What is your manager to rep ratio? I top the team out at 8:1, but being asked to make it higher. Curious what you all do, as I'm worried it will negatively impact quality and development if we go much further than 10:1.

Hi Kara,

This is a great question! 

While I am a firm believer in keeping the ratio as low as possible, going to 10:1 can work depending on your circumstances.

Are you able to give a small background on the tasks and responsibilities of your managers currently? 

Here are a couple of questions you should consider:

1. Do your managers participate in conversation reviews as part of your QA program? (Increasing the amount of agents, means more conversations to review - Do your managers have the extra time each week to perform this?)

2. How often do you add new team members to the team? - If your managers constantly have 1 'new' joiner in their ranks, then keep in mind that a lot of their time will be going to ensure a quality onboarding. Now if you add 2 more agents to the team, does your manager have the resources to be there for everyone?

3. How often do your managers have 1:1 meetings with their agents? - If weekly, then 2 more assignments means 2+ hours more per week to perform these. How would this look in regards to their current workload?

4. Are your managers responsible for other tasks / projects outside of the usual "manager" role? - If so, consider the impact on these projects if you add 2 more agents to their team.

5. Lastly, I definitely recommend having a chat with your managers! How do they feel their current workload is / do they feel they can handle extra team members? 

Personally I believe 8:1 is already a good ratio, and from my personal experience anything above that can begin to have negative effects - however this is totally dependant on how your teams are currently set-up!