Models to Determine Numbers and Types of Staff

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Models to Determine Numbers and Types of Staff

Does your organization use an organizational model where position ratios are predetermined by the number of FTE (Full Time Equivalents) and job types?
As an example: ten front-line workers require one supervisor, plus one secretary; every 10 front-line teams requires one manager, one senior secretary, one finance position, and one HR position?
In one large organization, this approach was called a "consolidated administrative position" or "CAP" Model. The number of front line workers was determined by the number of clients. This approach seemed useful and appeared to be very logical.
Does your organization use a similar concept? If not, how does your organization determine the number and types of staff in the different work units? Is this type of tool useful for an organization to consider? What concerns would you have?

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		1 Dammike Kobbekaduwe, Sri Lanka
	Full Time Staff Dear David, I'm from the plantations industry of Sri Lanka. Usually the labour component is about 70% of the total cost of production. We do have such an arrangement and is called CADRE SET.

		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Model to Determine Optimum Front Line / Staff Employees Ratio @Dammike Kobbekaduwe: Thanks for your reaction, sounds interesting... Could you tell a little bit more on CADRE SET? In particular, does it have a certain ratio between workers and staff (managers)? What categories does it distinguish? How does that work?

		1 Dammike Kobbekaduwe, Sri Lanka
	Cadre Setting or Staffing In our case, manual labour output per day should be equal to cutting and removing 100 cubic feet per day. One supervisor can typically look after 6-7 staff grade employees and 25 manual grade employees.

		2 James Antwi HR Consultant, Ghana
	What Defines Cadre Setting or FTE in a Unit or Department? This topic is interesting and important. Human resource managers are often confronted with this question as what is rationally correct in terms of number set and skill mix. In a smaller organization this may be straightforward, but in a bigger and complex organization with many units and departments, the principles may not be as simple. Apart from units or departments performing similar functions, the arguments often focus on: What defines the number set for a unit or a department?