Here's exactly how many direct reports each manager should have for peak productivity

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Here's exactly how many direct reports each manager should have for peak productivity

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A boss who has between eight and 10 direct reports typically sees the lowest turnover on their team.

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  • A boss who has between eight and 10 direct reports typically sees the lowest turnover on their team.
  • That's according to a new report from human-resources software company Namely.
  • Experts and executives have long disagreed on the optimal number of direct reports. For example, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch said 10 to 15.

Being a manager necessarily means being pulled in different directions, constantly having to decide which person or project most deserves your time and attention right now.

But just how many people and projects should you be responsible for at once?

Human-resources software company Namely set out to answer that question (among others) in a recent survey. According to the findings, managers who have between eight and 10 direct reports see the lowest turnover. Managers with more or fewer direct reports see higher turnover, independent of the overall company size.

Namely surveyed roughly 1,200 companies that use its services. The average number of direct reports was nine, suggesting that many organizations are doing things right.

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In an interview with Business Insider, Eric Knudsen, people analytics manager at Namely, said Namely used employee turnover as a proxy for a productive work environment, and acknowledged that the optimal number of direct reports depends on a particular boss' management style.

Indeed, McKinsey & Company outlined five "managerial archetypes" and the optimal number of direct reports for each one. The "supervisor" archetype has some individual responsibility and has their own bosses; an example is an accounting manager or a senior vice president of finance. According to McKinsey, a supervisor typically has eight to ten direct reports.

A "player/coach," on the other hand, has a lot of individual responsibility and it takes years for people in their field to develop self-sufficiency; an example is a functional vice president. A player/coach typically has just three to five direct reports.

Experts and execs disagree on how many direct reports a manager can reasonably handle

Management experts and executives have different opinions on the ideal number of direct reports. For example, Hal Gregersen, the executive director of the MIT Leadership Center, previously told Business Insider the optimal number of direct reports was somewhere between six and 12, whether you're the CEO or a lower-level manager.

It's a question of how many people a leader can have a constructive conversation with when everyone is in the same room, Gregersen said.

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Read more: A former Facebook HR exec says many bosses are too uncomfortable to ask people a hugely important question

Meanwhile, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, said in an 1989 interview with the Harvard Business Review that a manger should have between 10 and 15 direct reports. "This way you have no choice but to let people flex their muscles, let them grow and mature. With 10 or 15 reports, a leader can focus only on the big important issues, not on minutiae."

McKinsey suggests a number of questions to consider when determining how many reports a manager can reasonably handle, including "How much actual time is the manager spending on her or his own work versus time spent managing others?" and "How much experience and training do team members' jobs require?"

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