Staffing the Motor Industry.
Page 2
Page 3
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
IN VIEW OF the fact that there are now so many demobilized officers and men of good education seeking appointments; the time appears to be particularly opportune for the creation of an organization which, if well run, could be of very great assistance to the motor industry, and perhaps rather less directly to the motor user.
In the past, our efficiency must certainly have been prejudiced in this and other directions by our rather haphazard way of filling responsible positions. This was far more frequently done by chance personal introduction than. in any systematic manner. A few well-organized appointments boards as, for example, those formed iii connection with the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, have shown us on a limited scale what can be done in the way of providing in advance against the fitting of round pegs into square holes.
In. our opinion, any appointments board to be effective ought to be limited in scope, -so that it can be staffed by specialists and can become known_ as a specialized organization. Nowadays, if a man wants a job in connection with the manufacture, the sale, the repair or the running of motor vehicles, all he can. do is to make miscellaneous inquiries and to get his friends to interest themselves in providing him with likely introductions. If one or other of our responsible organizations were to bring into existence a eoinpetent appointments board or bureau which all the other organizations would recognize, a very validable piece of work would have been achieved..
The manufacturer would no longer grope in the dark when he 'Wanted an engineer •or a salesman. Equally, the garage proprietor would apply to the bureau for any engineers suitable to take charge of repairing shops or for properly qualified men to assist in sales. The user employing any considerable number of .vehicles could, similarly, depend upon the services of the bureau to find him competent operating engineers. .
The bureau should, in point of fact, begh i at what one may eaII the earliest stage. It should he in possession of full information as to the terms upon which
apprentices can be received into manufacturing establishments and the class of instruction given. Everyone connected with the motor movement has probably at one time or another been asked for advice as to the best placing of boys. Very .few, if any of us, are fully qualified to give it. It would be a good thing if this responsibility were taken over by an organized 'bureau, the officials of which wouldinquire into the aptitude of the prospective pupil, with the result that good brains would be directed into the industry and inefficient brains would be directed away from it.
In course of time the pupil originally placed . by the bureau would become an advanced student and would go back to the bureau for help in finding sub-, sequent progressive jobs. It would be seldom that the industry would lose 'a good man ; each man's record would be known to the bureau and those in search of a man would be immediately advised of the zivailability of a really promising candidate.
The whole thing would need to be well done, particularly .because the Motoring community can advantageotisly include a great many men who, without being fully trained engineers, have some mechanical aptitude coupled with good business or organizing ability. The cost of running an establishment of the kind should not be very great. Its success would be very largely dependent on the wise selection of its officials. With the right men in charge, it would be worth many times its cost to those who want the shops where motors are made, repaired or maintained to he well staffed and efficiently run.