, together with the discharge of disappointing* workers, spurs most of them to become familiar with all phases of their work. EVERY unnecessary movement in the office wastes time and energy that properly belongs to the house. But more than that, the energy belongs to the worker himself, for by the proper expenditure of his efforts his own value to himself and to the house is determined. CHAPTER V Making Advancement Fill Vacancies I CAN'T find that letter, Mr. Holmes. I must have mis- filed it. I'm not used to this system yet. Over at the other place where I worked" and the new filing clerk rambled on while the office man glared out of the window. He was vexed because the recently vacated position had been filled by a new employee, unfamiliar with the insurance firm's system. After it was found during the day that a few more letters "must have been misfiled", the correspondent ex- plained the situation to the manager. So vehemently did he explain that a new training system was shortly installed. Each position in the routine clerical work was, therefore, "understudied" by clerks on the "rung" below. Any position now vacated is filled by one who luw studied the work in anticipation of an advancement to that position. A capable substitute is usually in train- ing for any place. More work is consequently turned out. And when there is a vacancy, it causes little or no break in the work. Just as an obscure understudy 30 MAKING ADVANCEMENTS 37 often gives a performance superior to that of the self- satisfied stage star, so these understudies often better the past records of their new places. Workers will not take full interest in the business and put their personalities into it unless they have a fair, personal incentive. "Promotion is the reward we hold out," says the manager of a soap business. "Our office men and de- partment heads have nearly all been trained in the fac- tory. Some of them have been with the firm since they left school. "Most of the salesmen, too, came as office boys and rose through the ranks, until by the time they qualified for better positions they were so thoroughly acquainted with the details that their enthusiasm and knowledge were sufficient to carry them through any situation. Often the loss of a capable man opens the way for un- tried material that proves even better. ' ' There are numerous vital reasons why it is wise to advance employees to fill vacancies (Figure V). For one thing: each firm has its policies. It has certain ways in which work is to be done that differ from other offices. One firm desires its stenographers to copy single spaced, with double spacing between paragraphs; and to word the complimentary close, "Very truly yours". Another firm has a letter style with double spacing, no extra space between paragraphs, and a complimentary close of "Yours truly". We can see many such differences by picking up any two letters from different firms and com- paring them. Barely are two exactly alike ; and it is the same with other office work which the outsider does not see. The worker who has grown familiar with the tra- ditions of the business and with whose characteristics 38 OFFICE EMPLOYEES other people have grown familiar, is naturally more valuable than a green hand. When advanced vacancies are filled by new men, more- over, we see the dissatisfied worker ; the man who is side- tracked; who to satisfy his natural and commendable ambition seeks a position where he can "grow". The manager of an office in a Michigan city found that he was being forced to retrench simply because his force was fluctuating. As everyone knows, breaking in a new man especially in the better grades of work is an ex- pensive affair. The cost varies with the kind of work and the salary paid, but the very lowest is not, as a rule, very much under fifty dollars. This training some- times takes months. With a force fluctuating as his was (over twenty-five per cent yearly) a great amount went towards "breaking in" new men, many of whom left just when they had become fitted to their work. "A mistake or so, and out you go" so the employees took upon themselves to find positions in which their future was more certain. After the retirement of this trouble-making manager and the substitution of the present decidedly human manager, the trouble should have ceased. But it didn't. The employment policy of the firm combined with the momentum of the "run" that had begun years back still played havoc. This policy was to take in an out- sider to fill whatever position was vacated. Even though the head bookkeeper changed firms a new man went into his shoes. The plan in doing this was not to keep workers down. It was merely to avoid shake-ups as much as possible. The firm wanted to keep its employees at the work in which because they had been at it for so long a time MAKING ADVANCEMENTS tut Higher Executives and Voucher Men Assistant Heads of Dcpts. Welfare Workers Accountants Chemists Librarian Special Adjusters Statisticians Chauffeurs Engineers Junior Engineers. Bookkeepers Bill Clerks Sales Correspondents Head Stenographers Stenographers Telephone Operators House Salespeople Junior Bookkeepers Class A k "Salary above $ 120 t t Maximum increase below Class A $5 on a monthly salary each year for three years T - Class B - Salary $ 105-120 T i - Class C - Salary $ 90- 105 How One Office Manager Outlined Advancement - Class D - Salary $ 75-90 / , t Class E - Salary % 60-75 T Junior Stenographers Dictation Machine Operators Mail Clerks Special File Clerks [Typists File Clerks (Messengers j Class F - Salary $ 45-60 T 1 I All lower employees considered applicants for every vacancy in grade above.Promotion awarded on fitness, merit and length of service t t Class G - Salary $30-45 f , t Applicants from without con- sidered only for places in class G except in emergencies FIGURE V: When vacancies are filled by advancing employees in preference to out- siders, the cost of "breaking in" the new occupant of a position is reduced to a minimum . In fact, among employees of long standing, "breaking in" is seldom necessary. A definite salary plan helps to forestall jealousies and charges of favoritism. The care- ful plan here shown has been a gratifying success in all these respects 40 OFFICE EMPLOYEES they were highly proficient. Theoretically, the plan was not bad from the employer's viewpoint. But it did not work out. Instead of staying at the work in which prac- tice had made them perfect, they found positions where their ambition could at least partially be satisfied. The house disregarded the future of its employees. Finally the manager came to the conclusion that this was the trouble. He tested his conjecture by actual practice. New men were only taken at the bottom. As soon as the employes realized the reform, the changes in the corps became a reasonable per cent. The new em- ployment policy turned the trick. Filling a position is, to an employee, the same as es- tablishing an office is to his employer. He wants to gain a firm foothold in his work and then "stick" with the house, building up a better place for himself all the while. It is as it should be strictly a business propo- sition with him. The danger in a strict seniority plan is that no discre- tion remains to the management ; misfits must sometimes result, and exceptional ability be lost or only partially capitalized. To counteract this tendency, it is wise wherever possible to divide workers by grades, in each of which various kinds of work are included. Everyone in the lower grade is considered for any vacancy in the one next higher. Each promotion finally hinges on what the individual is especially fitted for. In a large New York insurance office where advance- ment is thus worked out, the management divides the clerks into definite groups ranging from boys, junior Hrrks, senior and special clerks to supervisory and tech- nical employees. MAKING ADVANCEMENTS 41 Besides these divisions there are subdivisions among some of these such as copyists, typists, phonographers, calculating machine and addressing machine operators. Above these classes are department heads, junior officers and executives. The work of each class is standardized and a system of minimum and maximum compensation established which allows the hiring of workers at an initial salary fair to both the firm and the clerk. While they con- tinue in the same class they may gain limited increases in salary for meritorious work or length of service. It is mutually understood that compensation beyond a cer- tain maximum will be secured by promotion. So that they may secure larger salaries through ad- vancement the firm is endeavoring to establish a series of training lessons to make their clerks competent for more important work. The operations of each position have been put on paper in black and white, and each clerk studies the functions connected with any position of the notch above that interests him. SURROUND yourself with men in whom you have confidence and then put confidence in them; aim to give them the highest ideals of life. Make them better citizens and they will then be better workmen. Recognize merit. Promote from the ranks. Help your men keep out of a rut. Most of our executives have grown up in our service. E. P. Ripley CHAPTER VI Employment Methods That Hold Help HIRE a bookkeeper, a mail clerk and two office boys, ' ' boomed the manager 's voice over the wires to the employment head at the other end of the building. With a word of assent the latter hung up the receiver and wrote three want advertisements which were duly sent to the newspapers. Numbers of applicants came in response. Men were taken on to fill the vacant positions, and the sign was put out : "No more help wanted ' '. Yet how that sign erred ! Among those turned away was the very bookkeeper needed; the mail clerk whom the manager had in mind ; and two keen office boys. In this single instance the bookkeeper lasted until "trial balance day"; the mail clerk still holds his job by a bare thread ; and the two office boys were discharged before the end of the week. Not a mile from this concern is another, about as large and in the same line of business. Practically no man who gets on its payroll is discharged. It isn't necessary. At the latter concern, the manager a shrewd, far- METHODS OF HIRING 43 seeing leader has written down, in black and white, just exactly what he wants to have in each worker the qualities that the successful applicants must have for the respective positions. For each position, no matter how trivial, he gives detailed information. The employment head, a skilled and experienced second to his manager, carefully compares applicants with the requirements and by simple tests that probe for the needed qualities, picks the best (page 30). A wholesale house large enough to warrant an em- ployment department, has printed blanks for the use of the various heads, to be filled out by them when new men are desired (Form II). The requisitioner first gets formal permission from the general manager to take on the men desired. Permission granted, he states exactly the kind of man he wants and why he wants him : because he has discharged a worker ; because one has left ; because of an advancement ; or be- cause of permanently increased work which indicates additional help. This information, recorded day by day, grows into valuable annual records for enlightening the manager on employment conditions. In this firm also the qualities for each position have been quite definitely decided upon. Individual forms have been printed for bookkeepers, billing clerks and machine operators. Then, as he interviews each appli- cant, this employer puts a grade after each quality, as courtesy 90% perfect. The qualities have a wide range from such extremes as "hand writing" to "personality". After all the applicants have had their say, the man- ager glances over the cards and picks out those nearest the "hundred" mark for a final talk to see with which ones he can make terms. 44 OFFICE EMPLOYEES Out of this sifting, he selects the two or three with whom he has made the best bargains and sends them to the requisitioner for final selection. This double check on the selection insures, in nearly every case, an excellent man at a moderate expense. The head of a small office is likely to be careless about finding out the health of applicants. Losses from this cause are important, however. This applies both to hiring and keeping the worker in health. Ailments have been held to cut ability in half. While the word "health" deals mainly with physical well being, the mental condition of a worker needs to be considered. There is nothing more destructive to efficiency than mental ill health. In a particular office where some fifty girls are em- ployed, the woman who is at the head of them keeps a careful watch for mental distress and makes it her busi- ness to unearth the trouble and remove or at least allevi- ate it. This "big-sister" work has brought a surprising increase of production. Many application blanks carry questions concerning the health of the applicant and that of relatives who might possibly have a contagious disease. In one hard- ware concern, if the applicant reports that a relative is afflicted with tuberculosis or cancer, for example, the prospective employee is examined for that disease. If found free of it, the fact that it is in the family is dis- regarded. There are various ways of handling this problem tact- fully. A large firm in Illinois formerly had many ques- tions pertaining to health in their blanks. This has been done away with. A doctor now takes the place of METHODS OP HIRING 45 printer's ink. This plan is more satisfactory in sereral self-evident ways. The applicant is examined by the physician immediately after he has been tentatively em- ployed. This examination extends from office employees to the manual workers in the shipping department. The girl worker, who constitutes the greater part of the class designated as junior clerks, is a distinct unit in the employment system. "In hiring girl workers it is Requisition for Employees EMPLOYMENT DEPARTMENT Kindly furnish on. to fin position as_ To begin work <^^ ./? Qualification desirable . Experience-necessary- Position -tampa'ary- permanent Needed on account of Rate about Per ( DEPARTMENT MGR. Remarks by Employment Supervisor FORM II: When a new employee is desired, the department head fills out this form and sends it to the employment department. The employment head scans the applicants with a view to meeting the requirements of the requisitioner scarcely possible to use the magnetism of advancement when bargaining with applicants, ' ' says the manager be- fore mentioned. "Better working conditions and short hours, are alluring inducements." "What is the hardest knot in hiring?" repeated a successful employment head. "Hiring is like giving credit; you may be too lax and accept dishonest em- 46 OFFICE EMPLOYEES ployees, on whom you lose heavily, or accept better em- ployees at too high a price; or you may be too strict and offend workers, who will damage your good will in the labor market. "I carefully set a price on each position in the office and then try to get the best man at the price. Of course, I allow this price to fluctuate a few dollars. If I see a man or girl that I want in my employ I do not let a difference of a small amount cut any figure in the negotiation. But I don't allow my 'tryout' salary standards to vary to any appreciable extent. "In bargaining with the applicant that I want, I then try to make him see all the values the position honestly includes the value of experience and reputa- tion to be gained in the performance of the work (espe- cially if he is a young man) and how far it is possible for him to climb; the minor details of vacations, our bonus plan and the like. In other words, I try to keep away from the mistake many employers make, of sup- posing that their men, unlike themselves, live wholly to work. Since there are many agreeable features in our house's policies, applicants are usually willing to come into the office for a reasonable amount. "Accurate credit methods also have a place here, in the investigation of character among prospective em- ployees. I know of one case where a youngster was sys- tematically robbing the employer and clearing out ; then working at another office, getting the job by offering to begin for next to nothing if sure of opportunity ; getting references and leaving to enter the employ of another firm ; filching here, clearing out and beginning the whole procedure over again. METHODS OF HIRING 47 "The worst of such a situation is that when the news spreads about the office that this or that perhaps cur- rency has been stolen, the effect on the office force is intensely demoralizing. Only a strict credit policy as regards investigation, references and prosecution in the employment department, coupled with working condi- tions that do not leave temptingly loose ends, will solve this problem in any office. "And then there is another demoralizing influence; that of having the worker who is tried out, found want- ing and discharged, to go about hinting that his former office is a poor place to work: 'They don't give you a chance, and pay starvation wages '. Often the truth of the matter is that the worker failed to earn even his * starting in' figures, and gave his superior no grounds for encouraging him further. "The way out of this difficulty, I have found, is to come to a definite understanding with every worker in the beginning. Tell him frankly instead of hinting at it or letting him take it for granted, that he is not per- manently hired. State the length of time to ensue before you can come to a definite decision. Establish a follow-up card pack which will remind you to review every man's wages and revise them in line with any promise or merit. "Since I have adopted this plan of candid negotiation, I have had little understanding. When I am com- pelled to discharge a worker, he never leaves before I have a friendly and helpful talk with him. The result has not been all to be desired, but it has been a great improvement. ' ' CHAPTER VII Making Payday Pay T 'VE certainly been fortunate, " says a certain employer. * "Why, I'm paying one of my men $7,000 per year. Then I have a number of other men looking after differ- ent ends of my business. I am paying each of them $2,000 a year. I give each of them a Christmas present of $3,000 a year. It isn't the salary they work for it's the present. And I get results from them, too. It pays." The amounts make this an exceptional case, but the principle is significant. It indicates how office heads are growing away from the set wage, acknowledging that every individual has his own ambition to progress and offering prizes to the detail manager and even the routine clerk who can thus be spurred to greater or better-di- rected effort. Piece work, the payment of a bonus, gifts, voluntary increases and various profit-sharing plans have all been tried in office work, with varying success. One of the most common plans has been to give the employees a percentage of the annual profits. The per- centage has ranged from % to 10%. Obviously the amounts and the methods of distribution also vary. MAKING PAYDAY PAY 49 The return in loyalty and thinking service has usually, however, been adequate. A customer of a French printing firm in which this policy is in force, received proof sheets three times in the same envelope. On asking why this happened, he re- ceived the following answer from the clerk: " Because in our business profit-sharing has been introduced." Another plan is rewarding department heads for the gain in their respective departments. On the face of it, this seems liberal enough ; and when a firm gives a de- partment head a reward, disregarding a month in which there was a marked loss, it may seem too liberal. Such an act of an eastern wholesale grocery, however, proved it to be only good business. Their "dried fruit" man had had a brilliant record for eleven months. Then he made a bad deal, losing fifteen thousand dollars for his firm. In this particular establishment the bonus is a definite percentage. When "bonus" time arrived this department head found his reward based on his successful months, and the last month, the note informed him, would be added to the coming year. This gave him a fighting chance. And with the intense gratitude and enthusiasm his em- ployer's generous act had instilled in him, he was able to bring his profits up to normal for the next year, even though the deficit of the preceding year was considered. Payment Plants That Succeed with Machine Operators and Boys Other methods of paying a bonus are to give the em- ployees whose efforts do not show up in "black and white" whatever the boss thinks is right, and to make 50 OFFICE EMPLOYEES an extra payment to the girl worker as the basis of her record the stenographer, the addresser, the typist and the like. The last named involved a different bonus principle. The overamount is paid every week or twice a month. The extra payment is made for different reasons than those given to the male employees. "Over" payment to girl workers is a reward for the present work and an immediate encouragement to further efforts. In the case of higher employees, the extra pay seeks to buy judgment, loyalty and permanence of service. To make the short-time bonus plan profitable, it is usual to gauge the work by the results of the capable and conscientious workers. The spur of extra pay will soon bring the laggards up into this class. Of course, an offer of this sort will rarely make a good worker out of a poor one. It has a remarkable influence on the middle averages of work, however, and enables the man- ager to weed out the hopelessly poor or indolent workers with little difficulty. The production in the addressing department of one business house increased from 3,353 names the first week to 40,779 during the eighth week of the experiment; an increase of 1,200%. This was the outcome of a bonus offer of two dollars per month for every additional two hundred per day over one thousand. To keep out errors that creep in when there is an incentive for speed and resulting quantity, two cents was deducted for every error revealed in proof reading. The frequency of payday among office workers ranges, as a rule, from weekly to semi-monthly. In some houses where other departments overshadow the office say for MAKING PAYDAY PAY 51 an example, a commission house where the "hustlers"' out-number the office force, their payment plan (once a week) extends to the office workers. This is true because two payment methods would cause too much clerical work and precipitate confusion (Form III). PAYROLL PERIOD ENDING \ uJ ^Y' J/ 1dl L. DEPARTMENT jzjL^t^rtxtJ^t^- ^ CHECK NO. NAME MONTHLY RATE SPECIAL DEBIT DISTRIBUTION PAYROLL 20 S71 F21 S22 F22 w FORWARDED 11 o oc / 5 (, 30 i '/ Jttf / $o& / / (70 ; g . & 2 '. f 3 7< 5 w.'VuJU^ It CO re co IIQO ' I cV 5 CC- 3 7 (,(. 4-XJ ^Vck 1 S g -. 'S 00 0ct (P.-c Auction rior o Inst Hi e Ek.i us Wge Saving per Year 10.000 9,500 9,000 8,500 8.000 7,500 7.000 tarn 6,000 MH 5.000 4.500 4.000 3,500 -3,000 2,500 WO* 1.500 1,000 600 Net Saving not including Overhead Saving ?s V / \, ^ 2 S / / \ / \ / s / / \ z } \ / / / / S / 1 / A / / / / Department managers in one office receive records of costs in this graphic form. The gradually rising line indicates an increase in output over the average prior to installing a bonus payment system. The curve of net III IBB CHAPTER IX Saving Two-thirds the Cost of Correspondence FOUR YEARS ago forty-one phonograph operators who were employed in one of the departments of the Curtis Publishing Company produced 48,000 square inches of typewritten matter in one week. This output was regarded as a fair average. The weekly wages of the girls averaged $9.00. This meant that the company paid $369 for the labor required to turn our 48,000 square inches of typewritten work, or at the rate of $7.69 per thousand square inches. Then the management made a scientific study of the subject, established a "standard day's work", and paid all the typists on a basis proportionate to their capa- bilities. Later the same department produced in one week 115,- 000 square inches of work with only twenty-seven work- ers slightly over one-half of the force of the year be- fore the new schedule was put into effect. The average income of each worker rose from $9.00 to $11.00 a week in salary and bonus, an increase of 22 per cent. And the weekly cost to the company for labor in the depart- 64 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES ment fell from $369 to $297, which meant that the cost of typewritten matter fell from $7.69 to $2.58 per thou- sand square inches. In other words, the efficiency of the department, based on these two tests, was increased 200 per cent. How was this accomplished? First of all, the poorer workers were weeded out. A card system showing the individual production determined the ability of the stenographers. An employment instruction department was established, the purpose of which is: (a) to select only those applicants who give evidence of becoming proficient in the work for which they are to be engaged ; (b) to train these chosen applicants for a period rang- ing from a day to two weeks in the details of the depart- ment to which they are to be assigned ; (c) to hold classes for old employees, to review work and to explain modifications ; (d) To determine what constitutes a "day's work" and to establish that day's work as a standard; (e) to establish a bonus system that will remunerate each worker according to the quantity and quality of her work. Suppose an applicant's record in the files indicates that she would meet the requirements of one of the de- partments as expressed in the manager's requisition. She is immediately employed and put in the instruction di- vision of the training school at full pay. If she passes the final tests after this schooling she is engaged. The company measured the average amount of work turned out, and after cutting out waste motions, set up the standard day's work. This standard varies with the WRITING LETTERS 65 salary of the stenographer. The problem of keeping records of a worker's output was not an easy one at first. Distinctions had be made among the different classes of office work. Allowances had to be made for luncheon hours, fire drills, special work andj other inter- ruptions. Penalties were inflicted for inaccurate work. To ' ' key up ' ' the workers to further effort, a weekly re- port of the record of each girl is posted on the bulletin board of the department. To illustrate how standards are defined, production Name r> Nn Div. and Section 73-7- Date Operation Number Time Record Standard Production Time Loss and Special Work From To Total Per Hour For Time /y.2. 8 e , /-/* Name ^ .0 Efficiency Summary Week Ending 2^^2-1 91.2L g&K. /H^TTLe^ RBg Mo ,y Section ^-4^ Rate $ /& Day Time on Standard Operations Standard Units for the Time Production Units for the Time Time Work Time Loss Total Time (Clock) Efffcic Stand 1/4 R N ncy ard Gain .. etained . _ Bt Gain _ _ htm 7--VS" JTJ7 S 7 ^ 7-W /6~ Remarks: % ' Salary onSt< %N Tot for Time ndards..^ etGain . Bonus $ il Bonus $ Total Remarks: Efficient .-..-! ...... -,- FORMS VII and VIII: Individual records of an addressing clerk's work are kept compactly on the back card (Form VII). Operators receive a bonus for passing an amount fixed as a standaid day's work. Individual daily records are summarized by the week on another card (Form VIII). Different forms are used for the different classes of work. Even with such a system it was found that letters cost ten to twelve cents each, including rent, salaries, stamps, stationery and equipment in the calculation. It is said to be almost impossible to reduce the cost of letters in any case beneath six cents records kept and the bonus figured, take the case of a clerk in the addressing section. A clerk working on listed operations fills in a card (Forms VII and VIII) 66 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES where the operations are designated by number, leaving columns headed "standard" and "production" vacant. She may work on one or more operations during the day, yet one card, approved by the superior, is sufficient. These daily cards are forwarded to the employment and instruction department where they are completed and checked, and where, at the end of the week, the work is summarized for each clerk and the bonus figured. No set standards to cover dictation are made. But accurate record is kept on a form tabulating the amount of work and the time spent for each operator. After the system had been in successful operation for over three years, the net saving per year was found to be $8,164. During that period, three-fourths of all the clerical workers had been placed on the bonus system. Maximum efficiency of stenographers and consequent low cost of letters, is obtained in another office by put- ting the girls on a piece-work basis. Operators are aided in attaining a higher standard of ability by systematiz- ing their work and by relieving them of inconsequential but time-consuming details. Since the new system has been in use, the total weekly payroll has been decreased sixteen per cent, but the average salary has been in- creased one dollar per week. The number of operators has been materially reduced, but the work done in the department has been increased approximately fifty per cent. These results are obtained by maintaining a general department, directed by a head stenographer and two assistants, which includes all machine operators except a few secretaries. In the office in which this plan was developed, seventy-five stenographers and phonograph operators were required to do the work. In smaller WHITING LETTERS 67 offices the duties of management have been confined to the head of the department. As the system is used, the head stenographer keeps the time of her operators and supplies them to dictators. The first assistant has charge of the phonograph division and the second assist- Daily Schedule Dictator Steno. Called at Wanted at Supplied at Returned at No. Letters Remarks ^.<^xA- xAcA (0.20 II. //. II 35 /:? ,. tfrte ( Recsived Ho. Operator j Out In ,,5//4//j ^r g>.. 1 ot;:' ;-,--. ;.V, .: 5 i ' ' ; ' f -- : - ^.r ' 1 ' ' : , r ' : ;' . ', I : i J :- 1 nil; -r : FORMS IX and X: The head of the stenographic department maintains a "Daily Schedule" (Form IX) upon which she records the time spent by operators taking dic- tation. If the number of letters taken is disproportionately few compared with the time spent, a note of this fact is made in the "remarks" column. When this column shows a dictator to be an habitual offender, the fact is referred to his department head for adjustment. Records of the transcription of phonograph cylinders are kept on the small card (Form X) ant measures the work dope and reads proof on it so that the letters need not be returned for correction to the man who dictated them. This practice has effected an important economy among the high salaried em- ployees. When a dictator wants a stenographer he calls the department by telephone, and unless he has a prefer- ence the girl first on the list is sent to his desk. Her work is recorded by the head of the department on the daily schedule sheet (Forms IX and X). When the operator returns to her desk, after taking 68 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES dictation, she transcribes her notes and turns the fin- ished sheets over to the assistant head, who measures the number of lines written and enters the amount to her credit in the daily record. A scale corresponding to the spacing of the typewriter makes the work of measuring the lines easy. An estimate of the work done merely requires accurate reading of the scale. Dictating machines are also used by this company. The typists are in a separate division. A boy collects cylinders for transcription at thirty-minute intervals and stores them on a shelf. The operators have only to step to the shelf to keep themselves supplied with work. As the records are received, the chief of the phono- graph section makes a note of the name of the dictator, the number of cylinders filled, and the time when they are received, on a card which she keeps in a permanent file. When an operator takes a cylinder, the time is noted on the slip, which is transferred to the "pending" file. When a typist finishes a record, she reports the fact to her chief, who again notes the time and returns the card to the regular file. Determining the Basis on Which to Figure the Operator's Credit In the phonograph department, figuring an opera- tor '& average is a simple matter. The total number of lines written during the month are divided by the number of working days. In the case of stenographers, the problem of giving proper credit for the time spent in taking dictation is a difficult one, and can only be solved after a study of actual conditions. One plan fixes the rate of the individual in lines per hour; one other fixes the rate of the entire depart- WRITING LETTERS 69 merit. Both plans permit the proper crediting of time lost in taking dictation. In getting the individual's average, the hours spent in taking dictation are deducted from the total hours worked during the month. This figure when divided into the number of lines actually written during the month, gives the operator's rates in lines typed per hour. Rate multiplied by hours of dictation is taken as the amount of work which would have been done by the stenographer during the time she took notes. This sum added to the lines actually written is her monthly average. Dividing it by the number of working days gives a daily average upon which is based the salary she is paid. The difficulty with many systems of this sort has been that time taken for clerical work or for handling car- bons, sharpening pencils and other minor duties ma- terially interfered with the output. In one office, how- ever, the stenographers do no clerical work. An office boy collects dull pencils twice a day from the desk baskets where they are tossed when blunt, supplies sharp ones and attends to the other time-consuming details. The desks are all of one size and the arrange- ment of stationery is standardized so that the work of the stenographer in reaching for various forms is prac- tically automatic. The correspondence of many offices does not bulk large enough to warrant the installation of a system having any degree of complexity. But the same prin- ciples of clearing the line for straight-ahead work, of knowing what each worker does and paying her accord- ingly, apply throughout. The use of stiff back loose- leaf note books instead of the ordinary "spineless" kind, to make dictation and transcription easier; the 70 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES reduction of stationery forms to save time and con- fusion; and a definite " place for everything" are all possible improvements for even the smallest offices. The manager of a small Rochester office concentrated one part of his attack on erasures. To begin with, he noticed that his two stenographers were spending an appreciable portion of their time rummaging about their desks, through drawers, looking under papers and making other like maneuvers. Investigation showed that all the fuss was over the innocent rubber eraser. He ordered the girls to throw the erasers away, and assured them that he would rather have an entire letter rewritten than have a single erasure made. At first, he was almost tempted to revert to the old plan. Many letters had to be rewritten. But gradually the letters cleared up. As a final result more letters are turned out, and their appearance has improved at least twenty per cent. Greater output with the same number of workers means reduced cost. Another advantage which the manager sees is the increased "selling" effective- ness of neat letters. O ATISFACTION to customers is the *^ only basis for a permanent business. To eliminate complaints to cut out the kicks is therefore a vital part of business management. Clarence M. Woolley CHAPTER X Short Cuts in Handling and Filing Mail IN the offices of a certain public service institution where the most up-to-date systems are used, the mail is collected by a boy at hourly intervals. A junior clerk in each department puts a band around the letters, together with a form on which he writes the name of his department, the date, the number of pieces of mail, and the stamps required. By the use of these slips, (Forms XI and XII), the stamp account can be bal- anced at the end of each day, and departments properly charged for them. The boy, after collecting from every department, turns over his load to the mailing section, where an automatic sealing machine seals the flaps in a small fraction of the time hand work would require. Because of remittances in postage from customers, stamping is done by hand in order to utilize these single stamps. Stamp saving helps to reduce perhaps the highest cash item of letter cost (Figure VI). One firm using government stamped envelopes, discovered that soiled and misdirected envelopes were being thrown away by 71 72 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES stenographers. As this made a big leak in the postage during the year, the general manager decided to check out every package of stamped envelopes to the indi- vidual stenographer. In this way the carelessness was controlled. It was also found that some letters sent to foreign lands were insufficiently stamped, and that the resulting tax on the addressee often made an enemy for the house. The stenographers now write the word foreign where the stamp is to be placed. This automatically comes to the mail clerk's attention when he is stamp- ing letters, and he makes sure of his postage. The stamp conceals the word. A rate card, placed in a prominent place on the wall, is insurance against mis- Discount Check$ Check $ Check not signed Short, net or gross Over, net or gross / FLETCHER M Date. S//X//4- No. Pieces // Amount t Department. Signed. -<2O. THE DOVER ROLLER SKATE CO. FORMS XI and XII: The upper form (Form XI) is attached by the mail clerk to all remittances which are incorrect. The under form (Foim XII) is attached to outgoing mail by the respective departments. It serves as a check on the money value of the stamps called for by the mailing department takes in foreign postage computation. This avoids delays and forestalls strained relations with distant cus- tomers. Where several enclosures such as pamphlets, cards HANDLING AND FILING MAIL 73 and the like, are made in one letter, the cost runs high unless a system is installed that cuts down the moves made by clerks in assembling these various enclosures. Stamps Ic and 2c Postage Reducing Weight Envelope and Letter Paper Stationery Enclosures Printing Carbon Copies Direct Correspondents Salary Manifolding File Clerks Mail Boys Desk and Typewriter Every Letter Bears Its Equipment and Supplies Office and Mailing Appliances Ribbons bnare ot These Expenses Stenographer's Supplies Loss of Stamps Returned Mail Waste Spoiled Stationery Poor Lists Office Manager Overhead Salaries Accounting, Storekeeping and Correspondence Supervisors Office Expense Insurance FIGURE VI: Stamp do not fluctuate in price and mail rates do not change often, but many direct and indirect items are here listed through which you can increase or cut the cost of correspondence 74 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES One firm dealing in electrical goods has solved this problem by the use of a revolving table. On this in the correct order, enclosures are placed in heaps. Workers are seated about the table, and as the table revolves, they take a piece from each heap. By the time the table has swung around once, all of them have the material for the respective letters they are making up. The per- formance is swift because of its continuity and its tend- ency to spur on the workers by automatically setting an efficient pace. How the Mail Is Handled from the Time the En- velope Is Slit until Each Letter Is Answered When the mail comes in to the firm first mentioned, a clerk passes each envelope through a machine which takes a thin slice off one side. Other firms use an emery process in which the -edges of the envelopes are ground away. The clerks of that department then divide the en- velopes into two groups, personal matter and business correspondence. Then it is subdivided business cor- respondence first according to department or man and put into a pigeon-hole rack which is subdivided accord- ing to the classification made by the mail clerks. A boy then comes around with a push cart having the same divisions as the mail rack. The letters are transferred and delivered by trips throughout the office, following regular schedule and route. In many offices inefficient methods for designating the proper notations on incoming letters regarding their contents are the cause of delay in giving prompt atten- tion. As there are always several important notations to be made on each letter, especially where it passes HANDLING AND FILING MAIL 75 over different desks, some accurate system must be used to facilitate the proper attention. One remedy for this is to have the clerk, after noting the contents, stamp the envelopes with a small rubber stamp and then enter the proper data regarding the date of receipt, amount of money enclosed and the department to which it is to be referred. It is then turned over to the department for answer- ing. Here the remaining spaces on the stamp are filled -J # /?/?. <^**-e^&*c**>-&^- DEPT. OEPT. ft 2 NAME _ OEPT. K o DEPT. NAME FORM XIII: An inter-department envelope which saves considerable money each year. Each envelope may be used seven times by drawing a line through the last address, writing in the new and sending it unsealed loathe department desired. Inter- department communications are received and delivered by the mail boy on his rounds in, giving the date of answer, correspondent, number of order entry and its position in the card index file. In this way, assurance is given that the necessary notations will not be overlooked. At the same time an accurate record of each letter is made, so that any mis- take may easily be traced. The letters noted and answered, are ready to be filed. The system may be alphabetical by person or 76 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES firm name, geographical by states or cities or alpha- betical by cities under certain district headings, or numerical. The numerical plan is similar to the cata- loging of books in a library and permits the group- ing of kindred correspondence. If extensive, however, it requires a complete cross-index. Whatever filing system is chosen should be so organized as to reduce to a minimum the danger of misfiling, consume corn- Receipt for Files The undersigned holds the following correspondence from the files. CUSTOMER ADDRESS Original Order Shipping Ticket Bill of Lading Our Letter to them Their Letter to us Branch Office Printed Matter Repair Ticket Entire Folder Taken from files at SIGNED FORM XIV: This is a form of record put in the letter's place by the file clerk, while the conespondence is out. It fixes the responsibility and controls temporary or per- manent loss of letters paratively little floor space, reduce handling motion, separate in units all important correspondence, be eco- nomical to install and reduce time ordinarily consumed in referring to filed matter. Inability promptly to locate letters taken from the correspondence files and held in different departments of a business, results in great inconvenience and embar- HANDLING AND PILING MAIL 77 rassment, and sometimes in an absolute loss. A concern mailing three hundred letters a day requires that the person or department withdrawing any correspondence from the files shall do this only on a correspondence requisition (Form XIV), identifying the person or the department withdrawing the letters. Then when cor- respondence is sent to another person or another depart- ment without being; returned to the correspondence files, it is accompanied by a memorandum. Thus it was easy to find the letter desired, by refer- ring to the carbon of the house note. When the letters finally returned to the files, the original requisition and house notes are removed and destroyed. " House cleaning" applies to files perhaps better than to any other office department. A large" mercantile house in the east, having an exceptionally heavy cor- respondence, was compelled at frequent intervals to remove the less important matter from its correspond- ence files in order to avoid overcrowding them. In doing this, a great deal of work was required at each of these dates in selecting the important letters which it was necessary to retain in them. As the work was done hurriedly, it very frequently occurred that some important letters were taken from the files and destroyed. To get around this difficulty, the firm rearranged the files by providing each name with two filing folders. One of these was a manila folder and the other one was green. In the first of these was placed the more im- portant correspondence with each name, which it was desired to retain permanently in the files. In the green folder was filed the less important correspondence, which it was not desired to retain in the file for any 78 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES length of time. It was then a comparatively easy matter to clear the files of this unimportant correspond- ence. From time to time the green folders with their contents were removed bodily from the files and either destroyed or placed in the transfer files. Another firm has its correspondents mark with a rubber stamp, the dates when letters may be "killed". The minimum is six months. These methods keep the files up to date, roomy and neat. \7' OUR office is the connecting mech- * anism between the factory and the trade. A business man who keeps up no office recently boasted that he leaves no mounting overhead expense behind when he travels; neither does he leave any bond, however, between himself and his customers. His business is not so much a going concern as a travel- ing man. CHAPTER XI Low Cost and Dispatch in Handling Orders WHAT I can't understand, " says a department head of a packing house, "is that firms will work up all sorts of elaborate sales systems, will build impressive warehouses and sumptuous offices all to make a good impression and then after the order is secured will seem not to realize that their customer is giving them a test other than that pertaining to the actual goods. He's going to find out how dependable they are when it comes to delivery. "A good order system should permit the handling of orders in a very short time. Nor is that all, by a good deal. Our system has been planned so that it is handled by the fewest clerks comparatively speaking with the fewest forms. These requisites epitomized, mean economy and profit, both direct and indirect." The order system of one wholesale house is unusually effective (Forms XV to XVIII). It has proved its elas- ticity by requiring little change in the years of the firm's prosperous growth. Carbon copies have made this system flexible and kept it adapted to the office as it grew from 79 80 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES less than a dozen desks to more than a hundred. As more clerks became necessary and the goods were spread over more ground, the situation has been handled by a corresponding increase in the number of carbon copies. The salesman, having taken the order, turns it in to the credit man. This is the first and "refining" process. Those orders that sift through this department are sent on their way through the routine. The accepted order goes first to the stock clerk, who looks over the items to see if the salesman has sold any- thing that they are "out of*. If so, he substitutes where he feels free to do so, or if goods will be in stock within a day or so, he makes out a " short " a slip of paper on which the missing items and the order number are recorded. These are put on a spindle and supplementary orders made out for them as the stock clerk finds the house able to make shipment. If he does neither of these things, he crosses off the article. The order then goes to the register clerk, who enters it in his book and puts a number on every order for recording and reference purposes. The floor boy at the next desk marks on the order, before each article, the floor on which it is located. At this point the order copiers get the original, and in one typing operation make the bill, order, receipt, ledger charge and floor tickets. Out of this group, the shipping clerk next detaches the first floor ticket for his own use. He sends the other floor tickets to their respective departments. These departments each send whatever of the specified goods are on their floor, to the shipping clerk, who checks them off on their respective order blanks. When that. PUTTING ORDERS THROUGH 81 operation is completed, all the order copies are sent to the extender, who extends them all in one operation by the use of carbon sheets. The bill is sent to the customer. The ledger charge FORMS XV, XVI, XVII and XVIII: Order forms of a system used by a wholesale grocery. These forms required no important change in the fifty years' growth of the concern, demonstrating conclusively the flexibility of the system. At the bottom of the rear form, (Form XV), is a chain of segregated spaces for the various floors. Pine- apple comes under fancy groceries floor eight and is so billed goes to the bookkeeping department. The order is ''checked against" the register to indicate that it has been shipped out. Once a week a clerk goes over this register to see that all orders have been checked, sig- nifying that they have been shipped or delivered. The order copy then goes to the profit department, where 82 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES the gain is figured. The original order written out by the salesman is filed alphabetically, and the copy of it numerically. Even though in one case the name is misspelled or in the other, the number is incorrect, the file clerk can locate the order under this arrangement. Gaining time cutting down the minutes on order handling is and was the aim of all firms that have sys- tematized their routine. "Straight line" routing with no duplicated motions, is the plan or desire of up-to- date concerns. They realize that a straight line method means quick serice and is the shortest line between the company and the buyer's good will. Exceptions are held down to the minimum. The fact that smooth, uninterrupted routing is val- uable is shown by the fact that, regardless of delivery costs, one firm prefers to deliver goods rather than that their customers should bring their own teams and call for their goods at perhaps inopportune moments. Such practice upsets the routine and causes confusion. In a large manufacturing stationery company's office are forty clerks whose duty it is to check up the orders as sent by the salesmen, comparing the catalog numbers, prices, discounts, special terms, quantity allowances, promises, dates, and so on, with the customer's "price ticket" or record sheet. The many styles of tablets, grades and weights of paper, and odd sizes, in addition to the graduated prices for different classes of dealers, necessitates a very large catalog with many thousands of numbers. From time to time specials or "bulletins" are sent to salesmen showing numbers of which the stock had just been exhausted. Errors were very liable to occur. Often the salesman forgot about the "special", and sent in an order for PUTTING ORDERS THROUGH 83 items which were out of stock; or he showed a wrong number on his order, or gave the wrong price. Several other little errors were found to creep in when an order carried a long list of items. It required several hours each day for a high sal- aried order clerk to dictate letters to the salesmen on these questions, and an expert stenographer was kept busy. Upon finding an apparent error when checking up the orders, the clerks would make a brief memorandum of the question, pin it to the order and pass it on to the head order clerk. Or, especially during the rush sea- son, they would pass on slight errors themselves. The correspondence clerk whose duty it was to read the letters when they came to the secretary's office no- ticed a similarity in the letters being sent to the sales- men, and designed a form to eliminate useless letter dictating and writing. Hundreds of these are now used each month. A pad containing this form in multiple is given to each of the clerks. When a question arises in regard to an order he simply fills out the blank provided, or checks the question intended, adding remarks if necessary, and sends the form on to the salesman in his regular mail. The duplicate is attached to the order and held until the return of the original. This saves lost time for order clerks, the stenographer and the reader, as well as hurrying up orders. The query is now sent out as soon as the order clerk dis- covers it. Upon receipt of this form the salesman makes any corrections or notations and returns it. CHAPTER XII How to Keep Up Mailing Lists KEEPING lists in such shape that they are easy to handle and contain no worthless names is what every manager strives for. Where the list numbers only a few hundreds or thousands of names and does not fluctuate more than ten per cent annually, it is pos- sible to keep it in good condition by a page-system. This consists of a loose-leaf book especially ruled to suit the purpose. By a special arrangement the plan has been found especially practicable in saving time of clerical help and in minimizing the errors that often arise in handling a large list. With the list of names fairly well established, the work of writing up the book is accomplished easily. One or more spaces are left between each two names inserted, allowing room for the insertion of other names as shown in Form XIX. Rut there is of course a possi- bility of some names being crowded out of place. To meet this contingency, a "line-number space" is pro- vided between the lines. These are merely blank spaces for the addition of index numbers referring to the new names. On the reverse side of the sheet, the lines are num- 84 HANDLING MAILING LISTS 85 bered as indicated by the back card (Form XX). When inserting a name that is "crowded off" the front of the sheet the clerk writes it on the first vacant line on the reverse side of the sheet, and then inserts the line number in the proper "line number space", so that, when referring to this name again, the small number will be a guide to the reverse side of the sheet. This will save considerable time in the work. About one- third of the page at the bottom may be used for over- flow of names instead of the reverse side of the sheet. UNE NO. TO tVN AND STATE **_ NAME , cot. NO. t l/ NO. Z'-'" NO- 3 ',*; f^t^'^if. /?.. MtA*^ : a:" a : ' : --;, : _r : ; ;." ; ^ TOWN AND STATE NAME COL. NO. 1 COL. NO. 2 COL. NO. 3 - CUTHAND. TEX. McFarlfind, Miss J. CUTHBERT. TEX. | Oder, Jaa. C. OACUS . TEX. | Godfrey 4 Sons, J. L ' 1 _.; DAINGERFIELD, TEX. | Brlflfl3 f C Tiaa. |4 ( " 1 * -1 Tames. J. P. - - 1 DALBY SPGS., TEX. | SeOTCy 4 Jones. DALLAS. TEX. | Anderson. Geo. FORMS XIX and XX: Skill in preparing forms requires provision for errors and omissions. In this mailing list space is left for items overlooked or forgotten. The front card (Form XIX) is the regular list; the other is the reverse on which extra names are entered The typewritten names show the sheet as originally written. Any additions are put in script. Each page can be revised when necessary without any interference whatever with the adjacent sheets. The method can be 86 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES easily adapted to any small office which uses small pros- pect or customer, associate or supplier lists. An individual card system which includes several suggestive points is being used with unqualified success by a western commission house. Its mailing list had been carried on cards arranged according to post offices. Each of these cards was divided vertically to take care of three classes of names FORM XXI: At the extreme left in this file, red cards give the names of the states; at the extreme right blue cards give the names of cities and towns, filed alphabetically under states; and under the cities and towns the names of prospects are filed alpha- betically, on white cards, with projecting tabs which afford quick reference to the various kinds of business in the same towns, the one on the right representing regular customers, the one in the center those who were in correspondence and the left-hand column those purely prospective. To transfer a customer from one list to another not only necessitated defacing the card, but broke into the alphabetical arrangement of the names. HANDLING MAILING LISTS 87 The firm obviated this difficulty by using a card file in which the name of each customer and his post office address were recorded. These cards (Form XXI) were filed in tin trays with three longitudinal compartments. A geographical guide card was made to embrace all three FORM XXII:. This form is vafuable for keeping track of small lists. The inverted tabs are inked in to show the prospect's line of business. Thus concentrated mailing lists can easily be selected of these compartments by slotting it over the partitions. The individual cards were then filed alphabetically be- hind these geographical guide cards. In this way, when any name was transferred from one division to another the card itself was moved, entirely obviating any mutilation of the record and at the same time preserving the exact alphabetical order. Stencils available for addressing purposes might hav been used under the same three-in-one arrangement. 88 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES For the business man whose office includes a small index or finding list of names and addresses to which he occasionally refers, the system of classification worked out by an Eastern oifice man, will prove help- ful. This scheme, which the designer calls the "four- in-one" classification, is not adapted to indexes of big lists ; neither is it intended to replace any of the stand- ard equipment now used for such files. Rather, it has been designed to simplify the classification of small indexes such as a business man or merchant keeps on or in his individual desk. Its operation is simple. Any ordinary filing card may be used, and the ruling and information upon the card arranged to suit the needs of the user. Printed along the top margin, how- ever, is a series of inverted tabs, as shown in Form XXII. The number of these tabs may be fixed to suit the needs of the individual file in which they are to be used. As used by the designer, the tabs represent different lines of business ; the first position tab designates depart- ment stores; the second position, druggists; the third, hardware stores; and the fourth, grocery stores. In this case, a fifth tab is provided at the right which is used to distinguish between prospects and customers. When an inquiry was received from Frank Smith, a grocer at Park Ridge, N. Y., and it was desired to place him on the list for follow-up, a card was made out in his name, giving the available information about him. Before inking the fourth tab (to show that he was a grocer), his credit rating was determined; this was then indicated by the color of ink used. On ratinirs of $5,000 or over, the tab is colored with red ink. If the rating is less than $5,000, black ink is used. The HANDLING MAILING LISTS 89 edge as well as the face is colored. Various colored inks have been used to make further classifications, such as green ink for $25,000 ratings. The next step in the classification in to show that Smith is only a prospect. This is accomplished by CHANGE of ADDRESS or NAME Noted by Stencil Dept City and State ListDept /P. Street art Number /a ^ 3 CoJI. Oept OtyandSta* AUG 5 1914 Signed Stencfl Information FORM XXIII: For the convenience of the road salesman or customer, this card provides an easy way to report a change in address and any necessary notation arising therefrom. The foim may be printed on the back of a postal card leaving the tab at the right blank. If at a later date he becomes a customer, the tab is inked in the same way as the business classification tab. Either black or red ink may be used in this case, unless it is desired to make a further distinction between different classes of customers. Another popular plan where projecting tabs are used, is to cut off the right-hand tab to indi- cate a prospect become a customer. The card is now filed alphabetically, thus completing the quadruple classification. When the cards are filed, all the tabs appear in dis- tinct rows. The ink marks show up as short dashes. 90 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES Each set of similar tabs forms its own separate row, making it very easy to pick out immediately, without going over the rest of the list, the names in the desired class. At the same time the list remains in alphabet- ical sequence, and any name can be located without need of referring to more than one file. Whenever it is desired to advertise a new piece of equipment directly to the larger grocery concerns, it is only necessary to have a clerk ''up end" each card which shows the fourth tab marked with red. The envelopes are then addressed from the up-ended cards. Keeping a large list of names, ranging from 50,000 upward, involves such work as : (1) Selecting method and extensiveness of filing. (2) Adding new names. ,(3) Taking off worthless names. (4) Making changes in address. (5) Keeping a "morgue" for names or mail returned stamped " refused" or "unclaimed"; also those names which have been taken off the lists because shown un- desirable trade. To keep a large list in good shape for expeditious handling, it is customary to have two files: one alpha- betical, the other geographical. The alphabetical often stands alone, but when a par- ticular section covered by the lists is to be circularized, an alphabetical list obviously makes this next to impos- sible. When new names are desired, the original sources usually will make it possible to bolster up the decreas- ing lists. Brilliant successes in business have been built by men who delegated several associates to clip first- class names from the papers every day. HANDLING MAILING LISTS 91 Changes of address are brought in by road salesmen or sent in by the prospects themselves (Form XXIII). The latter way is either voluntary or secured by mailing a suitable printed form. In finding out which names are "dead", a two cent stamp will bring the undelivered mail back. A better and more economical way is to use the one cent stamp and the w'ords "postage guaranteed for return". Still a third way is to send parts of the list to the various postmasters about the territory: covered. They will make the corrections either at a charge of thirty cents an hour or gratis. Very often they are pleased to per- form this work so as to avoid a great quantity of mail which must be returned. WHEN you look at your office as a piece of fine and essential equip- ment, you will oil and adjust, repair and remodel it part by part, as you do your lathes and engines. The closer your profit and the harder the condi- tions, the more carefully you will make these adjustments. You will cut lost motions, reduce friction, fit every part to do one thing at a time and do it right. CHAPTER XIII Where Office Appliances Cut Costs INSTALLATION of office appliances in an Eastern house cut the cost of office work in fifteen months from $20,000 to $10,000. A detailed review of this particular office and the changes that were made illustrate the possibilities of cutting costs through the use of office machinery. It employed on an average thirty men and women in its office routine, exclusive of stenographers. The rate of pay ranged from eight to twenty-five dollars a week; the average being thirteen dollars. This made a total of $390 a week a yearly aggregate of more than $20- 000. This sum was out of proportion to the volume of the business. The members of the firm had a theory that their gross profits should be thirty-five per cent of the sales. In reality they were less than half of that. Investiga- tion showed that lack of labor-saving equipment was the greatest single cause of the high operating expense. The first experiments were made in connection with the checking of incoming invoices. In this operation only men had been employed, drawing from $15 to $20 a week. Not only was it essential to have this work 02 APPLIANCES THAT SAVE 93 done by clerks with the ability and knowledge to check the unit prices intelligently, but the operation required considerable accuracy and skill. Goods bought by the pound or yard usually involved the multiplication of fractions. The average invoice contained from fifteen to twenty items. Under the old method over seven minutes was required to check one such bill. But, after the experi- ments with calculating machines had been reduced to a regular practice, the same operation was done in four minutes. This included the checking of prices, multi- plications, and totals. The checking of unit prices, how- ever, was still performed by the higher paid clerks. In many of the operations connected with this in- voice checking, the gain in time was almost incredible. Thus, in finding the cost of 419 */2 yards of cloth at 20 1 /2C a yard, the machine answer was secured in six seconds less than the time ordinarily required to write down the figures to be multiplied. An increase of a thousand per cent in efficiency was shown in these de- tached partial operations, while the fingers of the opera- tors flew over the keys in purely mechanical fashion. All in all, the machine reduced the time consumed in checking fifty or sixty per cent. One third of the sav- ing was in salary cheaper clerks being used. The house did a large credit business. Nine clerks whose salary aggregated $120 were used in working on the statements and related procedure. One experiment with a machine, for example, showed that a given lot of statements could be produced in seventy minutes against one hundred and twenty-five minutes by the old method. Here was a gain of about forty per cent. The weekly gain on all the laborious detail amounted to $45 94 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES nearly $2,400 a year. The initial investment for the machines was wiped out in a few months by the net returns. In bookkeeping work, and at kindred processes, five men were formerly employed. They drew an aggre- gate wage of $325 a month. An experiment showed that the machine would do a given amount of work in nine minutes against seventeen minutes for skilled men. Another experiment in checking postings showed the elapsed time under the former methods as two hours and fifteen minutes. By the machine method the gain was about an hour and fifteen minutes, or fifty-five per cent. This did not represent expert machine operation, but the usual performance of bookkeepers. Just as production in factories has been immensely speeded up by automatic machines, so production in the office has been quickened. In the bookkeeping items typified above, the saving of fifty-five per cent meant a monthly gain on every $65 salary of over $35. On the entire bookkeeping department the gain was not that much, but it reached $1,000, with an additional gain of $30 a month diverted in giving higher salaries. But these reductions were by no means the most as- tonishing of the results accomplished in the office results that did not come at once, but were an evolution extending over a period of two years. It was in the general statistical work that the most sweeping cuts in wage expense were made. Machine calculation here showed an increase in efficiency of over five hundred per cent. Another saving was accomplished in regular practice in totalling sales slips, by clerks and by departments. An operation that had required the service of two girls APPLIANCES THAT SAVE 95 for one-half day is now performed by one girl in two hours. Under the old methods, nine working hours were consumed per girl; hence the saving was seven hours, or about one dollar ; more than $30 a year. The mechanical device method made it possible to handle five or six figures where one had been handled before, and made feasible a more extensive system of reports, comparative tables, and general statistical in- formation. In getting manufacturing costs, a gain was made of fifty per cent, by using machines. One of the apt girls was trained in the machine manipulation. She was able to accomplish what three girls had done indif- ferently well. The saving amounted to $25 a week, or $1,300 a year. In the payroll work the time was cut seventy-five per cent. In figuring the worker's wage at 17% cents an hour for 39% hours the machine answer was given in from three to four seconds, against at least fifteen seconds by the old method. The remainder of the savings was chiefly accomplished through the speeding up of inventories. The use of machines in this work showed results often several hun- dred per cent more efficient than the old method. In addition to the time saved in the office work connected with stock-taking, an immense sum total of the time was eliminated in the store and stock-rooms. In taking inventories it was found possible to make the computa- tions directly from the shelves, the machine operator taking the items and values as they were called off to him, and making the multiplications on the spot; thus both qualities and values were obtained practically in one procedure. Here the saving was seventy per cent. By such methods, this particular concern, bit by 96 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES bit, and as the result of careful experimentation, has chopped its office cost in half. In like manner other business offices in all lines are reducing the standard operations of the daily routine to mechanical processes. The introduction of the dozens of office appliances now perfected is widening the fields of business, is creating a more insistent demand for statistical matter and, instead of doing away with the clerk, is finding more useful fields for him. Office registers, electric tabulat- ing machines, overhead desk-to-desk carriers, check pro- tectors and all sorts of letter manifolding and mailing devices are multiplying the deftness of office minds and fingers. To "run an office by machinery" is not an experi- ment. When the office manager grows impatient at the tardiness or inaccuracy of an operation, or the type of work which is constantly keeping his office behindhand, he can often solve his problem by investigating in the field of automatic "employees" and " hiring a machine ". TEN years of effort and millions of dollars dug the Panama Canal. But the saving to the world's commerce will repay the initial cost a thousand times. You cannot dig another Panama Canal. But is there not some improve- ment in your business, from w T hich you are withholding capital, that would re- pay the investment dozens of times over in lower operation costs? Is there not a Panama route to be found in your business? CHAPTER XIV Handling Office Supplies Like Cash EH. HAR/RIMAN has been described as an in- veterate saver of used paper clips. Another habit which he shared with many of the men who head enter- prises and who know by long experience how prone overhead expenses are to get out of bounds, was the use of envelope backs for scratch paper. Economy in paper and pencils to the disregard of economy in time is one extreme in the handling of office supplies. The other is that of a discharged clerk whose desk the head of a small business recently had cleared. In it he found a six months' supply of his "A" grade stationery, pen points enough for half the office force, a drawer full of assorted scratch pads and four boxes of rubber bands which were brittle with age. Either carelessness or too much red tape in giving out supplies is likely to result in overstock and waste at the individual desks. Office supplies deserve records and safeguards as accurate and as simple as accounts and cash. To make sure on this point is one of the first moves for the proprietor in putting office ex- penses where they belong. It is simple enough in the concern where a trained stockkeeper can give all his 97 98 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES time to the work ; but some of the methods worked out by smaller offices, where the keeper of stock has a half dozen other duties in the way of manifolding, buying, shipping and mailing, indicate the direction for better BALANCE OF OFFICE SUPPLIES AND OTHEH PRICED STORES Z*il!tCt*. SUSTRA^OUAN^TT^RO^Vo^MN 1 !"^^*!?" COLUMN I OUA L ST/T"otJ O M"NO M'AS 'O^>r UNIT ' DATE OUAN FORM XXIV: To prevent wastes or unauthorized use of office supplies and maintain a proper balance on hand in a St. Louis office, no article, however smii 11. is issued except on a requisition signed by a department head. Each hem is given a separate card m tha stockkeeper's me, on which withdrawal or addition is noted control even where the stock-room is merely a desk drawer and a shelf in the clothes closet. The direct risks and losses that come of loose stock- keeping are these: (1) Overstock. (2) Shortage. (3) Pilfering. (4) Wasteful use of supplies. (5) Damage and excessive depreciation. In addition to these, however, the method may be a veritable "wrench in the machine'* of office work, if items are mislaid and overlooked until new stock has been ordered unnecessarily, if the stockkeeper is absent and the door locked while office people are held up in their work, or if the stock boy is held at his post in idleness. One of the most perplexing problems in every busi- ness house is to find a proper method for keeping track A CHECK ON SUPPLIES 9 of printed forms, different kinds of stationery, and other small office supplies. An inventory system becomes a, great saving in the case of expensive supplies; and even in small articles such as pins, pencils, rubber bands, and the hundred other articles that every office requires, economies may be brought about that are well worth considering. A St. Louis business man, after experiencing the an- noyance of lost stocks discovered after the purchase of more, evolved a storekeeping plan that suits the small office. He had a closed stationery closet constructed under a Package No. / *r Div. No.. Received /si ' 6MSC~&s / T~ 191 Contains Total No. printed /<4 U u u No. Packages Use ths highest numbsred package first FORM XXV: The location of any supply and the quantity last printed and on hand can be noted to advantage on this package label, thus short-cutting bookkeeping in the stock-room stairway. This consisted of a series of shelves of uni- form size, divided by upright partitions spaced to suit the various items. The spaces between these uprights may be either lettered or numbered. Cards were printed, as shown in Form XXIV, for the use of the stationery clerk, and placed in alphabetical order in a loose-leaf card 100 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES tray. As printed matter is received from the printer, it is turned over to the stationery clerk, who enters the name or number of the form on the card. He then rewraps the job in smaller packages, 50 to 100 copies in each package, and numbers them. The label used on the smaller packages is shown in Form XXV. These are then placed, the smallest package numbers at the back and bottom, in the proper compartment of the sta- tionery closet. On the back of each supply card (Form XXVI) the minimum and maximum to be kept in stock may be noted. As the stationery clerk receives requisitions for the different forms he fills them with the highest numbered packages, noting on the card the data from these re- quisitions. Packages are wrapped to contain the most convenient quantity. Blanks or forms of which a large number are used in a short time, are wrapped in larger packages than others. A skilful clerk will find many advantages in this plan. As he rewraps, he counts one package in five or ten as a check on the supplier. By going over his card record for the past year or more, he learns what quan- tity to order to last a certain time. Working with the office manager, he can keep down the amount of money tied up in forms which are likely to change and place orders which will secure all the advantages of price on standard items. Whenever he wishes to verify his running inventory, he has only to count the wrapped packages and the one broken pack- age. To arrange his piles in tens, makes it easier, and he is thus enabled to check on any unauthorized dis- turbance of the stock. During any absence, he can leave the key with the head of the office, assured that his card A CHECK ON SUPPLIES 101 index will enable the manager to find any item in case of an emergency. ' ' . Even in offices of large ..size, one <>!' th<> greatest sources of losses often is 'ihe'.Ni itlH- !' paring /iud distributing supplies. In remedying this difficulty, one KttrtbiOlvU trlnfed by No of ptti_ |h p*. crftte CTd Taken oat [1 .*/ &-> Taken oat 73 . . 1,93 FORM XXVI: This form is the reverse of Form XXIV. It carries a simple record which shows how fast every department uses the item listed and who was the requisitioner office head adopted the standard stores system in use in factories operating under scientific management meth- ods. He gathered all supplies into a general storeroom and put a man in charge. Each item was charged up against .that department and totaled each month for comparison with records of other months and other sec- tions. In effect, the storeroom was a business retailing supplies on credit to the various departments. Reorganization of stores was carried still further, how- ever. Instead of ranging shelves about the walls, they were carried up in uniform stacks with roomy aisles between. Stores were classified and sections assigned to them. Sections were subdivided into units large enough to hold the maximum supply of each item yet not waste space. Pencils, paper, forms, clips and so on, were kept in their original packages. For the bulkier supplies there were double sections which alternated as receiving 102 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES and issuing bins to prevent deterioration of stock through age. To insure a proper balance of supplies a ' ' balance-of- stox-es". cjerk was install txl. Loose-leaf books were pro- vided for "Office Supplies and Other Price Stores", "Unpriced Stores" and "Unclassified Stores". In one or another of these books every item in stock had its in- dividual sheet. Nothing entered or issued from the storeroom without a "stores- received" or "stores-issued" slip being sent to the clerk. From this slip entry was made in the proper book, so as at all times to show the quantity on hand. The maximum and minimum sup- plies were all set down. When the supply dropped to the latter point the clerk notified the purchasing agent to order more. How the System of Having Every Department "Pay" for Its Supplies Works Out Wherever the spirit of the organization is loyal, any plan which enables each employee to see what supplies cost the firm results in a worth-while economy. One progressive office curbed its expense for supplies by al- lowing each department a certain weekly appropriation for such purchases. Aluminum coins, good at the sup- ply window for three, five, twenty-five and fifty cents and one dollar, are issued to each department head on Monday morning. The amount is based on records for past months. No material is issued to a department ex- cept for strictly "cash" payment. So pronounced is the disinclination to part with cash, that the result has been a marked economy in most departments. While the keeper of supplies requires accurate meth- ods, the system which is simply installed and left to run A CHECK ON SUPPLIES 103 itself is no system. One manager whose supply shelves were in disorder because his stock clerk had many other duties, has worked out various reforms. In order to give the clerk time for proper inspection and to put the stock shelves in order every day, the office head arranged that half the office departments should requisition between nine and eleven on Tuesday and the other half between nine and eleven on Thursday. This cut down the needless writing of many small requisitions throughout the office, gave the clerk four hours a week when he could be quite busy, left him time to put the stock-room in order, and enabled the office manager to reduce his inspection of this corner of the office to two visits a week. Emergency requisitions at other hours have to go through an amount of routine which discourages them. WHEN you get a job pitch in, pay no attention to the clock, take more interest in the business than the old man himself. Think shop, talk shop. Then when you think you ought to have a raise go to the old man and say you want to quit to better yourself. He will not let you quit. He'll raise your salary or take you in as a partner. Thos. A. Edison CHAPTER XV Plans That Stopped Money Leaks INK DOESN'T cost much until you begin to buy it in quantities. Then, like everything else, it becomes a big item. The amount of ink used amounts to only little in the largest firms; it is the amount wasted that increases expenses. The liability of spilling spoiling valuable records, disfiguring furniture and floors must be considered. In Pittsburg a firm which had noticed this source of waste, tried the experiment of giving a few old time accountants fountain pens. The investment proved an economy, and the plan was adopted throughout the en- tire department. These pens are fitted with the kinds of points the accountants desired, so that each one had the same advantages he formerly possessed when he chose his particular steel point. A boy keeps the pens filled and cleaned. An economy of ink has resulted. There are no more blotted or spoiled records from overturned ink bottles. More uniformity about the records has followed than formerly, and there is no lost motion to and from the ink well, no running to the ink bottle, or trying to break in a new pen. The buyer of this firm purchases 104 STOPPING LEAKS 105 about twenty-five per cent as much ink as he formerly did. This experience illustrates the two most promising sources of direct economy in most offices: wasted sup- plies and lost motion. Just because the loss in a single instance is small, most managers let little items of office waste get by them. They forget that one-tenth of a cent leak, contributed to three times a day, by one hundred employees, means a loss at the end of the year of one hundred dollars. Any business man would drop his work and institute a rapid search if you told him that a hundred dollar bill had been dropped out of his cash drawer this morning into the sweepings. But just be- cause this hundred dollars is dropping out in driblets of one-tenth of a cent he lets it pass. Discrepancies between the actual and the paper in- ventory of supplies are probably inevitable in most offices. Where they have been reduced to a minimum, this improvement has resulted from supervision by an office manager who backed the stock boy in refusing to give out anything without a properly signed requisition and who trained that subordinate by frequent examples, to expect a rigid check-up in case of any loss. When bulk stock cannot be put under lock and key, the plan of stacking it in even piles makes the removal of a single package quickly noticeable. In one case, the office manager had the crates of stock stacked in a cube of ten each way and noticed the new position each da^ after the stock clerk had filled his requisitions from the one broken tier. In a similar way, when books and boxes of supplies had been uncrated late in the day for counting, the office manager had them put in even piles over night so that several overtime workers who carried their own keys would understand that they would be 106 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES held responsible for any shortage noticed the next morn- ing. The proprietor of another small office found that many letters came back from the post office because they had not been securely stamped in the hurried handling of a large quantity. He found further that many of the en- velopes were not securely sealed and that others were badly wrinkled and smeared. To stop this loss in stamps and sales effort, he adjusted the schedule of several work- ers so that they could act as emergency mailing clerks during the evening hours, notified his department heads and stenographers that as much mail as possible was to be signed and sent in at 4 p. m. and finally, placed his home address on every mailing list so that he could see personally the condition in which the mail arrived. Another successful cost cutting move which not only saves paper, but space in the filing cabinet is to turn the carbon of a letter and copy a second page on the back of it rather than using a second sheet. To avoid discarding material which is needed later and at the same time to be free from voluminous files which some- one has to inspect before they can be discarded, another office manager has made it a rule that each of his men keep a folder marked "discard on the first of the month ". Here are placed papers which may be needed, but for which the call is to come soon if at all. How Cutting Down the Day's Waste Motion Saves Dollars in Office Expense Saving and scheming on useless motions are just as profitable though perhaps not so tangible as cutting down waste in supplies. A worker's aggregate moves might be measured in miles. Shorten each move and STOPPING LEAKS 107 more work can be had without pushing him so hard. The firm which gave its accountants fountain pens bought more figures through the elimination of pen dip- ping innumerable times each day. Would you think that twenty-seven dollars could be saved in a year even in a large office by stopping em- ployees from asking each other the date and time of day? Every employee who watches the clock is losing time. Yet clock watching is necessary in planning work. Em- ployees watch clocks because they are set at tasks and want to keep posted on the passing of time as their work progresses through the day. The superintendent of a big city office was annoyed by the constant interchange among employees of in- formation touching the date and the hour. To eliminate these inquiries he installed a large wall clock at each end of the office and arranged all desks so that everyone could see one or the other. Under each clock he placed a huge calendar. Over each calendar he placed an electric lamp that was lighted at dusk. Thus at a glance, any employee could learn the date, hour, minute and second, without disturbing anyone else. The clocks cost $24.00 a year; the lights were esti- mated at $3.00 a year for current and maintenance ; the calendars were supplied gratis by a firm whose imprint they bore. The manager saved the entire year's invest- ment during the first month in the employees' time that had formerly been wasted. Finding a shorter and better way to perform office operations is a constant source of new economies for the progressive office head. One manager has worked 108 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES t out a series of well-understood abbreviations which he and his assistants use in accounting, filing, and the ex- change of information. A stock clerk with experience as a printer has a well- standardized method of counting different articles by taking the weight, thickness or extent of ten or a hun- dred and then weighing or measuring larger quantities in proportion. Wishing to secure a duplicate file of 3x5 cards, a de- partment head worked out the method of printing up blanks in rows of three, one above the other. The original form was made of durable paper, the carbon copy of cardboard. Both were perforated. This method secured a better carbon than could be obtained by using even the thinnest card stock for the original, while the carbon copy is used in the file which has to withstand the most handling. Running three of the cards through the machine at once makes them curl smoothly about the roll. To typewrite on single filing cards without the aid of a special card writing device is simple as worked out in another office. The method is this: Cut a letterhead a little wider than the card. Double the sheet, creasing it about the middle folding the bot- tom half over the top half. Then turn back what is now the top half, creasing it again clear across the sheet a quarter of an inch or so from the first crease. Your entire sheet is now just a little shorter than at first, with a quarter-inch "pleat'* in the middle. Insert this sheet in the typewriter in the regular man- ner, with the proper side up so that when it is rolled through the machine and the "pleat" comes around the platen to the writing point, it will form a little pocket- STOPPING LEAKS 109 across the sheet, one-quarter inch deep. Drop the bot- tom of the card into the pocket, writing side up, turn the roller backwards and the card will go into the ma- chine. When the card is written, a half turn of the roller will throw it out and the pocket is ready for another card. The card does not go clear around the platen, is not bent, and considerable time is saved. If much card writing is done, a sheet should be kept on hand, folded of fairly heavy paper, with the other side of the "pleat" gummed down to keep the sheet from unfolding. Where operations have to be repeated over and over, time-saving methods are almost sure to reward study. In an office where labels were numbered by rubber stamp in lots of ten for each number from one to ninety-nine, a student of scientific management worked out a method of stamping each single figure on all the cards requiring it before changing the stamp. The plan was in part to lay out the stamps from one to ten in front of the ten piles of cards and to run through the entire pile op- posite the place where the stamp was missing, as through the 20 's in the case of 2. To sort checks so that they can be stamped with the minimum number of changes in a check marker involves the same principle. Making out checks in bunches on certain days of the month and filing them where they can be sent out at the proper moment to secure the discount is a well- known short cut in many offices. The use of various manifolding devices at the proper points in the routine is often an economy. A Southern concern frequently has large printing contracts to place. These contracts usually consist of many forms, and bids are received from six or eight different printers. To 110 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES save time and make sure that all sample forms are iden- tical, a special ribbon is put on the typewriter and the forms are typewritten on tracing linen. From these tracings, the desired number of blueprint copies are made. One of the most important points in office routine is to make sure that one blunder does not offend a cus- tomer on top of a former hurt which has already made him sensitive. Accurate office routine can in such cases save the sales department much invested good will. The sales department of a large manufacturing corporation maintains what it calls the " Black Book", in which are registered all complaints received from customers con- cerning material sold and service rendered. Each order received is checked with the "Black Book" before it is passed on to the order department. In case a complaint has been received from the customer con- cerning a previous order, a note is sent to the plant su- perintendent reading somewhat as follows, telling in each case exactly what the previous complaint was: "The inclosed order has been received from a cus- tomer who complained against our last order on the grounds that the plates were not sheared accurately. "Therefore, kindly give this order your special atten- tion to insure entire satisfaction." This letter and copies are attached directly to the original mill order and its duplicates, so that each de- partment foreman, regardless of whether or not the error mentioned was his, is warned by the message to guide the order carefully through the processes under his control. Thus the memory of a past error stimulates everybody in the plant to accuracy. Even in the routine work about the office, there are STOPPING LEAKS 111 short cuts and economies frequently to be used. One concern which had been paying the janitor day after day for time put upon the polishing of the brass and nickel work found that a single coat of transparent lacquer each year obtained the same result at a saving of nearly $200. , In every big business house where there are a number of department managers the telephone operator often has difficulty trying to find a man who happens to be out of his office. It may take a dozen different calls before he is found, and these calls waste not only the telephone operator's time, but that of the people who must answer in the various departments called. A manufacturing establishment with a dozen depart- ment managers who visit one another on business all day long, has solved this difficulty with a simple little ' * tele- phone chart ' ' which has reduced the waste time by over seventy per cent, according to the superintendent's esti- mate. The telephone girl is provided with a square sheet of cork about an inch thick and six inches square. The top surface of this has been ruled off into small squares and across the face of each of these is lettered the name of one department. The girl has a number of tiny silk flags of various colors mounted on small pins so that they will stand upright in the cork. Each flag carries the name of one of the executives. When Mr. Carter, head of the wholesale department, goes to consult Mr. Bentley, the sales manager, Mr. Carter's stenographer calls the operator and says: "Mr. Carter is in Mr. Bentley 's office." Central puts the silk flag with Mr. Carter's name on it into the ruled-off square of cork labelled "Sales Manager'*, and when 112 WAYS TO CUT EXPENSES calls come in for him she switches them to the right tele- phone at once. She is thus able to take care of calls for more than a dozen men without delay, without any strain on her own memory, and with quicker and more accurate service. The secretary of a plant employing from seven to eight hundred people paid by check twice a month, became tired of thumbing each check to attach his signa- ture. He saved himself considerable time and effort by having a clerk lay out the checks on a flat topped desk in rows, the checks covering one another except for a narrow margin at the bottom where they were to be signed. The manager was then able to sign the checks in less than half the former time, losing no time in turn- ing and blotting. A clerk followed him with a blotter. By careful consideration of the needs of the office, it is possible for the manager to evolve many such little plans whereby both time wasted on superfluous detail may be saved, and costs may be cut. MORE serious than big losses in business, guarded against and pro- vided for, are the small wastes the little drains on the vitality of a business. Their insignificance constitutes their greatest menace. Escaping notice, they escape correction. Whether they threaten the solvency of his concern or merely chop his dividends, they are hateful to the constructive business man. 11 Part DESK METHODS AND EMER- GENCY MANAGEMENT Filling the Manager's Chair L_I OW to be at once workman, advisor, con- * * troller and pilot that is the office man- ager's problem. To the plans of the business, the office is a tool and its manager the workman. He out- lines, he supervises, he inspects for sound work. For ambitious clerks and departments, he is a trained advisor. By his perspective and experience he develops his force towards better records. To the general manager, he is a controller of outlay. With his records and quota sheets he finds short cuts, runs down errors and complaints, initiates economies. Among his workers, he is the pilot. By his charts and schedules, his foresight and judg- ment, he guides his force through emergencies and keeps it in currents of work that run full but smooth. If you would fill your place, take these four essentials by which to train yourself, design your report system and schedule your time. II III ru i IIINO /Y. us/Yiva a^xiEsUULj^ ON ONE PAGE List o! Work Diily H In- voice IVpt Auxiliary Book W ig*s Payments and ! laUnce Collection Dept i O Filing Correspondence V Invoicing 7 1 11 II \ " " Credit Booka

Balance Cash Book Acknowledge Remittance* Send Notice* for Note* Coming Due Nxt Week Write up Diary Month Statement* Write up Card Index of Oped Accounts Form Utter*! Advg.Drafta for Acct*.Du Ut iii i-! i . 5 ! " I ! : ? i 5 .3 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday E E F J-C B-0 Days }} of the 13 Month 15 U 17 j A B-C B-C B-C 19 21 22 23 8 26 27 | B-C , ] April July October A Cashier B to D Bookkeeper* E to 1 Ocrics O= Office Boy With this schedule, an office manager planned, assigned and checked on all office work. Opposite the lower end of every black line is the date (asevery- II II CHAPTER XVI At the Office Manager's Desk WHATEVER saves time and favors a definite schedule deeply concerns the office head who realizes his position as pace-maker and enforcer of or- ganized effort in the administrative work of a business. Always to be in full command of his force he needs first to have his own hours and dates under an auto- matic schedule. A simple electric device, consisting of an annunciator, call button and sixty indicators, together with indicators and buttons at the desks of other offi- cials, is in the words of the head of a great life insur- ance office "one of the best labor-saving devices for an executive I've ever seen". An elementary but too rare substitute for this simple mechanism is an agreed sched- ule of daily interviews, when the manager and his asso- ciates hold brief conferences covering the office work. So in turn the manager can make schedules for his individual duties those which he must perform regu- larly. They may not necessarily be daily duties, but weekly, semi-monthly, yearly. Many office men trust a private secretary to "dispatch" their work down to the minute. In a smaller office, the head has his stenog- rapher go over his desk calendar at the beginning of 115 116 MEETING EMERGENCIES each year and month, making notations for the stand- ard duties that he is to perform on the various dates. Detail engagements he notes for himself. Another be- gins his dictation with the remark, "Remind me of the inspection tour next Tuesday and other engagements". Success in carrying out routine and enforcing office reforms begins in an analysis and schedule of the re- quired work, with due regard to its amount and the number of employees at disposal. An aid to this orderly planning by the office or de- partment manager, is a "Table of Work" like that (page 114) which a progressive manager has originated for himself. The first step in the preparation of such a table is the making of a complete itemized list of the regular work. Next is the assignment of each item of work to some official or clerk in the office. Finally, it is necessary to determine when each task is to be finished. In the column for each item a red line is dropped. At the end of it is a letter representing the person respon- sible for or appointed to perform that particular task. Down the left side of the sheet run the days of the week and month. The position on the ruled sheet to which the letter is dropped, indicates the closing day for the task, in the week or month, as the case may be. If it is to be performed semi-monthly as in the case of "Balance of Bank Book" the line is broken and the letter inserted on the proper day. If the task is of daily performance, the line is dropped only to the "Daily" column. Such a map of office duties and dates helps the office head to think out and abide by a schedule. The method of another office manager for scheduling his own personal duties is shown in Figure VII. The first hour this head devotes to reading corre- AT THE MANAGER'S DESK 117 spondence. After this he looks over the reports of the previous day's work from every department. Each de- Every Day [ 9 Read Mail 10 Study Report! 11 Conferences with Deptsx ll President's Conference 1 Dictation 3 Economy Plans and Inspection* 4 Sign Mail 5 Round up Office Work Every Week | ference h Wednesday Uter-hours Office Inspection Compare Daily Reports for Week Examine Time Records Pest Files, Accounts, Stoc>- md Shipping Machine Inspection. Monday Help Meet Monday Rush Tuesday Advertising Department Cot Wednesday -Employees' Luncheon Fourt Thursday Board Luncheon* F How an Office Manager Schedules His Year's Work Saturday Round up Week'a Wo- i Every Month rtake Quotas ("Revise Quota! T1 1 10 IJTTI [241 1 31 | nnnrirwinrii i [Deposit for Payroll jSijfel | 13 | |$$j 1 27 1 1 | [Sign Check. |L_ZJ LllJ [HJy LLJ 1 1 -j_Consider Salary Application* Gitart New Billing Number* Every Year | LMM^ 1; : i> liliM] :iub Annual Meeting G'urchase Supplies |y.-.fi-fe"aryQ 1 August | March | | September [ 1 Impty Files -[Have Auditing Done April | | October|f 1 May 1 ^November'! ] . - Customer's Christmas Tokens Reconsider Quotas m vi&mi m&ff&*\ , Employees 'Gifts - Take Inventory fMake General Quota* "]_Club Picnic FIGURE VII: Confusion, worry, loss of time and temper, perhaps, are eliminated by one office manager who keeps this schedule of work under the glass on his desk. When dates come on Sundays or holidays, the manager merely reads ahead or back one day and makes sure that nothing is neglected 118 MEETING EMERGENCIES partment turns in at the end of the day an account of its efforts, and of its individual workers. These re- ports include work done by machine operators; number of orders billed ; number left over, and the like. Then follow conferences with the department heads on matters which are called to the manager's attention by the reports, or instructions for the day's work. A consultation with the president comes next. Matters of greatest importance are discussed. He is then ready to clear away the day's main dictation. Miscellaneous matters are handled during the re- mainder of the morning, if any time is left. The second half of the day is devoted in part to handling miscel- laneous work, and seeing visitors. A short time is taken up by signing and reading outgoing correspondence. This is the manager's personal daily schedule. One matter which he performs weekly is a Saturday after- noon investigation of the physical condition of the office. The employees, having Saturday afternoon off, are ab- sent. In time the average condition of their desks, says this manager, strongly suggests the quality of the work they turn out. Twice a month comes the demand upon his time for signing pay checks. This work he performs at noon, when no other eyes are around. Seeing that the repair man goes over the typewriting and billing machines is a duty that goes on a monthly calendar and recurs thirty days after each renova- tion. In this concern a man is hired from one of the companies selling the machines, to make a monthly ex- amination. From the report which he turns in, the manager can tell when it is advisable to replace the re- spective machines. This overhauling also prevents ma- AT THE MANAGER'S DESK 119 chines from " slowing up" or suddenly becoming use- Each month quotas are made for the collection de- partment. At the end of two weeks it is revised if it runs above or falls down. Quotas are made at the same time for receipts and disbursements. A great many things are attended to semi-annually. Supplies of all sorts, including books for the account- ing department, stationery, pencils, and the like, are pur- chased. These purchases are made during July and Jan- uary. Inventory is taken during the latter part of June and December. The supplies are purchased in the suc- ceeding months because the items and the amount to pur- chase are known most exactly at those times. Likewise, files are emptied and contents are transferred during these semi-reorganization periods July and January. Salary revision is usually a definite week or month of the year. In this firm, however, increases are con- sidered instantly. Beginning with the employee's en- trance into the firm this matter is given consideration every six months. Since the employees enter at vari- ous times, the question pops up for some individual or other every few days. Unforeseen increases in office ex- pense are thus spread over the year. During the last half of the fiscal year, which ends 'July 1, general departmental expense quotas are set. These figures, however, are not final, but are reconsid- ered at the end of six months. Existing conditions and past records, weighed and judged in conference, dictate these standards for the future. Circularizing is begun with the coming of September, and has numerous seasons which the office manager keeps 120 MEETING EMERGENCIES in his file because of the mailing, financial and order handling help he must give the sales manager. With the beginning of each fiscal year the order num- bers in the billing department are started anew. In February the auditing is done. There are numerous minor matters to be attended to each year. During November, Christmas cards are ad- dressed to customers, to be sent out at the proper time. At Christmas, gifts are distributed among the employees. This entails some work as well as do matters connected with banquets, picnics and so forth. Back of all these engagements, the office manager stands as the "prime mover", reminded by his schedule and setting the routine in motion. Another plan which utilizes an ordinary tickler file is to drop the appoint- ment notes behind the monthly and annual guides. Where later the glove proves a misfit, alter it to meet unforeseen conditions, at length the manager may merely shift a card ahead one day, one week, half a month, a month, six months or a year, as the card may read. And the fact that the work is initiated or inspected regu- larly and promptly has a vital influence in keeping the whole business to schedule. INITIATIVE, perseverance, courage 1 and all other attributes of business success are secondary to the attribute of thoroughness. John Hays Hammond CHAPTER XVII Interpreting Reports and Planning Ahead DURING an especially dull period last year," said a department head in a public service corpora- tion, "our office took several collectors off the street, a designated number at a time, and trained them as tele- phone operators for reserve use during the rush season. We also took girls from the addressing section and taught them filing routine in preparation for the spring onslaught of new business and changes. " Taking out these workers for only two weeks' in- struction relieved their mates of a demoralizing sag in the work and gave everyone 'a man's work' to do. Fur- ther than this, it enabled us to handle an average of 3336 telephone calls a day in the busy weeks. At the filing cabinets also, reserves turned what had been a time of confusion into smooth, accurate and economical rQutine. ' ' This principle of trained reserves is applicable in the well-centralized office not only within a department, but also among the various departments. To make such an adjustment in an office of any sort, however to know 121 122 MEETING EMERGENCIES how many reserve workers are needed ; when and where ; and to choose the right people and the right time for training them requires that the office head have more than a vague knowledge of the ebb and flow of the busi- ness. He can lay down such a course accurately and confidently only when he has records and charts that fully depict past seasons. These records, however, must not be loaded down with detail. Their purpose is to sift out and so com- press their information that the manager will not devote his time to untangling yesterday's details, but will see the heavy lines the important tendencies of past sea- sons and lay his course intelligently. The head of the office may be also the head of the firm, or he may be strictly an office manager. In either case, his needs in the way of office management reports are fairly simple. An office may be regarded as a reser- voir, to which various inlets bring certain things ; labor, products to be sold, office supplies, orders and cash; from which various outlets take away certain things ; ex- pense money, shipments. Wherever there is an inlet or an outlet, the office needs a gauge which will measure what goes in or out. From time to time the office man- ager needs a report on each of these inlets and outlets, comparing the present and the expected flow with what has previously taken place, and with the ideal or quota ; and also comparing the remaining level with past rec- ords. Every office will require these reports to be slightly different, but the idea behind is generally the same to find out what is coming in ; what is going out ; what must be checked, what forced, and to what extent progress is being made. In one well- planned office the REPORTS THAT GUIDE 123 reports that sum up the significant facts are five in number. The first is the revenue sheet showing sales, profit and expense. This report is usually made out monthly, with cumulative figures for the year and with columns Name Month of .Date 3. SO .30 .(.0 .JO 30 / .7S- 3.0 Total 3.74 .00 3. JO .40 FORM XXVII: The letters running across the face of thi^ personal expense account blank are symbols wiuch cover the items on which the company is to refund any expenditures to employees comparing this year with previous seasons. The second report covers operating expense divided acording to de- partments, whatever they may be commercial, distribu- tion, manufacturing and office. One copy of this report is the office manager's for initiating economies, another the treasurer's for checking thereupon. Each depart- ment head is given a copy of his own share. The third report shows cash received and paid out. The fourth sums up liabilities and assets shows the level at which the business stood at the end of the previous month. The fifth covers stores, office supplies, raw material and product. These are all fundamental types of report in any busi- ness. A statistician makes out these reports, including costs drawn from more detailed sources. Prom these reports 124 MEETING EMERGENCIES can be learned the exact cost of any routine business move. But the figures have very little value in them- selves. It is by comparing them month by month and cumulatively with the figures for other seasons, as fully as the case suggests, that control of waste and measures of progress can be planned. The judgment of the manager in any ofiice finds proof in his ability to make these reports cover the essentials. In the customers' service department of this company, for example, the department head and office manager get an expense report, a daily report of the number of customers handled, a report of the efficiency of every individual employee and a report of the sources of busi- ness. Four or five such reports on departmental inlets and outlets enable any office manager to keep check on the work and to coordinate the forces of the whole office. The expense report (Form XXVII) is made out to itemize the expense of running the department. From such expense reports for the various departments, it is but a step to a monthly report of all office expenses by departments and items, which gives the office manager a clear perspective on costs and wastes. The daily report of the number of customers each clerk has handled (Form XXVIII) is a valuable record of in- dividual efficiency. Taken in the long run, this report shows who are most adapted to handling people. The department head is most closely concerned with these statements, but the office manager, as his advisor and the person responsible for employment conditions, has fre- quent use for them. Similar reports check upon the efficiency of employees in other departments, according to the results they actually secure. These records REPORTS THAT GUIDE 125 are regularly posted about the office and show the various workers in order of their efficiency. In almost any type of office, such a report spurs the workers ex- traordinarily. Another report shows the means of communication used by every customer, and the department whose service he desires. This report is equivalent to the sales-by-items report of a store. It tells the office manager and department head where to increase the force and where to decrease it, as at a branch office, at the telephone, in the mail order section, or elsewhere. In this office, the various departments are always keep- ing such records of the flow of the avork, for the inspec- tion of the department heads and the office manager. INFORMATION ITEMS Application Dept PlPrk ^>>7^ s> _ Position '(/^L0-**-& _ Number of Items Item A ItemB /-/-/-( // IMPORTANT : For each customer handled at counter or by phone and no order or memorandum is issued the clerk will immediately take credit for one "Information Item". Do not estimate. Keep a careful record and hand to Supervisor at end of each days work. FORM XXVIII: From the information on this form the superintendent can tell at a glance how many customers the clerk handled "face to face". The deftness and tact of the various salespeople becomes more evident day by day from these records When one department calls for workers in the line of promotion, the office head consults the individual effi- ciency records and takes the opportunity to adjust some worker more closely to his capacity. Reading between the lines is therefore an essential 126 MEETING EMERGENCIES ability in an office manager. Reports do not free him from the requirement of experience, but enable him to capitalize his familiarity with the business. In a series of reports on "customers' orders not executed by shops" for example, this office manager sees daily and monthly the proportion of the different reasons for failure to fill each class of orders. By experience he knows how these reasons should proportion. The first one on the list is "house locked". If this reason is popular, he is prompted to find whether the men have been careless about asking where the key may be found in case the resident should not be at home. He calls for the actual blanks which the delivery men turn in at the end of the day and notes who found the house locked. This gives him the correct direction for discipline. The same is true of the stenographic department, among the file clerks, at the one-way telephones, in the accounting di- vision and throughout the administrative work. When the statistician notes a marked change one way or the other in any reports, he underlines it to make doubly sure that it will get attention. With reports so thrown into high lights and shadows, one man can speed- ily study a vast amount of office work and quickly tell what changes to make in his control. Before printing or installing a new type of report, one manager requires the requisitioner to state in a stand- ardized written way the purpose he has in mind for it. This applies to all sorts of forms and blanks. Here is a sample statement: Purpose Used at station for drawing material out of stock. How originated Written in duplicate by fitters or fore- men who requisition material for their work. REPORTS THAT GUIDE 127 Information furnished Account number, name of sta- tion, name of person requesting material, name of job for which material is to be used, units, pounds, feet, articles, unit, cost, amount, date, name of store- keeper. Routing of forms Original and duplicate numbered at station; original sent to Stores Accounting depart- ment, duplicate retained permanently at station. Original checked by stores accounting department to ascertain if all numbers are accounted for, material is recapitulated (one sheet for each account); at the end of the month totals are charged to each account. Final disposition Original filed permanently in stores accounting department, duplicate retained perma- nently at station. Departments interested in the use of this form: Engi- neering, Stores, Accounting. Rush seasons are at best unpleasant, costly to meet and to some extent avoidable. A heavy run of business not anticipated or provided for will put more emery into the bearings and do more to unloose wasteful methods, break up the organization and reduce individual effi- ciency both physically and in spirit than almost any other routine difficulty. Rush seasons are on the calendar every year. Some of them never fail. Therefore, they have to be met, and preparation can be made to meet them. Most other troubles are temporary and confined to particular departments; inefficiency or jealousy; the as- sociation of workers who dislike one another; careless- ness and lack of discipline ; the unexpected loss of valued workers ; waste and temporary extravagance ; rare cases of dishonesty ; errors in judgment. If you have never checked over your office difficulties, you will quickly see that different reports which fore- 128 MEETING EMERGENCIES warn you of inefficiency and rush seasons, and different reserve workers trained at all times for various positions, will meet most of these difficulties. Wrong addresses are in one office a detail which well illustrates the use of reports by those who are controlling and planning the work. When the man sent on outside work finds that he has the wrong address a vacant lot, perhaps, he telephones to a specialist whose talent, ex- perience and business it is to study out right combina- tions for wrong numbers. Keeping down these errors, however, is the important matter for the order department head and the office man- ager. When the report of individual errors comes in, they have at hand the means of locating and handling anyone who has made a low record. With the posting of the errors, indeed, the natural pride and ambition of the employees largely supply the check upon excessive care- lessness. Wherever the office manager can adjust such an auto- matic check upon the errors which his reports show, he leaves more of his attention free to plan more con- structively and to invent new short cuts in the overhead of the business. ANY business is like a bridge that is building. You must anchor your structure to a foundation of experience and knowledge and rivet home each member as you add it. To carry your span safely across the new and untried, build on what you have proved build on what you know. 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. , 4Apr'62J \ 1 f" pEC |ft|\R 2 1 ^ / TO CIR. ftfty 3 jq 2 MDir IlKrVMkY lisi- /I nn > /> *AA INRLr LIDR/ ^i uoh / PR 20 30 T i) 01 A ;n a 'i General Library fcrtO)47' Unive ^ r J e g lifornia YB 186,54 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY