Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

MIS-S HELEN Bllil HER (KUMIT). EM- PU)YMENT MANAGER AT RCA VICTOR'S HARRISON, N. J., PLANT. INTERVIEWS WOMAN JOB APPLICANT. few month.s ajfo are now doing ma- chine operating, sorting, cheeking or inspection work in the shops. Many others who were operators have become supervisors, forewom- en or group leaders. It is likely that this trend will go on in man.v other directions. One girl who has recently com- pleted the advanced plant course in radio theory and production looks forward to using that training as a background for radio engineer- ing. She was hired as a repair op- erator, and after seven months' ex- perience, became a group leader. An assistant foreman in a division engaged in the final assembly of im- portant war e(|uipment is a girl who completed successfully, in the same plant, both the elementary and ad- vanced radio courses. In a number of instances, women such as these are directing the work of men. and doing it so diplomati- cally and so well that there has i)een no resentment. Conversely, many women have been taken from shop benches and machines into re- .search, engineering, educational and personnel work. In this process, RCA Victor has set up natural ability and personal efficiency as the "selecting screen." At the Bloomington plant, 20-year- old Maxine E. .Jackson is conduct- ing "vestibule" training classes in the plant's educational program di- rected by E. H. Cooper. She came to RCA \'ictor fresh from high school in 1940, was made an inspec- tor four months later, a group lead- er in another four months, and was advanced to her present post in MISS MAXINE JACKSON (LEFT) CONDUCTS "VESTIBULE TRAININC." AT RCA'S BLOOMINGTON, IND., PLANT; MISS KAY JOHNSON. ONCE ON THE ASSEMBLY LINE, NOW IS AN INSTRUCTOR FOR GIRL WORKERS AT CAMDEN, N. J. 1942. Another woman without for- mal college training—Miss Helen Bircher—is Employment Manager at the RCA Victor Harrison plant; she started as a factory worker. The Employment Manager at Bloomington also is a woman. Miss Mary Frances Roll. She is a gradu- ate of Indiana University and has taken extension courses in person- nel work. Self-made Women The foregoing shows that a col- lege education is not absolutely es- sential in the new world of achieve- ment opening up for women. But this is not to imply that collegiate training has lost an.v of its unques- tioned value. The Senior Interview- er at the RCA Victor Lancaster nlant. Miss Mary Margaret Rnpp. has done outstanding work in the world of music and education, with post-graduate courses to her credit at Duke and Syracuse Universities. She introduced music courses to the public schools of Pennsylvania, had much to do with the National Youth .Administration in the same State and was an interviewer for the United States Employment Service before .joining RCA Victor. The Senior Interviewers at Indianapolis are all girls and they come from such universities as Butler, Purdue, Indiana, and Columbia. These instances are cited not be- cause they are outstanding, but for the reason that the women referred to sought out for themselves the initial employment with the com- pany leading to their present posts. Insofar as these posts are con- cerned, they are literally, "self- made women." The point is that the compan.v has now organized pro- cedure to find, employ and train women with equal, but heretofore latent, aptitudes. It is to be nat- urally expected, therefore, that the next year should show a large in- crease in the number of "career" women in the RCA Victor Divi- sion, and in the importance of their work. As more and more men leave the company for the armed services, su- pervisory positions will of necessity become vacant. On the basis of British experience, the company will make no mistake in replacing men with women in first-line super- visor.v positions. Such women must, of course, be selected on the basis of their technical qualifications and their capacity for leadershiji. They must have demonstrated both of these qualities as RCA employees. If RCA Victor consistently uses appropriate tools in the selection and placement of its employees, women with a variety of aptitudes and capacities will be available, as needed, for a variety of jobs. .Job analysis is one of the most impor- tant of these tools. All jobs must be analyzed by persons competent to describe them in detail, if the qual- ifications of individuals are to be fitted to the requirements of the [8 RADIO AGE