Checking on Ford Employees Home Conditions, Views from "Factory Facts From Ford," 1917

Beyond revolutionizing America's industrial production, Henry Ford and other managers at Ford Motor Company instituted a wide-reaching corporate welfare program that opened up the most intimate and personal details of employee's personal, family, and financial life to investigators from the Sociological Department. After the announcement of the $5 per day profit sharing plan in January 1914, Henry Ford wanted to ensure that employees, many of whom were non-English speaking immigrants, did not squander the funds. To this end, the Ford Sociological Department was created to investigate and monitor the personal and work lives of employees to the extent that investigators (later called Advisors) conducted home visits, checked bank deposits, and monitored children's school attendance as well as divorce filings. In addition, the Sociological Department advisors provided hygiene instruction, financial and legal advice, and worked with the English School to teach Ford's immigrant workers English.