The number of information circulars, application forms, and information cards distributed during the year was 3,722,614, as compared with 4,023,805 for the preceding year. The number of visitors at the information office in Washington was 90,121, as compared with 97,397 for 1928. The number of letters and other communications received in the application division, aside from formal applications, was 309,472, as compared with 354,600 for 1928. The number of formal applications received in the division was 134,957, as compared with 142,427 for the preceding year. Preference claims of 57,127 exservice men were investigated, 26,783 being considered in the commission's Washington office and 30,344 in its district offices.

The number of persons debarred from future examinations was 1,183, of which number 921 were barred for false statements in applications, 220 because of unsuitability, 10 for copying or collusion in examinations, 6 for offer of bribe, etc.

The fingerprints of 42,133 persons were classified and searched under direction of the commission's fingerprint section. More than 3,000 detections resulted, 390 being found of persons concerning whom local search failed to show any record of the persons fingerprinted. During the fiscal year one in every thirteen persons fingerprinted was found to have a police record. The final searching has been done by the Department of Justice.

APPEALS AND INVESTIGATIONS

The division of investigation and review considered 5,879 appeals from ratings made by the examiners in the examining division. Changes in ratings on appeals numbered 251.

This division supervised 111 personal investigations in the field and made investigations in 64 cases in which an Executive order was proposed waiving some provision of the civil-service rules. Decisions were rendered in 6,105 cases as to whether further examination was required in connection with proposed changes in status of employees in the service. Personal investigations as to the suitability and fitness of 155 applicants for policeman and fireman in the District of Columbia were made, while oral examinations were given to 215 persons who competed for investigative positions.

EXAMINATIONS FOR PROHIBITION SERVICE

In the last annual report of the commission a detailed chapter with statistics appears covering the examinations conducted by the commission under the act of March 3, 1927, bringing within the competitive classified service all positions connected with prohibition enforcement except the position of Commissioner of Prohibition. A concluding chapter has been prepared for the commission's annual report this year, obviating the necessity of discussing these examinations in the chief examiner's report.

The director of research, in his report herewith submitted, extends his studies in this field during the past fiscal year.

Respectfully submitted.

H. A. EDSON, Chief Examiner.

GREATER UTILIZATION OF IMPROVEMENTS IN PERSONNEL WORK The Civil Service Commission's extensive work in selection, placement, adjustment, and promotion among some 450,000 Federal employees is to be made the means for guiding not only these employees, but also the enormous number of persons who apply for positions in the Federal service, to careers in which they will find outlet for their abilities, and in so far as possible, for their interests. Our work will be made more valuable to personnel administrators in Government, industries, and schools, and to students throughout the country. This undertaking includes the following major steps:

1. Study of a selected number of civil-service positions, with regard to actual duties performed.

2. Determination, on the basis of actual case histories, of opportunities and of present and possible lines of promotion in these positions.

3. Critical study of present examination standards in relation to each other and to the requirements of the positions.

4. Improvement of the validity and the practicability of examinations.

5. Study, in industry as well as in Government, of factors, such as experience, not measured by tests.

6. Release of tests to industries, to determine industrial standards of selection and to secure a clearer understanding of the limitations, as well as the values, of our methods and measures.

7. Establishment of national standards, making test scores more meaningful to placement officers.

8. Release of tests to schools, and development of cooperative relations with research, guidance, and personnel directors in universities and secondary schools. 9. Release to schools of tables showing relationship between test scores on our general intelligence tests and the intelligence tests used in schools and colleges.

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10. Development of a guidance card which will enable the applicant to analyze opportunities in relation to his qualifications.

11. Preparation of sample tests, showing the nature of the examinations used for the positions listed on the guidance card.

12. Coordination of the use of eligible registers, after determining the extent to which eligibility for one position signifies ability to fill other positions.

13. Dissemination, among present employees, of information concerning lines of promotion, possibilities of transfer, and requirements which must be met in order to secure such promotion or transfer.

The research work outlined is basic for improving selection, placement, and adjustment in Federal service. The coordination of our work with that of schools and industries does not involve additional research, but rather represents a greater utilization of the materials developed for the improvement of the Federal service. In addition to the advantages to be gained by schools and industries, cooperation will have the added advantages of increasing the number of competent people applying for work in the Federal service and of coordinating our research efforts with those of industry.

Studies are being conducted in connection with devising the tests which will be used in this program. In preparing the new civil-service typist and stenographic tests, for instance, a study is being made of all such tests published and of all such test material now in use in the Civil Service Commission and in private industry.

This study will include such phases as a comparative analysis of the subject matter of such tests and of methods of administering them. It will involve a study of the weighting of errors, as well as determination of the reliability of the tests, and of the relative weights to be assigned to each test.

As a result of this work, our stenographic and typing tests will be representative of the best selection methods that have been devised for this field of employment. Similar research has been or will be conducted in connection with other tests.

DETERMINING STANDARDS

A committee of industrial leaders headed by Mr. Henry S. Dennison, president of the Dennison Manufacturing Co., is arranging for the administration of civil-service tests in industry for the purpose of determining industrial standards. The committee will arrange with business firms to give, to groups of typical employees, the tests for certain positions, in order to determine, in terms of civil-service tests, the standards of each firm, regardless of whether or not that firm uses selection tests.

As a preliminary step in the organization of one phase of the work of the industrial committee, I have arranged with the personnel directors of several firms employing large numbers of stenographers, to cooperate in the program and to administer stenographic and typewriting tests to representative groups (the numbers ranging from 40 to 150) of stenographers in their organizations. The results will show the actual abilities of those in service.

I have also arranged with Mr. E. D. Bartlett, of the Atlantic Refining Co., head of the Measurements Committee of the American Management Association, to pool the findings of this committee and of Government research. He had just completed an industrial survey relative to stenographic ratings and number of stenographers employed by various firms. His findings, which he made available, have proved valuable in organizing the industrial committee.

Through the cooperation of this industrial committee, national standards of proficiency for the positions studied will be made available, so that employers

and vocational counselors throughout the country, when speaking of industrial requirements for these positions, will be able to talk in comparable terms. Thus the significance of a test score can be determined by considering it in relation to the scores of those already employed in the various industries and local organizations.

APPLICATION OF FINDINGS

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When our tests are released to schools, the vocational counselor can inform the student of his relative qualifications for various positions in various industries. In transmitting the report of any student to an employer, the school placement officer, knowing the ability of the group of typical employees tested in that industry, can state the applicant's ability in such terms as better than 80 per cent of employees in shorthand, better than 85 per cent in English, etc." What is equally important, results of the tests will tell the teacher and the pupil, as long before graduation as is desired, how he is prepared to meet actual conditions in Government or industry, i. e., that his stenographic speed is better than that of 80 per cent of the employees in any given firm or in Government service, but that his ability to use English is below that of 80 per cent. This information will be an incentive when it is received by the student six months before completion of his course. It is depressing when learned, as at present, at the employment office or on the job.

A technique is being developed to determine the part which attitudes play in promotion and dismissal. The results will enable the personnel officer and vocational counselor to point out, in such objective terms as a statement of the number of people dismissed because of such attitudes, the relation of certain attitudes to success and failure.

The determining of proficiency standards by the industrial committee will enable schools to fix more practical and uniform standards of requirements in various business courses; thus the committee's work will serve as a valuable aid in curriculum building. For example, knowing governmental and industrial standards, school administrators will recognize that it is unnecessary and undesirable to train students to take dictation and transcribe notes at a speed greater than the maximum required by employers.

Our preliminary study of the causes of dismissal of stenographers indicates that additional time might more profitably be devoted to improving spelling or command of English, rather than to acquiring an exceptionally high speed in taking dictation.

THE GUIDANCE CARD

A guidance card is being developed, on which are to be listed the civilservice positions for which large numbers of persons are employed each year. In parallel columns will be presented (in the order of the intelligence test scores required for each) the names of positions, minimum scores on any aptitude or achievement tests required, salary range, and such special requirements as age, experience, education, and physical qualifications. The number of persons examined for each position during the preceding year will be presented, together with the number appointed. This information will permit an applicant to determine, from his standing on the register, his relative chance of receiving appointment.

In the final column on the card, reference will be made to reports prepared to present further information concerning the duties of each position, localities of employment, opportunities for training in service, and prospects of advancement by promotion or by transfer. This information will be based on the study of actual promotions and transfers.

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The card will thus present facts, many of which are at present unknown, of value to every one directly or indirectly interested in Federal service. To prospective applicants it will show, in compact form, requirements, limitations, and opportunities.

When the final standardization of the general adaptability tests is completed, any one who has taken one of these tests can then refer to the portions of this guidance card which describe all positions for which his rating makes him eligible, so far as intelligence is concerned.

If his rating is higher than that required for the position for which he is examined, he will be advised of other positions within his reach. If his rating is lower than that needed for the desired position, he will not be simply turned away as a failure, but he will be informed of numerous other positions for which he can qualify.

This will be made possible by the fact that the general adaptability tests will be scaled and will be constructed with a degree of overlapping which will make possible translation of a score on one test into higher or lower scores to which it is equivalent on the other tests.

Tables will be prepared to enable schools using standardized intelligence tests to interpolate scores on such tests into scores on civil-service tests. This will give students the advantage of learning in advance, by reference to the guidance card, for what positions they can already qualify, and the training needed to prepare them for other positions.

A special card will be drawn up for professional positions.

The guidance cards will be of equal value to present employees in pointing out not only the existing opportunities for training, transfer, and promotion, but also the requirements which must be met in order to make transfer or promotion possible.

COORDINATION OF USE OF ELIGIBLE REGISTERS

The possibilities of placing the applicant most advantageously are to be augmented by increasing the usefulness of registers of eligibles. Owing to the differences in the selection standards of different divisions, even in the same department, we have, under our present system, been forced to drop a great number of men from a register when the legal term of their eligibility has expired. During the time we have had those men on that register, we have been advertising for applicants and testing them, by means of a somewhat different examination, for very similar duties in another division.

Divisions formerly division-minded are becoming organization-minded, and are cooperating in making registers more flexible, thus making the persons on one register available for a number of comparable positions. To do this will not only reduce the number of examinations given, and hence cut selection costs; it will also prevent the ill will that is generated among persons who, though they know that they have qualified, fail to secure appointment, while other persons are appointed to comparable positions.

SUMMARY OF VALUES

The value of this study may be summarized as follows:

1. It will provide a better basis for the development of selection methods.

2. It will result in better tests, from the standpoint of validity and practicability.

3. It will greatly increase the value of civil-service records to the Commission itself, to the various Government departments, and to applicants.