Ratio of Sr. Management to Rank & File
Needtoknow
8 Posts
Is there any standard ratio of senior management - Associate Director level up to Pres/CEO - based on company size that anyone is aware of? This is kind of like the ratio of 1 HR professional to every 100 ee's (not that I necessarily agree with that figure).
Any help would be most appreciate.
Any help would be most appreciate.
Comments
1) Such data could only be generated or peddled by consultants. Consultants are notorious for telling senior management what senior management wants to hear, for a price. This type of information would not be especially pleasing to senior management, a fact which would result in loss of income for the consultants, which tells them they should produce no data on such phenomena.
2) This sort of data does not exist because it has no practical use and data having no utility to management tends to shrivel up and go away. It would only be useful at a senior management level and would conflict with senior management's philosophy that they should populate their own ranks to the exclusion of sound business principles.
3) You will not find such data because your search will be discovered by senior management who will conclude that the ratio of people in HR is out of whack by '1' at your company.
x:-)
Try to manage HR for 100 engineers, or 100 nurses, or 100 teachers, or 100 hourly workers, or 100 artists, and any one of those employees could take up every minute of your day on benefits, employee relation issues, policy interpretations, marriages, divorces, relocations, and the list goes on and on...not to mention all the reports/recruiting/counseling you do regardless of whether you have 100 or 1000 - takes the same amount of time. Then there are meetings, and more meetings, keeping posters updated, staying up-to-date on State and Federal Laws, mentoring supervisors who put their foot in their mouth and you have the responsibility of taking said foot out of their mouth. Just to mention a few things that goes on in the day and life of that "1" HR person. I do believe One HR person and a "good" HR administrative assistant could manage 100 professional employees and do a good job if the employees are self-sufficient. Some classifications of employees may require more than one HR per 100 employees because of turnover rates,lack of skilled applicants, poor supervising personnel, etc. that could overwhelm one HR person and spread that person too thin. I'm finding that more and more companies look at the HR role as a place to cut heads while legally HR is becoming more and more accountable in their role. Puts more pressure on the HR person. Perhaps we are becoming extinct.
PORK
Here's an excerpt from a summary of a law recently enacted by our state legislature:
"Agency Staffing and Productivity. Requires agencies with more than 100 FTEs to achieve a management-to-staff ratio of one manager for every 11 employees by August 31st, 2007. Phases in yearly. 1:8 by March 31st, 2004, 1:9 by August 31st, 2005, 1:10 by August 31st, 2006."
Now having said that, remember that (1) it's meant to apply to state agencies; (2) it applies to all levels of management rather than just senior management; and (3) this is meant to limit spending rather than promote best practice.