Community Forum – Do you allow Individual Contributors to also be people managers?

A: Do you allow Individual Contributors to also be people managers?

Please find below the responses to this week’s IRI Community Forum Survey. Thank you to those who took the time to add their input! 

We would like to understand how you structure reporting relationships, specifically whether employees report to Individual Contributors (ICs) such as chemists, scientists, or engineers. Your responses will help us to map out potential organizational structures.

Responses are below.

Community Responses

Other:

• Employee development alignment
• Interns and technicians can report to an IC.  Full-time salaried professional staff should not.
• Typically interns and cooperative students will report into an individual contributor.
• It depends on the level of ability for an IC to also manage talent.
• It is rare, but usually when that IC shows interest or skills towards being a people manager
• There are Leads that have authority over specific projects or functions.  It is unofficial reporting but still an effective method to prioritize and execute work statement.

Other:

• Creative problem solving – internal; tech expertise – elsewhere; customer insight – internal
• Skill 1, 5, and the other in question 1 should be embedded, the rest can be borrowed
• Ability to guide and lead teams through innovation Lifecyle

Other:

• Classified as supervisors to distinguish them vs. traditional manager role
• We don’t differentiate within our HR system other than title.
• titles are IC-like titles, reporting structure indicates direct reports, and we train them as if they were managers for issues like dealing with unions and executing performance appraisals

Other:

• Overseeing company-relevant work conducted by non-employees.
• As part of technical development process
• Typically for teams where a traditional manager role is not used
• Essentially all professional level ICs have technicians reporting to them

Other:

• If they’re getting an intern, it’s usually to start leadership development so they get coaching.  If it’s a technician, nothing extra
• They are given the appropriate amount of time to dedicate to this activity (i.e. not additional work above and beyond current workload).
• There are times when our company does not realize that a manager is still an IC.

Other:

• Today, it’s engineer IV.  I’m working on a technical career ladder that will get them to a director level equivalent (fellow grade)
• Fellow is a technical path but there is a path for an IC that is focused on integration which could be as high as a senior manager (non-executive)