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In addition to ground-observer and plane-spotting assignments, there are many other jobs in the civil defense program where the handicapped can serve with distinction. Clerical work, telephone, and other communication work, and literally hundreds of other volunteer jobs for which the handicapped can be trained are included in the program.

Women's Contribution to the Nation

"SOCIAL workers have a vital role to play in increasing understanding between nations," said Mrs. Alice K. Leopold, new assistant to the Secretary of Labor for Women's Affairs, in a speech to the Connecticut Conference of Social Work in Hartford recently. "Because of their closeness to the fundamental problems of human life they are especially well equipped to function as agents of good will."

In speaking of the important role played by the 19 million working women in this country today, Mrs. Leopold said that their contribution to the Nation's economy is vital. One-third of the Nation's workers are women-15 million of whom work to supplement the family income.

But women make an even more important contribution to the Nation's welfare in their human approach to problems, their greater concern for the moral, spiritual, and ethical elements of life, says Mrs. Leopold who believes that because of their fundamental role in life, women have more deep seated motives for working to build a better future.

Cooperating with the social services, the Women's Bureau of the U. S. Department of Labor, which Mrs. Leopold directs, tries to advance the employability of women by encouraging girls still in school to prepare themselves to become self-supporting. The Bureau issues publications which help vocational counselors and women preparing for a career. It also tries to improve employment opportunities for older women by advising them of fields open to them, encouraging employers to hire mature women, and conducting surveys of training programs for older women workers.

Many Opportunities in Nursing

NEARLY 400,000 nurses- an increase of 16,000 since 1950 are now working in the United States, according to new figures released by Surgeon General Leonard A. Scheele of the U. S. Public Health Service. Estimates based on the latest available figures from the 48 States and District of Columbia show a total of 389,600 professional nurses in active practice in the Nation. However, the demand for nursing services is so great, Dr. Scheele said, that the present recruitment goal for the Nation as a whole is 55,000 student nurses a year.

The number of hospital nurses, the largest single group, has increased by 15 percent in the last 4 years to a total of 231,000. Private duty nurses, the next largest group, who are also at the bedside, number 74,000. The 35,200 nurses working in doctors' offices, 25,300 public health nurses, 14,000 industrial

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1 The first 7 items refer to State unemployment insurance programs only; they include data for veterans filing under State programs even though such veterans may, at the same time, be filing for supplemental benefits under provisions of the Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952.

2 Excludes transitional claims which do not represent new unemployment. 3 Data exclude territories.

The first 4 items contain data relating to the program under provisions of the Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1952. Data include 11,300 initial claims, 41,500 weeks claimed, 9,900 insured unemployment and $292,700 in benefits for veterans who were filing to supplement payments under State programs. Excluded are data for veterans filing to supplement benefits under the railroad unemployment insurance program.

Includes 650 transitional initial claims in order to represent all veterans filing under UCV program.

SERVICE TO EMPLOYERS...

The Result of Teamwork

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OB duties, personnel practices, and hiring requirements in industry change as a result of varying economic conditions, competition for markets, and technological developments. The Employment Service can serve employers effectively only when it has full knowledge of such change. Through employer contacts, whether with local branches or with headquarters offices of nationally known firms operating in many States or with firms operating in only one community, the Employment Service seeks information about the requirements which industry expects of the workers who will be needed to fill job openings. Generally, changes are noted first by local office staff, and when there is effective communication and teamwork, the information is applied there first in placement, counseling, and other services. Later, this information may lead to developmental work to be undertaken by the States or by the Bureau of Employment Security to help develop techniques and ⚫ methods for selection and counseling which will lead to better matching of men and jobs in terms of industry's changing requirements, nationwide.

To be supplied with such information, we need the employers on our team. When employers understand how this information is used to serve them, most employers are glad to provide information not only about their anticipated needs, but also about their hiring practices, personnel policies, benefits, job requirements, processes, etc., so that the Employment Service can effectively screen and preselect for their consideration those workers who most nearly meet each employer's requirements.

When the supply of applicants is large, some employers may intensify their nonperformance requirements. Many otherwise qualified applicants may thus be unable to obtain employment readily. Such waste of skills is costly to any community. Even in a comparatively loose labor market the Employment Service is in an excellent position to bring to an employer's attention the experience of applicants whose skills and abilities may be profitably utilized even though these applicants do not meet all of the employer's nonperformance requirements. Many employers have thanked ES offices for such service when these workers have done a good job.

It is sometimes taken for granted that most employers know about ES service, but personnel officials change and so do personnel policies. Employers will not use the Service unless they are familiar with it and know what it can do for them now. Keeping informed of changes in industry which affect jobs, and bringing employers up-to-date information on ES services is recognized not only as a responsibility of employer relations and other local office staff, but of State and Federal Employment Service personnel as well. Increasingly, contacts to present the service are being made with policymaking officials and those having hiring authority. Some employers may have had an unsatisfactory experience with the Employment Service in a certain community, and when they move to another locality they maintain the same attitude toward the local office without giving it a chance. Such employers have to be encouraged to become familiar with and to use the Service in their new community.

This is a country of opportunity. In recent years there has been an increase in the number of personnel officials in a position to hire, who had experiences in the past with the Employment Service when they were applicants seeking employment. Some of them were favorably impressed at that time with the service given them; others were not. To the latter group, the quality of the ES service now available needs to be demonstrated convincingly.

Employers expect service of uniform quality. To provide such service means that throughout the Employment Service organization there needs to be a balance between service to applicants and service to employers; an adequate employment service must be provided the year-round, and training must be continuous so that the staff can provide quality service.

As described in the articles in this issue of the EMPLOYMENT SECURITY REVIEW, the services provided employers are numerous and varied. They draw on the various knowledges and abilities of ES staff, and are the result of teamwork planning and performance. They involve effective presentation and use of many tools and techniques, including prescreening, testing, clearance and other recruitment methods, staffing patterns, job specifications and other occupational analysis tools, labor-market information, and employer institutes. It is timely and heartening to read about these services at the beginning of a new year when we are seeking to encourage employers to place more of their orders with the public employment service, so that it can better serve both job seekers and employers.

-ARTHUR W. MOTLEY, Assistant Director, United States Employment Service, Bureau of Employment Security.

The "Group Approach" to
Employer Relations

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1. The Experiment in New Orleans

By WILLIAM H. O'KELLEY
Employment Security Operations Analyst
Louisiana State Employment Service

BOUT 2 years ago the personnel of the Louisiana Employment Service began seeking means for integrating all the various local office activities to achieve better service to individual employers. It was soon realized that an interchange of information among employer relations representatives, selection and referral interviewers, and occupational analysts would be necessary at the outset of any such program. Accordingly, an experimental project was set up in the New Orleans office calling for group discussion of selected employers in order to develop a basic plan of service for each such employer. A procedure was written and regular weekly meetings began in July 1953.

The managers of the three New Orleans offices were convinced that they were on the right track, but something seemed to be lacking. Discussions of employers would bring out leads which seemed. promising, but on review after the visit we would find that our relationship was about the same as it had been when the discussion started. We went to the Bureau of Employment Security in Washington for help with our problem and in February 1954 a representative of the Employment Service National Office came to New Orleans with a training program for just such a situation. The training material for this type of program had already been tried and proved in other States. This training was received enthusiastically by the employer relations representatives and other staff members, because it solved problems which would have taken months of work by the trial-anderror method.

The first step in introducing this program to a local office is to sell the top management; e. g., the district

supervisor, manager, and department supervisors, on the practicability of the idea. The next step is to demonstrate the operation of the program from start to finish; the third, to review results after a reasonable period.

In order to stage an effective demonstration it is first necessary to select a group of employers to work with. The first requisite for selection is that the employer have a current and future demand for workers. In our preliminary experimenting in New Orleans we selected employers from whom we had no orders for workers. In many instances the question of whether or not we had established improved relations remained academic, since the employer was not currently hiring workers. Therefore, in demonstrating the group approach the local office staff is asked to select about 10 or 12 employers who have a current and continuing demand for workers (either because of expansion or high turnover) and whom we are not serving or serving inadequately because of some difficulty in our relationship.

Next, we analyze the activities of these employers over a 6- or 12-month period to determine the average employment, number of new hires, number of employment service referrals, placements, and canceled openings. The new-hire rate and placementpenetration rate are calculated. Three or four employers who have the highest new-hire rate and lowest placement-penetration rate are tentatively selected. and compared to all other employers in the same industry group, to determine whether the office is doing a better placement job with other employers in the same group. This further study sometimes leads to a change in the employer finally selected.

[graphic]

A "Group Approach" staff conference in the New Orleans area office. Standing, left to right: John J. Killeen, G. Messina, Nolan Thibodaux, and Joseph Morvant. Seated, left to right: Harry Armand, Adele LeBoeuf, C. J. McGoey, Robert J. Creel, Joseph P. Macaluso, John J. Kennedy, and L. A. Brisbois.

Next, the employer folder is reviewed and notes are made for presentation to the group. A sample of closed orders is studied to discover what has been used as the basis for selection and referral in the past. It may be necessary to go back a year or more to secure closed orders if the employer has not been using the local office recently. A group meeting is called, all of the data on the employer are presented, and the group is asked to contribute any other information it may have.

From an examination of all the data it is usually possible to isolate certain situations which seem to cover the key points in the current relationship with the employer. These situations are listed on the left half of a blackboard. The group is then asked to suggest actions which should be taken to meet each listed situation. These suggested actions are listed on the right half of the blackboard.

We are now in a position to plan a visit to the employer, and the group is asked to decide which action shall be taken first and how much ground is to be covered in the first planned visit. The next

step is to decide who is to make the visit with the trainer and to secure an appointment with the employer. The group making the visit should always. include the employer relations representative responsible for the employer account and the office manager. These selected employers will be offered. specialized services which may require commitments for special efforts on the part of various staff members in the local office, and it is essential that the manager be a party to the agreement if the commitments are to be carried out fully.

The visit is made as planned and usually produces more in terms of employer interest and cooperation than the local office personnel expect. It is this feature of the training which captures the interest of the local office staff and arouses their enthusiasm. The group approach is based on the assumption that the local office has worthwhile services to offer to any employer, and that the value of these services to the employer depends on the degree of cooperation he gives the local office in arranging for them. Employers appreciate this type of approach and are quick to take advantage of it. Local office

personnel appreciate being consulted in planning actions which affect their daily work, and the program gives a lift to local office morale. Employer relations representatives are given specific assignments to accomplish with the employer and learn techniques which can be applied in their dealings with all employers.

I would like to show by some actual examples the type of demonstration training which the Bureau representative gave in our New Orleans offices last. February. One of the first accounts studied was one of the large downtown hotels. The situations which existed, as brought out in the group meeting, were these: (1) Need to know who hires for each department; (2) need more information on hiring requirements; (3) need to arrange for more time in making selections and referrals. The plan adopted was: (1) Explain specialized services to the hotel manager; (2) visit hiring officials for each department; (3) secure up-to-date information on hiring requirements.

Four visits were made to the hotel; selection and referral interviewers were brought to meet the various department heads. Problems involved in the recruitment of workers were thoroughly discussed, and master job orders were made or revised as required.

Results Are Encouraging

Prior to the initiation of this program the newhire rate for this employer for a 6-month period was 53.1 percent and the placement-penetration rate for the same period was 8.2 percent. Since beginning our cooperative program the new-hire rate for the 6 months ending in August 1954 was 31.8 percent and the placement-penetration rate had increased to 15.3 percent. This trend is encouraging for the employer and for the local office, and continued close relationships should bring about further improvements.

Another account analyzed at this time was a large metal products company. While relationships with this company had been fairly good since it started production in the latter part of 1951, the company had been going through adjustments encountered by any large enterprise in its beginning stages. Through lack of close cooperation, the office service had declined to the extent that during the last half of 1953 the placement-penetration rate was only 2.3 percent. The group discussion brought out the following situations: (1) The office was having difficulty in verifying placements; (2) the company had been experiencing a fairly high rate of turnover; (3) the location of the plant created a transportation problem which contributed to turnover; and (4) there had been several changes in management and employment officials. The actions planned included: (1) A ́meeting with the new employment manager to explain the services available; (2) negotiation of procedures to facilitate verification of placements; and (3) discussion of transportation and other factors contributing to turnover.

Several meetings were held with the company. We learned that turnover had now been reduced and the transportation situation alleviated through construction of new houses in the vicinity of the plant. A simple procedure was devised to insure verification of placements, and orders were received for all current openings. During the 6-month period ending in August 1954 the placement-penetration rate with this company increased to 38.5 percent.

The other day I visited the New Orleans district office and attended a group meeting at which one of the initial accounts of the Commercial and Professional branch office was being reviewed. This account has presented a problem in recruitment which has been of major concern to both the employer and the local office. The group discussed various ways to supplement the radio and newspaper advertising that was being used by the company and the local office. One idea decided upon was the use of a handbill or dodger outlining the attractive features of the work. The local office receptionist would give this handbill to all applicants who seemed to possess the minimum requirements for the job. Those interested would then be routed to placement interviewers. The company's public relations department was to be asked to assist in preparing this material. This incident is mentioned to illustrate the fields of local office operations which become involved in group-approach planning. At this meeting most of the discussion. centered on applicant relations.

Slow Progress Is Best

One lesson that our experience in New Orleans has brought out is the need to proceed slowly with this program. We believe one new case a month is sufficient until more experience in the operation of the program is gained. At present the offices are reexamining the initial accounts to determine how services can be improved further and to correct mistakes which have been made.

The local office staff is enthusiastic about the program. It has given a decided lift to morale and has brought improved services to employers, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

AT PRESS TIME

(Continued from page 2)

"The steady rise in the nurse supply of the Nation is significant to the total health picture," Dr. Scheele pointed out, "because nurses play such a vital part in all phases of our national health. For that very reason the nursing profession today offers a wide variety of excellent opportunities in the field of public health, in hospitals, schools, industry, doctors' offices, and, of course, in our schools of nursing."

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