Forget About This and an Organization’s Employee Engagement Efforts will Fail

​People managers have numerous responsibilities, including assigning work, reviewing deliverables, and tracking performance.
 
Plus providing on-going feedback and support, mentoring and coaching, and genuinely getting to know their employees.
 
Leading to excellent cultures that no-one wants to leave, and where great candidates want to come and work.
 
However, doing this well takes time, including managers needing to reliably devote time to weekly or bi-weekly one-on-ones with every team member.
 
🚩 So, why do so many organizations not consider their organizational structures, and the maximum number of direct reports their managers have?
 
The optimum number that a single manager should have has long been a topic of discussion.
 
But there is no consensus as to what that perfect number should be.
 
Various academic studies, however, agree that the ideal span of control for any manager should be seven, plus or minus a few.
 
The exact number will differ due to several variables, specific to each organization, including the following:
 
✅ Manager’s experience managing
✅ Employees’ skills and experience
✅ Complexity of the work
✅ Use of technology
 
Nonetheless, in general, a good rule of thumb is a maximum of six-to-eight direct reports for any one manager.
 
Beyond that, the complexity and demands become too great, even for an experienced and well-trained manager.
 
So, don’t set your managers up for failure by assigning them too many direct reports.

𝘽𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚, 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤 𝙂𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙪𝙥, 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙩 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙩 70% 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙫𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩.
 
And a situation where Managers themselves won’t be engaged is created.
 
🚩When that is the case, there is no way that employees will be either.
 
And disengagement and a bad culture are situations to avoid at all costs, unless an organization wants the headache and expense.