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CRITERIA OF VOCATIONAL SUCCESS 
Importance of the choice of criteria. Thirteen suggested criteria of voca- 
tional success. General considerations in the selection of criteria. 
A criTERION of accomplishment is something which may 
be used as a measuring stick for gaging a worker’s relative 
success or failure. 
Such a measure of the worth of an employee to his con- 
cern should consist of more than the mere opinion of his 
supervisors. A good criterion of success is objective, fac- 
tual, reliable. It answers with definiteness such questions as 
these: Who are the. most valuable workers, and who the 
least valuable in a selected department? What is the order 
of merit within a list of salesmen? Which of the executives 
are outstanding successes and which could most readily be 
spared? 
Unless the records of factory or office yield dependable 
answers to such questions, it is impossible to determine 
quantitatively the results of improved procedures of select- 
ing and developing personnel; but where adequate measures 
of occupational success are to be had, the way is open for 
the trial of scientific personnel methods and the determina- 
tion of their validity. An executive can, for example, check 
one method of hiring with another, and learn definitely 
which pays best. He can find the answers to questions as 
to which of two methods of supervision, or of remuneration, 
is most effective. He has a measuring stick which is indis- 
pensable in quantitative studies of many vital personnel 
problems. 
From the management’s point of view, the successful em- 
ployee, in contrast to the unsuccessful, does more work, 
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