Management control span and the power of models

There is no hard and fast rule for determining an appropriate management-to-staff ratio. However, there are some guidelines that can help establish a ratio that allows Top Management to efficiently evaluate and evaluate a department, department managers to efficiently evaluate and evaluate employees. And a company to create benchmarks to measure and define a model relationship that works best with their business model.

You must first define the roles and responsibilities of management, supervisors, and non-supervisory employees. Here are some suggestions:

Define a Manager:

A manager has responsibility for strategic operations, planning, and formulates company policy or directs the work of a department. He exercises supervisory authority that is not merely routine or administrative in nature and requires the constant use of independent judgment.

Additional related duties may include:

Administrators of one or more policies or programs of a company,
Manage, administer and control a local branch of a company,
Has substantial responsibility for human resource management, business-public or business-employee relations, public information, or budget preparation and administration.

Examples of job titles that are often managerial include: Chief Executive Officer, Director of Operations, Managing Director, Division Director (of a major function, ie, Information Systems and/or PBX).

Define a monitor:

A supervisor is an employee who has responsibility for day-to-day operations and the authority to perform, or effectively recommend, most of the following actions:

Contract,

Discipline (demote, suspend, terminate),

Reward (grant merit increases, promotions, bonuses),

Assign/reassign duties,

Approve vacation requests,

Solve/resolve employee relations issues,

Formally evaluate employee performance.

Examples of job titles that are often supervisory include: team leader, department supervisor, operations supervisor, shift manager, and administrative group supervisor.

Define a non-supervisor employee:

A non-supervisory employee is responsible for performing daily activities as directed by management and/or a supervisor.

From time to time, traditional supervisory duties will be relegated to employees. Here are some qualifiers that should help determine if a non-supervisory employee should be considered a supervisory employee.

Supervisory Qualifiers:

Is the employee making disciplinary or reward decisions? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Is the employee the source of difficult questions and problems from less experienced co-workers? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Is the employee coordinating vacation schedule or team work schedule? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Does the employee present project updates to the manager? If yes, then the employee is acting in a supervisory role.

Is the employee responsible only for providing performance data for evaluation of team members? If yes, then the employee is acting in a non-supervisory role.

Is the employee responsible for formally evaluating staff assigned to a project, but not granting leave requests, making hiring or general staffing decisions, or disciplining or rewarding employees? If yes, then the employee is acting in a non-supervisory role.

Determination of the ratio between management and employee:

Obviously, having too many Managers compared to employees can bog down the departmental policy process, create confusion in the chain of command, diminish the duties associated with a manager, and can lead to the dreaded micromanaged environment.

Having too few managers compared to employees can lead to tasks being prioritized, not in order of importance, but to meet long commitments. This action results in the projects being placed in the background; delegation of traditional managerial duties to less qualified subordinates and biased performance reporting.

Therefore, it is important to establish a management-staff ratio that strives to create a balanced and healthy work environment for managers, supervisors, and employees.

This is a suggested formula for determining management-staff ratios. This formula may need to be modified based on the specific expectations of your department.

Management-staff ratio = [N+(S-1)]/S

where:

N=Number of non-supervisory employees

S=Combined number of supervisors and managers

“S minus 1” excludes the company’s top executive from being considered a supervised employee. Therefore, for those companies that are managed by more than one top executive, “S minus 1” should be replaced by “S minus the number of top executives”. For example, if your company does not have a CEO, but is run by three full-time salaried commissioners, the formula “[N+(S-3)]/S”.

As an example, let’s say a company has one (1) CEO, four (4) managers from four different departments, and 25 non-supervisory employees.

The formula would be equal to [25 + 5 –1]/ 5 or a manager/employee ratio of 1 manager to 5.8 employees.

Why is the ratio important?

This is just a guide to setting up a model. The ultimate goal of this model is to maximize efficiency in employee supervision while allowing managers/supervisors to manage effectively. It should be extended to allow CEOs to collect and interpret collected metrics related to the health of their business.

Obviously, if you have too few managers/supervisors in the chain of command, then those managers/supervisors will not be able to efficiently and effectively manage employees or keep up with written appraisals, schedules, and other employee-related schedules. On the other hand, employees may have too much responsibility and control the department too much. These are measurable “health” factors of your organization.

A wise person once said “to know where you are, you need to know where you have been”. Creating a model and its variation to achieve the most efficient and effective management-staff relationship for your organization will provide you with valuable metrics and a necessary framework to achieve that goal. It also allows senior management to judge how new programs affect the health of the company.

In addition to the suggested model, you should track other measurable elements and combine them with this general model to create an overview of the health of your organization.

In this scenario, a company has defined an initial management-staff ratio of 1 to 5.8. Using the ratio of 1 to 5.8 as a benchmark, the company collects additional information on its management staff and non-supervisory employees.

The company assigns a percentage value to written administrative evaluations that are submitted correctly and completed on time.

The company evaluates the management of employee relations. He assigns values ​​to the perceived health of Managers in his department and the perceived health of employees in the same department.

The company collects information on the turnover of staff and managers and assigns a value to the causes given for the departure of its employees.

The company places value on employee rewards programs. Is the employee just a great team member, or is the employee empowered by management?

The company tracks the implementation of new programs and the effect of the program on the health of the organization.

Using the metrics and values ​​collected, the company will start with an initial assessment of your health and be able to address the most problematic areas, and then the least problematic areas. The company can then use the historical and current measurements to move toward a goal of efficient and effective management.

This is a short article about the power of models and how they can help a company in self-assessment and evaluation. There are a number of books and specialists in this area.

* – The formula, [N+(S-1)]/S, is cited in various US government sites as the accepted formula for determining the management-to-employee ratio.

* – Parts of this article come from government sites related to employee management.

Article by Charles Carter
[http://www.cs2communications.com]