What does your top managment structure look like

Passion4HR · June 2004

We are an employer in TN and involved with distribution. We have 900 associates where 6% of our workforce is top management. Our top management is Director level and above. I would like to hear from similar companies on what their top managment structure looks like. This assignment was a directive from our president, therefore a speedy response would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Don D · June 2004

Why would the president of a company give someone an assignment to gather information on what the structure of other companies is? He obviously has it set up like he wants it. Are you under the assumption that your colection efforts will result in his decision to reorganize HIS company. I think not.

Passion4HR · June 2004

Don D.

I think you have mis-understood or are either your reading into this a little more than you should.
He is not trying to reorganize the company! He simply wants to see, for himself, if we are top heavy based on what other similar companies look like. We are creating some succession plans and this topic came up. And yes, he currently has it set up just like he wants it. Nonetheless, he has given me a directive to find this information and that is what I will do. I understanding why and don't see this as threat of reorganizing. Now, with that said, we have 900 associates and 5.5% is top management- meaning director level through the President. In your humble opinion, would that be viewed as top heavy? A yes or no is all I need.

Thanks

crawfod · June 2004

Assuming "Director" is at least Department Head or greater, my math says 5.5% of 900 is 49.5 Directors which divided into 900 equals one Director for every 18 employees. My guess is you have some Directors who are responsible for many more than 18 employees which means some Directors are responsible for much less than 18. An organization of your size probably means these Directors are making $50K or greater. Without knowing more about the structure and their duties, my basic reaction is you're top heavy. But if the big guy is happy and your lower level employees are all making good money and see a lot of advancement to Director potential, then what's the harm?

Don D · June 2004

I'm afraid I can't provide you with a yes or a no. It depends on such factors as: Are you a corporate location with a large number of support staff such as controller, HR Director, Sales Managers, Safety Director, Shipping and Receiving Managers, IT Director, Cost Reduction Director, engineering director,? If yes, then your figure may be on the low side. If no, then your figure may be average. And, it depends on how he has the company structured and what initiatives he has in place.

If, for example you have Lean Initiatives as a driving force and you have two director level guys involved in that, or if you have a dynamic approach to solving quality issues and first pass yield problems, he may have six manager or director level people involved in that through necessity. All these possibilities drive your numbers up naturally. But, if you're simply a distribution warehouse without all this overhead staff, your number is out of whack. Just ain't as easy as you suggest. But, good luck to you. x:-)

Whirlwind · June 2004

Don't know if this will help, but....

I think the answer depends, in part, on whether there are intermediate levels of supervision between the directors and the associates. One rule of thumb I'm aware of is that there should a 1:11 ratio between the total number of dept.heads/managers/supervisors and "front-line" staff. If you don't have those in-between levels, you're well within that ratio, but since you characterize those directors as "top management", I suspect that you do have a group you consider mid-management. If not, the span of control of those directors, assuming it's evenly distributed, is fairly wide and - therefore - your organization may not be top heavy.

smaces_twin · June 2004

We have 1000 ee's and 8 manufacturing facilities. We have 27 managers that are department heads and above. That equals 2.7 %. We consider ourselves very lean and are committed to the effort to stay that way.

TN HR · July 2004

Based only on what you've posted you're way heavy. Again, not reading anything into it and only taking it at face value. We really need more info to go on. Like Don said, you could have a myriad of naturally-occuring positions depending on the overall make up of the company.

For example, at a former company, if there were more than 20 restrooms then we would appoint a facilities manager over the janitorial staff, however, if half of those restrooms were designated for men AND they each had 3 or more urinals then we appointed a facilties manager. Lastly, if all else was applicable and the urinals had the splash guards with sanitizer tablets in them then the title automatically became Director.

What does your top managment structure look like

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