Assessing Your Organizational Span of Control

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Assessing Your Organizational Span of Control
State Classification Office, September 2003
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Changes in the Workforce

• Workers are more independent and collaborative
• There is a greater focus on individual worker
  performance and less on supervision
• Streamlining in organizations has reduced the
  number of supervisors and managers
• Role of supervisors has changed from control to
  support

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Changes in Organizations

• High specialization
• Rigid departments
• Clean chains of command
• Narrow spans of control
• Centralization

Cross-functional teams Cross-hierarchy
teams Free flow of information Wide spans of
control Decentralization
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Changes in the State

• In 1995, the Legislature enacted provisions to
  limit growth in employment levels
• Although agencies trimmed budgets, many did not
  streamline their structures, improve processes or
  reduce excessive management
• Texas Government Code 651.004 was enacted and
  required agencies to establish goals for
  achieving a higher management-to-staff ratio
• 78th Legislative Session amended the code to
  include a mandated time line for agencies to
  achieve a 111 management-to-staff ratio

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Legislative Timeline

• HB 3442 amends Gov. Code 651.004 and mandates
  that state agencies in the executive branch of
  government with 100FTEs comply with the 111
  ratio by FY 2008.

 
Implementation Schedule Minimum Ratio
March 31, 2004 18
August 31, 2005 19
August 31, 2006 110
August 31, 2007 111
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Span of Control

• Legislative changes in Texas are intended to
  increase span of control in agencies
• Span of control refers to the number of
  subordinates who report directly to a single
  manager or supervisor
• High span of control has a direct link to
• Greater employee empowerment
• Faster decision making processes
• Improved communications
• Greater organizational flexibility
• Reduced personnel and overhead costs
• Increased delegation resulting in improved job
  satisfaction

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Factors that Influence Span of Control

• Job complexity
• More complex jobs more managerial input
• Job similarity
• Similar jobs more employees per manager
• Geographic proximity of employees
• Dispersed locations more supervision
• Amount of coordination to complete tasks
• High coordination more supervision

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Factors that Influence Span of Control

• Employee abilities
• Knowledgeable, trained staff less supervision
• Employee empowerment
• Employees who are trusted and empowered to make
  decisions need less supervision
• Ability of management
• More capable management more employees per
  manager

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Tall Hierarchy Low Span of Control
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Organizational Factors Supporting Narrow Span of
Control

• High levels of diversity and complexity of work
  performed by an organization
• The extent to which coordination and
  interdependence is important between employees
  and groups
• Large amounts of change in the work environment
• Greater geographic dispersion
• Large administrative burdens
• High employee expectations and needs regarding
  development and career counseling.

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Flat Hierarchy Wide Span of Control
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Organizational Factors Supporting Large Span of
Control

• Experienced people who are well selected and
  developed
• Employees who can function with little
  supervision and monitor their own performance
• Job design and tools that give employees direct
  performance feedback
• Success of self managed teams

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How to Ensure your Organization is in Compliance
with New Legislation

• Assess your organizational structure
• Ensure that management is actively involved
• Review agency ratios
• Accurately analyze managerial jobs and positions
• Develop plans to change ratios if needed
• Report ratios timely to the State Auditors
  Office

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Before You Begin

• Review agency workforce and strategic plans.
• Clarify the purpose, objectives and priorities
  for your headquarters or main offices.
• Establish ground rules for layers within your
  agency.
• Link these rules to your agencys objectives.
• Gather organizational charts for all programs and
  divisions.
• Focusing on cutting to a plan, not a specific
  numberbut try to stay lean

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Where to Start

• Review organizational charts.
• Consider using analytical tools.
• Identify employees who supervise a limited number
  of employees (1-3).
• Identify groups of professional employees who
  could work in self-managed teams.
• Identify technical supervisors who could be
  reassigned to team leader positions.

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1. Review Organizational Charts

• Count the total number of layers from the lowest
  individual contributor to the Executive Director.
• Individual contributors (do not supervise but may
  act as team leader)
• Supervisors (Include first line, second line,
  etc.)
• Managers (Include first level, second level,
  etc.)
• Executive or Agency Head
• Target range should be 4-6 layers, smaller
  agencies (less than 500 employees) should have
  fewer layers.

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2. Use Analytical Tools

• Activity analysis
• Can be performed to understand how much time
  middle managers actually spend on management and
  supervisory activities.
• Decision/responsibility matrices
• Can be developed to understand who is responsible
  for making decisions and what positions have
  overlapping or redundant responsibilities.
• Conceptual maps
• Indicate what functions and services are helpful
  in order to identify duplicate services.

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3. Identify Employees Who Supervise a Limited
Number of Employees

• Consider these questions?
• Can those employees being supervised be moved
  under another supervisor?
• Can the current supervisor be a team leader?
• If that position were to not supervise would it
  be needed?
• Have you performed a job analysis (activity
  analysis) on the supervisory positions?
• What value does this position create? Management
  and supervisory positions that do not add value
  commensurate with their costs should be
  eliminated or restructured.

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4. Identify Employees who can Work in
Self-Managed Teams

• Work teams have replaced traditional management
• Results may include dramatically increasing
  productivity
• The quality of work life is often enhanced for
  employees.
• Highly developed teams can control functions once
  reserved for management
• Designing work processes
• Establishing production schedules
• Setting goals and performance measures
• Maintaining quality control.

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5. Identify Technical Supervisors

• Consider these questions
• Do these employees work in high level technical
  or very specialized jobs?
• Does the employee need to write performance
  evaluations or have the authority to hire and
  fire?
• Can the employee oversee work assignments and
  work more as a team leader?
• Can supervisory duties be taken from the job
  without substantially reducing the employees
  workload?

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Before You Restructure

• Remember
• Management support is critical
• Successful restructuring complements
  organizational strategies
• Organizational culture plays a big role
• There are no quick fixes
• Restructuring processes should include
• Project planning
• Data collection
• Structural analysis
• Staffing needs analysis
• Span of control analysis
• Development of recommendations

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Additional Tips

• With regard to spans of control the complexity of
  the functions being performed is the primary
  determinant of the number of positions that can
  be effectively supervised
• Work process reengineering can create radical
  change and result in improved performance and
  reduced cost
• When evaluating organizational structure it is
  extremely important to consider all the factors
  that affect your organization and to consider
  what non-organizational changes might be
  implemented both to improve operations and to
  reduce management and supervisory needs.