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By J. W. Dietz, Superintendent of Industrial Relations, Kearny Works, Western Electric Company

Editor's Note

We present here the gist of a paper delivered by Mr. Dietz at the Tenth Annual Conference of the Personnel Research Federation and later reprinted in the Personnel Journal.

The experiment described is one of most heartening significance to physically handicapped people. It is unfortunate only that the darkness of our general industrial picture must obscure and delay the logical development of a policy that combines social justice with good business practice.

FOR some time industry has been considering the possibility of employing the so-called "Vocationally Handicapped Worker." This consideration was prompted principally from two points of view; namely, social and economic.

From a social point of view, it has been branded as unjust for any industry to enter a community and employ only those who could qualify as being physically perfect. In order to be a good member of a community, socially minded citizens have felt that organized industry, as such, should consider itself responsible for employing a cross-section of the entire population of the community, rather than a highly selected group, as has been its custom.

From an economic point of view, little more could be said than that the vocationally handicapped candidates for employment should, because of their difficulty in securing employment, present a group of more stable employees than the so-called "physically perfect group." The actual proof of the idea that it would be good business to employ this class of people would necessitate an actual experiment.

On August 8, 1929, a new set of medical requirements for employment in the Western Electric Company was put into effect. The principal changes made in the medical requirements are briefly as follows:

1. Vision. The requirements of 20/40 and 20/50 for class "A" applicants remained the same. For suitable work, however, applicants were acceptable whose vision was 20/40 in one eye, regardless of the vision in the other eye.

2. Hernia. Applicants with hernia were acceptable for sedentary jobs if a properly fitting truss were worn. Formerly no trusses were accepted.

3. Varicocele. A large varicocele was formerly not accepted.

4. Hydrocele. A small hydrocele was formerly not accepted.

5. Deformity or loss of member. As such items were classed as vocational defects and merited consideration for suitable work, instead of serving as reasons for outright rejections as was formerly the case.

6. Loss of organ as a result of surgery. Applicants were accepted if one kidney had been removed. Formerly these cases were rejected.

7. Varicose Veins. All cases not having complications became acceptable for sedentary work. Previously, applicants with varicose veins were not accepted.

Applicants who fall in the previously mentioned classifications will be referred to, hereafter, as "A-VD," meaning that the general health is "A" or normal, but with some Vocational Defect -- "VD." Applicants who do not possess Vocational Defects will be referred to as "A."

If, after the employment routine has been completed, the candidate is classified by the Medical Department as "A-VD," he is referred to the rehabilitation assistant who passes upon his fitness to perform the work for which he has been hired. If the rehabilitation assistant is convinced that the handicap on this particular job will be too great, the applicant is then placed more suitably.

As nearly as possible, each "A-VD" applicant is placed on work at which he will he able to produce as much as a class "A" employee and at the same time not be a menace to himself or to those with whom he works.

Employees possessing such defects as hernia, varicocele, or hydrocele were placed on jobs which were sedentary or which required no lifting. Cases of impaired vision were placed on such occupations as did not require major eye strain.

Since it is quite impossible to be absolutely certain whether or not all placements of "A-VD" cases are properly made, a follow-up program was established so as to give an adequate check on the proper placement of these individuals. Routines are also established whereby no individual classified as "A-VD" can be transferred from one type of work to another without the approval of the rehabilitation assistant.

In order to establish a basis of comparison between the "A-VD" and the "A" workers, each "A-VD" as he was hired was matched with an "A" worker. The individuals were matched as nearly as possible in that they were hired on the same day, for the same type of work, in the same department.

During the period from August 8, 1929, to August 8, 1930, 652 "A-VD" cases were employed, 482 of which were male and 170 female. The following is a percentage distribution of the defects:

Vision ............................... 49.7 %
Hernia ............................... 16.1%
Varicocele ........................... 8. 8 %
Hydrocele ............................ 1.8 %
Deformity or loss of member ........... 19.4%
Loss of organ as a result of surgery ..... 3.3%
Varicose Veins ........................ 9 %

This group, together with 652 "A" workers, gave us a group of 1304 workers to study. We can assume that this is a legitimate random sampling of the total Works' population in that the "A-VD" cases were distributed among the nine branches of the Kearny Works in the same proportion that the total on roll of each branch bears to the Works as a whole.

An analysis was made of those whose relations with the Company were severed. This disclosed the following facts: 7.9% more "A" cases resigned than "A-VD's."

2.6% less "A" cases were laid off due to lack of work than the "A-VD's."

7.4% more "A" cases were relieved because they were not suited to type of work.

The remaining part of this study was made by securing all available information on 230 employees; that is to say, 115 original pairs of "A-VD's" and "A's." In some cases where an "A" and an "A-VD" had been placed at the same time, on the same job, and in the same department, one of the two, for some reason, had been transferred or had left the Company. All such cases were eliminated. In other words, the, 115 pairs of employees represent comparable data in all respects, even to the extent of the man-hours exposure on the same job.

The information used in the study was obtained from the following sources:

1. Payroll records
2. Hospital records
3. Departmental records

and covered such topics as:

1. Sickness
2. Accidents
3. Personal absences
4. Income
5. Production
6. Turnover
7. Cost of special placement service.

SICKNESS -- Over a period of the year, there were 7% more of the "A" cases as compared with the "A-VD's," absent on account of sickness.

ACCIDENTS -- 5.6 % more of the "A" cases had accidents than did the "A-VD's." (None of the 230 people had a lost-time accident.)

PERSONAL ABSENCES -- 9.5 % more of the "A-VD's" than the "A's" were absent on account of personal reasons. (Personal absences are for such reasons as personal business, marriage, funerals, etc.)

INCOME - The "A-VD" weekly rated employees showed an average of 4.6% increase in earnings as against 4% for the "A's."

The "A-VD" hourly rated employees showed an average of 8 % increase in earnings as compared to 9.9 % for the "A" hourly rated employees.

(The difference in the rate of increase between the hourly and weekly rated employees is probably accounted for by the fact that the average hourly rate as of August 8, 1930, shows actual earnings, while the rate of pay at time of employment shows only the base rate.)

PRODUCTION-Since the cases were spread over many types of work and since many of the jobs were such that objective measurement of success was quite difficult, if not impossible, all that can be said is that the supervisors reported the "A-VD's," in most cases, to be equal to any employees in their departments. Many cases have been reported among the "A-VD's" as exceptionally outstanding in production.

TURNOVER - At the end of the trial period from August 8, 1929, to August 8, 1930, there were 307 "A-VD" and 217 "A" employees still on roll. The unusually large turnover was due to the reduction in the number of short service employees made necessary because of the current economic depression.

COST OF SPCIAL PLACEMENT SERVICE -- One relatively unfavorable factor in this work is the additional cost involved in the hiring of "A-VD" employees. To eliminate this additional expense, a routine has been devised whereby the regular employment interviewers may do also the special interviewing necessary for the acceptance of "A-VD's." This plan reduces the salary cost of hiring "A-VD" employees to the same amount as for a normal employee through the elimination of the services of the rehabilitation assistant in this work. There will still be some additional expense in the "A-VD" work, however, due to the periodic follow-ups to assure a suitable placement. The salary cost of an investigator, together with the expense incidental to the progress reports, should constitute the only additional outlay hereafter. No statistics are available showing how many vocationally defective people there are in our industrial community. Since we do not give physical examinations to applicants until they have been considered suitable by the interviewers and the foreman, it is impossible to state that we have taken an actual cross section of the local population. We can state, however, that we have placed 58% of those classified by the medical examiner as "A-VD," that is, physically sound but having some vocational defect. This group of "A-VD's" was employed not because they possessed vocational defects but because they were qualified to perform a useful service in the Company. It is also impossible to state just how many vocationally handicapped employees can be assimilated in industry. Too many employees of this class would tend to develop an inflexibility in an organization's personnel. In conclusion, based upon the data presented thus far in this paper, we are of the opinion that there is no real reason why people possessing certain vocational defects should not be employed by large industrial concerns.

Note: "Many new people were being hired by the Company when this experiment was started. However, no employing is being done at the present time."