Insights / Organization design · 6 min read

Before Cutting Headcount, Check How the Work Is Designed

Deloitte's 2025 data shows managers spend nearly 40% of their time on daily problems and administration. That is worth checking before recounting headcount.

By the Nusva Advisory team · Published

A manager deep in thought at a desk stacked with documents

When labour cost rises faster than revenue, the first reflex is almost always to recount the headcount. Recent data points to something to check first: how work and the manager's role are designed.

Deloitte's 2025 Global Human Capital Trends found that managers spend nearly 40% of their time solving today's problems and on administrative tasks, and only 13% developing the people who work for them.1

Hampir 40%

of managers' time goes to solving today's problems and administrative tasks.

Source [1]
13%

of managers' time is spent developing the people who work for them.

Source [1]
36%

of managers say they are insufficiently prepared to be people managers.

Source [1]
7%

of organizations are making great progress reinventing the manager role, while 73% recognize its importance.

Source [1]

Wider spans of control have limits too

Widening spans of control is often treated as a shortcut to a leaner organization. A study published in the journal WORK in 2025 followed first-line managers in one Swedish healthcare organization from 2020 to 2023. Expanded span of control correlated negatively with job satisfaction in some years (r = -0.289 in 2021 and r = -0.334 in 2023), while job demands showed the most consistent negative relationship.2

The study is correlational and covers one organization, so it is not a general rule. Even so, it fits Deloitte's finding above. If layers are removed without reducing administrative load, that load is likely to shift onto the managers who remain.

Nusva Advisory's view

Our suggested order: map where managers' time goes, simplify process and approvals, straighten authority, then count the people. Before deciding, also calculate your true cost per employee and turnover cost.

Deloitte's data comes from a global survey. The WORK study was conducted in one Swedish healthcare organization and is correlational.

Sources

  1. Deloitte. 2025 Global Human Capital Trends, press release, 24 March 2025. Open source ↗
  2. Svanström, J., Skytt, B., Lindberg, M., & Lindberg, M. (2025). Expanded span of control, leadership and management performance, work-related stress, and job satisfaction among first-line managers: A repeated cross-sectional study. WORK, 81(3). doi:10.1177/10519815251326470. Open source ↗

AI-generated illustrative photo.