TRANSFERRING METHODS It is inadvisable, and as a matter of fact impracticable, to keep correspondence files indefinitely, for the contents in some cases accumulate so rapidly that the physical space soon becomes exhausted. It is necessary, therefore, to establish two policies. 1. How long is it necessary to keep the correspondence? 2. How long should it be kept in the active files? The first will depend upon the length of its possible activity and the statute of limitations, and the second upon its period of greatest activity. There are two systems of transferring files: (1) the periodic, and (2) the continuous. The periodic system consists of transferring material in the filing folders from the "live" to the "dead" at regular periods, mostly annually, though the date of this transfer can be set at any time. Some firms place it at a date just before the opening of a new season, if their business is subject to great seasonal fluctuations. In the operation, the folders are transferred just as they stand, but the guides are allowed to remain. In some cases, where there is sufficient equipment, the two bottom drawers are used for the transferred material, and the two top drawers for the active files. The continuous method provides that a definite time be set-say, one year-in which papers are permitted to stay in the active file. The date of the first letter placed in a folder is then put on the folder label, and the file clerk is allowed a period of grace-perhaps from three to six months -to make the transfer. From time to time the clerk makes transfer of all folders in the file on which the date marked is for the maximum period. The contents are examined, all letters within the minimum period are returned to the active file in a new folder, and the pieces in the old folder are filed. In files where there is much correspondence relat ing to some particular job, say, of construction, the open and completed method of transfer can be used; that is, all completed jobs are transferred on completion, and all open jobs allowed to remain in the files until they are completed. If a folder becomes crowded before the transfer period, it should not be transferred, but the contents should be Idivided into other folders. DESTROYING OLD MATTER It is unprofitable to retain old records which have no further value, but few managers have the courage to destroy such matter, as they believe there may be possibly a few very valuable papers hidden amongst the obsolete ones. This fear may be well founded, for such executives often do not know what and where the valuable ones are, and they dread the task of searching the haystack to find the needle. This doubtful and vexatious question or condition may be permanently disposed of by thoroughly standardizing the policies in connection with it. Certain pieces of the material in the files should be kept indefinitely. It should be positively determined what kind of material this is. Certain other kinds should be kept for periods of, say, five or ten years, and the remainder can be destroyed almost any time after the expiration of one year. What these divisions will be, must of course be divided by each individual company, according to its needs, but the determination should be carefully made, the material minutely and accurately defined, and the standard adopted should be rigidly maintained. CONTROLLING THE WORK OF THE FILE DEPARTMENT The office manager should require regular reports from the file department or departments as to the number of pieces received for filing and the number of requests for material to be withdrawn from the files, and this record should be kept daily and reported weekly. It requires little labor, but furnishes a good index to a good many other features of office management, besides the work of the file department itself. A regular routine inspection plan should also be put in operation. It cannot be done by merely glancing at a file drawer now and then, and it is at the same time unnecessary to make a complete examination of the entire filing section. It should consist, however, of a complete study of a small section of the work of each filing clerk selected at random. It should cover the accuracy of the filing, the thoroughness of the cross-indexing—where that is necessary -the neatness of the folders and the correct position of folders and guides. The preparatory work, such as indexing, should also be checked by holding back for examination a section of the work before it is filed. Attention to these points will give the office manager an effective control of the filing work. XXXI TYPEWRITING AND ALLIED OPERATIONS Analyzing the faults of typists. Training typists in the office. The importance of the touch system. The cause of errors in typewriting. Reading quickly and accurately. Developing speed. Phonograph dictation. Stenography. THE art of typewriting was one of the first office tasks to be taught in outside schools, and high schools, business schools, and similar institutions are annually turning out scores of thousands of "trained" typists. If a high output of good work is the goal desired by the office, this initial training should be continued by the office management, in thoroughly organized fashion. The achievement of a high output does not involve driving the workers to the limit of their physical endurance, and those office managers who have proceeded on that assumption have invariably failed to produce the desired results. Just as in athletics, sports, or any of the arts or trades, good work, and a satisfactory amount of it, depends upon three conditions. First, the elimination of all time-wasting motions. Third, the development or speed-assuming for this, of course, that the management has provided a steady flow of work, so that there will be no delays on that account. In other words, the object of the effort made must be to develop good artisans, a result that is not attained by a short and rapid course of instruction, despite the tacit assumption to the contrary. In olden days, when industry was carried on by masters, craftsmen, and apprentices, the latter had to serve a period of from five to seven years in learning the trade, whatever it might be, before they were recognized as efficient craftsmen. But today some so-called "business colleges" will turn out a product that they insist is a finished stenographer typist, in six months—an immature, partially educated person with a most imperfect knowledge of the trade at which she is supposed to be fitted to earn her living. Her knowledge of business and her training in typing or as an amanuensis are exceedingly limited. As a matter of fact she is an apprentice, and only in the first stage of apprenticeship at that. These facts are well known to every office manager, yet few ever make a systematic, organized effort to carry the training farther. The typist usually learns only by making mistakes and being disciplined for them, and she may -and often does-drift from one position to another, when the time could be shortened greatly by organized training. ANALYZING THE FAULTS OF TYPISTS Below are listed a number of time-wasting conditions, and suggestions for their elimination, and for general improvement. From these the investigator can make up a checking list, adding thereto any other conditions observed. 1. Do the typists frequently make erasures? Errors must be corrected and their correction takes time-in some cases the time required to correct them exceeds the actual writing time. So if errors can be reduced, an immediate increase appears in the output. It is a well-known fact that the best operators make the fewest mistakes. George L. Hossfeld, the world's champion typist for 1920, 1921, and 1922, wrote, in the latter year, 8,857 actual words in one hour (147.6 words a minute gross) with but 20 errors, which is but one error in every three minutes, even with this abnormal speed. If, therefore, the typists under observation make not more than one error per minute, they |