Increasing Human Efficiency in Business Part 5

Other ingenious fancies by which the contests were given the appeal and interest of popular sports was their conception as a baseball game, a football game, an automobile race, a Marathon run, and so on.

In providing prizes, the firm was rather generous, though the expense was never great.

While the contest was in progress, all those who were really "in the running" had the satisfaction of honorable mention, with their photographs reproduced in the house bulletin.

This honor and publicity was the chief reward received by the great majority of contestants, and was adequate. Minor prizes were offered on conditions, allowing a large number to qualify, and tempting virtually everybody to make an effort to win one. The value of the prizes did not need to be great, for each man was impressed with the idea that his comrades were watching him, that they observed every advance or retrogression. Success in the contest meant "making good" in the eyes of the other salesmen as well as in the eyes of his superiors.

_This desire for social approval and the spirited comment of the editor had a marked influence on the efficiency of many of the younger salesmen_.

These special contests were conducted chiefly during the "rush" seasons, when activity and efficiency of salesmen meant greater returns to the house. Because of their varied forms the contests did not become monotonous, and thus fail in their effect.

During the three or four "big" selling months when special quotas were announced, an individual pocket schedule was mailed to each man, showing how much business he must close each day to keep pace with "Mr. Quota," the constant compet.i.tor.

_The most industrious and ambitious men are stimulated by compet.i.tion; with the less industrious such a stimulation is often wonder working in its effects_.

For many positions in the business world a hypothetical bogy should be created after the style of the quota referred to above.

To increase the feeling of comrades.h.i.+p and

promote coperation between the men the entire organization or single sections of it occasionally should be made the unit of compet.i.tion.

This is perhaps the most helpful form of compet.i.tion, but it is hard to execute.

Valuable prizes should always be given to the winners. This "need" may not necessarily be monetary.

Promotion should not depend upon success in contests, but such success may be well reckoned in awarding promotions.

Public commendation for success in compet.i.tion costs the company little and is greatly appreciated by the winner. There seems to be no reason why the head of the house should not a.s.sist in the presentation.

The most essential factor in creating interest in a contest is the skill of the "sporting editor" in injecting the real spirit of the game into each contest, thus securing wide publicity, and enlisting the coperation of large numbers of partic.i.p.ants.

Prizes should be widely distributed, so that the greatest number may be encouraged.

A fair system of handicapping should be adopted in every case where equal opportunity to win is not possessed by all. Previous records often make successful bogies, and should be more extensively employed.

It is possible to carry on contests between individuals in the same department without jealousies, but skill is required to conduct them. There is the danger that individuals will seek to win by hindering others as well as by exerting themselves. Where it is not possible to carry on a contest and retain a feeling of comrades.h.i.+p between the men, no compet.i.tion should be encouraged.

CHAPTER IV

LOYALTY

AS A MEANS OF INCREASING HUMAN EFFICIENCY

DELAYED by a train of accidents, a big contractor faced forfeiture of his bond on a city tunnel costing millions of dollars. He had exhausted his ingenuity and his resources to comply with the terms of his contract, but had failed. Because public opinion had been condemning concessions on other jobs on flimsy grounds, the authorities refused to extend the time allowed for completing the work. By canceling the contract, collecting the penalty, and reletting the task, the city would profit without exceeding its legal rights.

In his dilemma, he called his foremen together and explained the situation to them.

"Tell the men," he said. Many of these

had been members of his organization for years, moving with him from one undertaking to the next, looking to him for employment, for help in dull seasons or in times of misfortune, repaying him with interest in their tasks and a certain rough attachment.

He had been unusually considerate, adopting every possible safeguard for their protection, recognizing their union, employing three s.h.i.+fts of men, paying more than the required scale when conditions were hard or dangerous.

A score of unions were represented in the organization: miners, masons, carpenters, plasterers, engineers, electricians, and many grades of helpers. Learning his plight, they rallied promptly to his aid. They appealed to their trades and to the central body of unions to intervene in his behalf with the city officials.

_How One Considerate Employer was protected by his Men_

As taxpayers, voters, and members of an organization potentially effective in politics,

they approached the mayor and the department heads concerned. They pointed out-- what was true--that the city's negligence in prospecting and charting the course of the tunnel was partly responsible for the contractor's failure. They pleaded that the city should make allowances rather than interrupt their employment, and that the delay in the work would counterbalance any advantage contingent on forfeiture. They promised also that if three additional months were given the contractor, they would _*do all in their power to push construction_.

The mayor yielded; the extension was granted. And the men made their promise good literally, waiving jealously guarded rights and sparing no effort to forward the undertaking.

The miners, masons, carpenters, and specialists in other lines in which additional skilled men could not be secured labored frequently in twelve-hour s.h.i.+fts and accepted only the regular hourly rate for the overtime.

With such zeal animating them, only one conclusion was possible. The tunnel was entirely

completed before the ninety days of grace had expired.

Here was loyalty as stanch and effective as that which wins battlefields and creates nations. It increased the efficiency of the individual workers; it greatly augmented the effectiveness of the organization as a whole.

It was developed, without appeal to sentiment, under conditions which make for division rather than coperation between employer and employee. The men were unionists; wages, hours, and so on, were contract matters with the boss. Yet in an emergency, the tie between the tunnel builder and his men was strong enough to stand the strain of the fatiguing and long-continued effort necessary to complete the job and save the former from ruin. Like incidents, on perhaps a smaller and less dramatic scale, are not uncommon; but the historian of business has not yet risen to make them known.

_Loyalty, to Nation or Organization, shows itself in an Emergency_

As with patriotism, business loyalty needs some such crisis as this to evoke its expression.

In peace the patriotism of citizens is rarely evident and is frequently called in question. In America we sometimes a.s.sume that it is a virtue belonging only to past generations. But every time the honor or integrity of the country is threatened, a mult.i.tude of eager citizens volunteer in its defense.

Likewise, many a business man who has come to think his workmen interested only in the wages he pays them, discovers in his hour of need an unsuspected a.s.set in their devotion to the welfare of the business, and their willingness to make sacrifices to bring it past the cape of storms.

Study of any field, of any single house, or of any of the periods of depression which have afflicted and corrected our industrial progress, will convince one of the unfailing and genuine loyalty of men to able and considerate em-

ployers. So generally true is this, indeed, that "house patriotism," "organization spirit," or "loyalty to the management" is accepted by all great executives as one of the essential elements in the day-by-day conduct of their enterprises.

Striking exhibitions of this loyalty may wait for an emergency. Unless it exists, however, unless it is apparent in the daily routine, there is immediate and relentless search for the antagonistic condition or method, which is robbing the force of present efficiency and future power. Coperation of employees is the first purpose of organization. Without loyalty and team work the higher levels in output, quality, and service are impossible.

_Loyalty on Part of Employer begets Loyalty in his Workers_

The importance of loyalty in business could not readily be overestimated, even though its sole function were to secure united action on the part of the officers and men. Where no two men or groups of men were working to

counter purposes, but all are united in a common purpose, the gain would be enormous, even though the amount of energy put forth by the individuals was not increased in the least.

When to this fact of value in organized effort we add the accompanying psychological facts of increased efficiency by means of loyalty, we then begin to comprehend what it means to have or to lack loyalty.

The amount of work accomplished by an individual is subject to various conditions.

The whole intellect, feeling, and will must work in unity to secure the best results. Where there is no heart in the work (absence of feeling) relatively little can be accomplished, even though the intellect be convinced and the will strained to the utmost. The employee who lacks loyalty to his employer can at least render but half-hearted service even though he strive to his utmost and though he be convinced that his financial salvation is dependent upon efficient service. _The employer who secures the loyalty of his men not only secures better service, but he enables his men to accomplish_

_more with less effort and less exhaustion_. The creator of loyalty is a public benefactor.

Such loyalty is always reciprocal. The feeling which workmen entertain for their employer is usually a reflection of his att.i.tude towards them. Fair wages, reasonable hours, working quarters and conditions of average comfort and healthfulness, and a measure of protection against accident are now no more than primary requirements in a factory or store. Without them labor of the better, more energetic types cannot be secured in the first place or held for any length of time.

And the employer who expects, in return for these, any more than the average of uninspired service is sure to be disappointed.

If he treats his men like machines, looks at them merely as cogs in the mechanism of his affairs, they will function like machines or find other places. If he wishes to stir the larger, latent powers of their brains and bodies, thereby increasing their efficiency as thinkers and workers, he must recognize them as men and individuals and give in

some measure what he asks. He must identify them with the business, and make them feel that they have a stake in its success and that the organization has an interest in the welfare of its men. The boss to whom his employees turn in any serious perplexity or private difficulty for advice and aid is pretty apt to receive more than the contract minimum of effort every day and is sure of devoted service in any time of need.

_The Effect of Personal Relations in creating Loyalty in a Force_

It is on this personal relations.h.i.+p, this platform of mutual interests and helpfulness, that the success and fighting strength of many one- man houses are built. As in the contractor's dilemma already cited, it bears fruit in the fighting zeal, the keener interest, and the extra speed and effort which workers bring to bear on their individual and collective tasks. All the knowledge and skill they possess are thrown into the scale; their quickened intelligences reach out for new methods and short

cuts; when the crisis has pa.s.sed, there may be a temporary reaction, but there is likely to be a permanent advance both in individual efficiency and organization spirit.

On the employer's side, this feeling is expressed in the surrender of profits to provide work in dull seasons; in the retention of aged mechanics, laborers, or clerks on the payroll after their usefulness has pa.s.sed; in pensions; in a score of neighborly and friendly offices to those who are sick, injured, or in trouble. A reputation for "taking care of his men" has frequently been a bulwark of defense to the small manufacturer or trader a.s.sailed by a greedy larger rival.

Personality is, beyond doubt, the primitive wellspring of loyalty. Most men are capable of devotion to a worthy leader; few are ever zealots for the sake of a cause, a principle, a party, or a firm. All these are too abstract to win the affection of the average man. It is only when they become embodied in an individual, a concrete personality which stirs our human interest, that they become moving

powers. The soldiers of the Revolution fought for Was.h.i.+ngton rather than for freedom; Christians are loyal to Christ rather than to his teachings; the voter cheers his candidate and not his party; the employee is loyal to the head of the house or his immediate foreman and not to the generality known as the House.

Loyalty to the individuals const.i.tuting the firm may ultimately develop into house loyalty.

To attempt to create the latter sentiment, however, except by first creating it for the men higher up is to go contrary to human nature--always an unwise expenditure of energy.

_Human Sympathy as a Factor in developing Loyalty in Men_

In developing loyalty, human sympathy is the greatest factor. If an executive of a company is confident that his directors approve his policies, appreciate his obstacles, and are ready to back him up in any crisis, his energy and enthusiasm for the common object never flag. If department heads and

foremen are a.s.sured that the manager is watching their efforts with attention and regard, approving, supporting, and sparing them wherever possible, they will antic.i.p.ate orders, a.s.sume extra burdens, and fling themselves and their forces into any breach which may threaten their chief's program.