Spans and Layers Story Pack: Slide-by-Slide

This article provides a slide-by-slide explanation of the Spans and Layers Story Pack. The steps to access and configure the pack are explained in the Spans & Layers Story Pack
 

Slide 1: Spans and Layers Overview

This slide shows rolled-up totals for the key Spans and Layers measures. The data shown for each position are based on the full reporting line under the position. For example, the data shown for the position at level 1 summarises the key measures for the whole organization. The measures shown on the card are:

• Aggregate Headcount: the number of positions
• Managerial Status: The number of People Managers and Non-Managers
• Managerial level: the number of Executive positions, Managers of Managers, Managers of Individual Contributors, and Individual Contributors
• Org Layers: the number and percentage of positions at each organizational Layer
• Span of Control Group: the number and percentage of positions in each span of control group
• Average Span of Control: the mean average span of control based on every people manager

Typical questions addressed:

• How is the workforce split between people managers and non-managers?
• Do we have the right number of people managers for the overall workforce size?
• How many layers does the organization extend to?
• What is the average Span of Control?
• How many people managers have only one direct report?

Tips:

• Place the cursor over a position to see the card detail
• Use the ‘Expand To’ option to specify the number of organizational layers shown on the canvas
• Double-click a position to Focus the view on a reporting line. To clear the focus, select ‘X’ from the ‘Selected’ icon on the bottom bar
• The Span of Control Groups reported in the pack can be customized. From the menu, select ‘Pack’, ‘Configuration’, ‘Span of Control Categories’.

Slide 2: Spans and Layers Summary

This slide provides a dashboard of key measures:

• Zone 1: the number of positions (headcount) at each organizational layer
• Zone 2: the number of positions in each span of control group at each organizational layer
• Zone 3: the average span of control at each organizational layer
• Zone 4: the span of control (horizontal axis) and the number of people managers with this span (vertical axis)

Typical questions addressed:

• Zone 1: What is the overall shape of the organization? Does the organization extend to excessive layers? How many employees are positioned at extended layers?
• Zone 2: At which layers do we find micro teams and one-to-one reporting relationships?
• Zone 3: Does average span differ for managers at different layers of the organization?
• Zone 4: How many people managers have very small spans of control, or excessive numbers of direct reports?

Slide 3: Org Layers Landscape (Drill-Down)

This slide shows

• Zone 1: every position in the organization structure, color coded by managerial level
• Zone 2: the rolled-up key org layers measures for the selected position (from Zone 1) and the selected position’s direct reports
  • Records: the number of positions (headcount) in the reporting linen
  • Managerial Status: The number of People Managers and Non-Managers
  • Managerial level: the number of Executive positions, Managers of Managers, Managers of Individual Contributors, and Individual Contributors
  • Org Layers: the number and percentage of positions at each organizational Layer

Typical questions addressed:

• Does the organization extend to excessive layers?
• In which reporting lines does the organization extend to its greatest depth

Tips:

• Double-click a position in Zone 1 to Focus the view. Reset (remove) the Focus by selecting ‘X’ from the ‘focused’ icon on the bottom bar.
• Place the cursor over a position to see the card detail.
• The default is for positions in the top two organizational layers to be categorized as ‘executive’. You can specify the lowest layer at which positions are considered ‘Executive’ through the pack configuration. From the Menu select ‘Pack’, ‘Configuration’ ‘Optional’, ‘Executive Level Definition.’

Slide 4: Organization shape

This slide shows the number of positions (headcount) at each organizational layer.
Typical questions addressed:

• What is the overall shape of the organization?
• Does the organization extend to excessive layers?
• How many employees are positioned at extended layers?

Tips:

• Slice-and-dice the data shown using Pages. You can Specify which properties are used for Paging i.e., to remove the default Pages, or select other properties in your dataset to page by
• You can rapidly See which positions are included in aggregate totals. For example, “who are the 37 people at Layer 3?”

Slide 5: Layer by Managerial Status

This slide shows the number of People Managers and Non-Managers at each organizational layer.
Typical questions addressed

• Do we have the right number of people managers for the overall workforce size? (Shown in the color legend)
• Do we have opportunity to consolidate layers of management to reduce cost?

Tip: You can rapidly See which positions are included in aggregate totals. For example, “who are the seven non-managers at Layer 3?”
 

Slide 6: Layers by Managerial Level

This slide shows the percentage of positions in each Managerial Level at each layer of the organization.
Typical questions addressed:

• Do we have excessive oversight through the management of managers?
• Do we have the right mix of people managers and individual contributors across organization layers?

Tip: You can rapidly See which positions are included in aggregate totals. For example, “who are the 18% of non-managers at Layer 3?”
 

Slide 6: Managerial Status by Layer

This slide shows the number of People Managers and Non-Managers at each layer of the organization.  Row totals (on the right) show the total number of positions at each organization layer

• Cell totals (shows the number of positions in the Managerial Level at the organizational layer)

Typical questions addressed:

• Do we have right mix of people managers and non-managers at each layer of the organization?
• Do we have unexpected numbers of non-managers at high organizational layers?
• What numbers are the percentages reported on Slide 5 based on?

Slide 7: Span of Control Landscape (drill-down)

This slide shows

• Zone 1: every position in the organization structure, color coded by Span of Control Group
• Zone 2: the rolled-up key span of control measures for the position selected position (from Zone 1) and the selected position’s direct reports
  • Records: the number of positions (headcount) in the reporting line
  • Span of Control: the mean average span of control
  • Span of Control Group: the number and percentage of positions in each span of control group.

Typical questions addressed:

• Where in the organization structure is there evidence of excessive managerial cost through people managers with narrow spans of control?
• Where in the organization structure is there potential risk of managers being over capacity through excessive management spans?

Tips:

• Double-click a position in Zone 1 to Focus the view. Reset (remove) the Focus by selecting ‘X’ from the ‘focused’ icon on the bottom bar.
• Place the cursor over a position to see the card detail.
• If there are many positions across multiple layers, distinguishing individual positions can be challenging. Filter with the colour legend to focus on positions in an individual span of control group (e.g., ‘where are the three managers with only one direct report?’)
• You can customize the Span of Control Group categories: From the Menu select ‘Pack’, ‘Configuration’ ‘Required, ‘Span of Control Categories.’

Slide 8: Span Distribution

This slide shows the distribution of people managers according so span of control (horizontal axis). For example, in the illustration above, there are three people managers with just one direct report and one people manager with 15 direct reports.

Typical questions addressed:

• Are managerial spans in line with the organization’s targets and design principles?
• What is the overall distribution of people managers by span of control?
• What is the highest span of control across the organization?

Tip: You can rapidly See which positions are included in aggregate totals. For example, “who is the manager with 15 direct reports?”
 

Slide 9: Average Span by Layer

This slide shows the average span of control at each layer of the organization.
Typical questions addressed:

• Are there average span differences for managers at different layers of the organization?
• Are average managerial spans at different layers of the organization in line with expectations?
• Are there layers of the organization at which people managers have – on average – narrow managerial spans?
• Are there layers of the organization at which people managers have – on average – excessive managerial spans?

Slide 10: Span Groups by Layer and Function

This slide shows …

• Zone 1 (left): the number of positions in each span of control group at each layer of the organization.
  • The total number of positions in each span of control group is shown as column headings at the top
• Zone 2 (right): the number of positions in each span of control group and each function (see the Note at the end of this article).
  • The total number of positions in each span of control group is shown as column headings at the top
  • The total number of positions in each function is shown as row headings on the right

Typical questions addressed:

• Zone 1 (left): Are there high numbers of individual contributors at higher organizational layers?
• Zone 2 (right): In which function are there people managers with narrow spans of control? How many one-to-one reporting relationships are there in each function?

Tip: You can rapidly See which positions are included in aggregate totals. For example, “who are the seven individual contributors at layer 3? (Zone 1)”
 

Slide 11: Span details

This slide lists every position as a row in the worksheet. The rows are grouped by span of control category.
Tips:

• With ‘Expand to’ set to ‘1 Level’ the data for each span of control group is shown (the number of positions in the group and the average span across the group).
• Expand the span of control groups using the arrow to the left of the label in the first column to see:
  • the positions in the group
  • the span of control for each position
  • detail for each position: which function, geographic location, and business unit it belongs to and the grade of the position.

Note:

• The functional, geographic location, business unit and grades reported in the pack are set at the dataset property mapping stage (see Spans & Layers Story Pack). If you have dataset edit access rights, you can change the mapping if needed (see How to change mapped dataset properties).
• If a property has not been mapped for a function, geography, business unit or grade you may want to customise your slides to:
  • Remove properties from cards
  • Specify which properties are used for Paging
  • Remove slides you don’t need