Many professional bodies exist today to offer industry a wide variety of services in personnel management. These are of especial value to the smaller firm that cannot afford its own specialists. Both the cotton and wool sections of the textile industry are able to get assistance from their own national bodies, this including courses and consultant services in employment procedures.
Unless there is some means of checking the results of selection, one cannot know how effective it is or what may be the mistakes made; regular and systematic assessment of an employee's progress is good personnel practice. This is normally done by the immediate supervisor fairly soon after engagement and again at longer intervals. It may be done on formal report forms or in verbal discussion with the personnel officer, but, in any case, written records should be kept. The importance of good selection can hardly be over-emphasized. If the procedure is properly planned and executed, very many subsequent personnel problems can be prevented altogether, and the cost of training, accidents, absenteeism, and labour turnover may be greatly reduced. People who are employed in work that matches their capacity are more effective than those who are not.
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