The Pole Climbers
Ringing Bell Telephone Company has implemented an affirmative action plan in compliance with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Under the current plan, to eliminate discrimination based on sex, women must be placed in jobs traditionally held by men. Therefore, the human resource department has emphasized recruiting and hiring women for such positions. Women who apply for craft positions are encouraged to try for outdoor craft jobs, such as those titled installer-repairer and line worker.

All employees hired as outside technicians must first pass basic installation school, which includes a week of training for pole climbing. During this week, employees are taught to climb 30-foot telephone poles. At the end of the week, they must demonstrate the strength and skills necessary to climb the pole and perform exercises while on it, such as lifting heavy tools and using a pulley to lift a bucket. Only those who pass this first week of training are allowed to advance to the segment dealing with installation. Records have been maintained on the rates of success or failure for employees who attend the training school. For men, the failure rate has remained fairly constant at 30 percent. However, it has averaged 70 percent for women.

The human resource department has become concerned because hiring and training employees who must resign at the end of one week is a tremendous expense. In addition, the goal of placing women in outdoor craft positions is not being reached. As a first step in solving the problem, the human resource department has started interviewing the women who have failed the first week of training. Each employee is asked her reasons for seeking the position and encouraged to discuss probable causes for failure.

Interviews over the last two months disclosed that employees were motivated to accept the job because of their wishes to work outdoors, work without close supervision, obtain challenging work, meet the public, have variety in their jobs, and obtain a type of job unusual for women. Reasons for failure were physical inability to climb the pole, fear of height while on it, an accident during training such as a fall from the pole, and a change of mind about the job after learning that strenuous work was involved. In many instances, the women who mentioned physical reasons also stated they were not physically ready to undertake the training; many had no idea it would be so difficult. Even though they still wanted the job, they could not pass the physical strength test at the end of one week.

Some stated that they felt "influenced" by their interviewer from the human resource department to take the job; others said they had accepted it because it was the only job available with the company at the time.

QUESTIONS

1. What factors would you keep in mind in designing an effective selection process for the position of outdoor craft technician?

2. What would you recommend to help Ringing Bell reduce the failure rate among women trainees?