Levels Of Work And Types Of Supervision

TYPES OF SUPERVISION EXERCISED AND RECEIVED

Terms listed below describe types of supervision exercised and received. Any combination of these terms may apply to an individual job. For example, a job may include more than one type of supervision exercised as well as receive more than one type of supervision. These terms are generally acceptable; however, you may use more specific words to clarify these job elements.

1.Types of Supervision Exercised (NOTE: Merely reviewing work of another employee does not constitute supervision. Supervisory duties must be a continuous and recurring part of the job. See Supervisory Section under Levels of Work caption.)

a. Direct Line - responsibility for production and quality of subordinates; determines work assignments, priorities and procedures; and formally (or provides major input into) evaluates subordinates' performance.

b. Staff - formally advises and assists management.

c. Functional - supervises subordinates only when they are assigned to assist with the completion of a specific task (function).

d. Lead worker - performs same duties as subordinates, but sets pace of work unit. May give informal direction to other workers.

e. Project Basis - supervises incumbents while working on a specific project. Usually, subordinates vary from project to project.

f. Regulatory Supervision- This is not considered true supervision but represents those jobs which exist to provide direction, review judgments made by other sections or departments, set standards, policies and procedures, override judgments made by supervisors or managers of functions under their control or exercise similar controls. Such control is over other positions with a separate " boss" for leave approval, performance evaluation and administrative review of work as well as some technical review.

2. Types of Supervision Received

a. Close - frequent and detailed review of work. Instruction, advice and assistance readily available.

b. General - instruction, advice and assistance available as needed. Review of work may be frequent but not usually detailed. Emphasis is placed on quality of completed assignments.

c. Broad - instruction, advice and assistance available at request of employee. Review of work is not detailed and usually emphasizes accomplishment of broad work unit objectives rather than specific work assignments.

d. Administrative direction - advice and assistance limited to accomplishment of broad agency objectives and policies.

SUPERVISOR - FIRST LINE

Supervisory Jobs are written when the incumbents exercise line supervision over normally 3 to 5 subordinates. Although supervisors have responsibility for the actions/activities of their subordinates 100% of the time, the actual supervision of their activities (as opposed to doing the work normally associated with the tasks of subordinates) should be at least 50% of the time.

In addition, no subordinate should be claimed by more than one supervisor as their permanent supervisor, unless prior commitment has been given in writing by the Chief of Classification and Pay recognizing such organizational structures as subordinate pools, project supervision, etc.

NOTE: Any position claiming the requisite number of subordinates and performing the same work tasks more than 50% of the time will not be allocated to a supervisory title.

Supervision must include the THREE MANDATORY supervisory elements and at least FOUR or more of the OPTIONAL elements listed below:

1. (MANDATORY) Responsible for the productivity and quality of the subordinates work performance.

2. (MANDATORY) Formally Evaluates ( or provides major input)subordinates performance (e.g. Annual Service Ratings, recommends promotions, recommends disciplinary actions, etc.)

3. (MANDATORY) Determines work assignments, priorities, and procedures for subordinates.

4. (OPTIONAL) Resolving technical problems; entailing responsibility for counseling subordinates and finding solutions to problems that the subordinates were unable to resolve. (This is not informal advice and assistance, as rendered by a senior staff member, but an officially assigned job responsibility.

5. (OPTIONAL) Approving annual and sick leave.

6. (OPTIONAL) Interviewing, and recommending for selection, candidates who apply for vacant jobs or employees who apply for promotions in the area supervised.

7. (OPTIONAL) Resolving complaints from subordinates.

8. (OPTIONAL) Training of new employees.

9. (OPTIONAL) Advising on problem resolutions through informal advice and assistance to subordinates.

10. (OPTIONAL) Reporting on work quality and productivity of subordinates; however, without responsibility and accountability for the production and quality of their work.

TYPES OF EMPLOYEES SUPERVISED

INMATES Can be used as equivalent to classified employees when it is documented that they perform the same duties as classified employees. Counted on a one-for-one basis.

STUDENTS Are not considered unless they perform duties which equate to those of full time classified employees. Normally counted on a two or three-to-one basis, depending on number of hours worked.

CONTRACTUAL Can be considered if these are used in place of classified employees, (e.g. health service providers, etc.) and then only if the results of their work are reviewed. In cases similar to highway contracting firms, the employees are not considered subordinates.

TEMPORARY Are not considered subordinates.

CONSULTANTS Should not be considered subordinates; however, if in a fiscal setting, credit may be given if the supervisor has the responsibility for production, quality, results and scope of the consultants work.

SUBORDINATES IN A LOWER JOB SERIES

Subordinate "mix" should directly influence the jobs evaluation on Org Control. For example, if a professional supervisor has a staff of 2 professionals, his Job Title should be evaluated at a higher GS level. In comparison, if the same position supervised 2 clerical employees, then his job title would evaluate less on the Org Control factor than the other supervisor.

NOTE: Supervision of all types of subordinates must be on a Continuous, long term basis.

TYPES OF SUPERVISION

Regulatory Supervision- This is not considered true supervision but represents those jobs which exist to provide direction, review judgments made by other sections or departments, set standards, policies and procedures, override judgments made by supervisors or managers of functions under their control or exercise similar controls. Such control is over other positions with a separate " boss" for leave approval, performance evaluation and administrative review of work as well as some technical review.

Positions are considered to be under "regulatory supervision" when they receive policies and procedures from someone other than their true supervisor and decisions must be authorized by their boss as well as external positions.

Class and Pay, budget and purchasing central units exercise "regulatory supervision" over field personnel engaged in those activities.

Administrative services personnel regulating telecommunications, safety, property control and related activities exercise "regulatory supervision" over employees engaged in these activities.

The critical element is the degree of control within a job title's description. If the job specification requires that positions review decisions, countersign decisions, reject inaccurate decisions, require deadlines and priorities, mandate policy and procedures, this represents supervision.

It is not regulatory supervision if a job specification requires only giving advice, planning, suggesting amendments, identifying problems without implementing solutions or checking forms for accuracy prior to sending them to another jurisdiction.

Use of this term can clean-up "functional supervision" by redefining it to include milder forms of direct supervision over other employees such as "working supervisors", lead workers, assistant group supervisors, supervisors over groups for weeks or months at a time and other forms of supervision which almost meet our definition of direct supervision.

With an additional modifier, we can group jobs into three distinct areas as follows:

DIRECT FIRST LINE SUPERVISORS OR HIGHER- Jobs for positions supervising the required number of subordinates (usually three or more), which exercise the required number of mandatory and optional supervisory elements. FUNCTIONAL SUPERVISION- Jobs for positions supervision one or two positions when the specs require more; supervise the required number of positions but don't fulfill the supervisory elements (they don't do service ratings or sign off on completed work); serve as assistant supervisor supervising in the absence of the boss; serve as lead workers setting the pace for other employees or serve as a true supervisor for a few days or months when assigned to a special program or project but don't supervise the required percentage of time.

REGULATORY SUPERVISION- Jobs which exercise control and authority over employees as a high percentage of their job (70%+), and perform supervisory elements over a number of other positions (at least 10).

Additional adjective may be added as follows: Regulatory Supervision-State- Supervision over classified state employees and their functions.

Regulatory Supervision-Non-State- Supervision over non-state employees such as contractors, consultants, other governmental employees or related.

NON-SUPERVISORY- Jobs which claim no control over other employees or simply serve as a resource person, expert, trainer, planner, processor of document without authority to control the employees from whom the document were sent.