6.2.2 Staffing Design

Many factors affect the staffing design of a regulatory authority. Principally among these are market conditions, established objectives and goals, scope of the regulator’s responsibility, selected management structure, distribution of responsibilities/duties within the regulator, and available resources.

In most cases, the head of the regulatory authority is empowered by the applicable law or regulation to hire appropriate staff as deemed necessary to conduct the business of the regulatory authority provided such appointments are made within the confines of the regulator’s budget. The hiring of staff for the regulatory authority also is usually subject to national civil service or public employment laws or regulations.

Often the regulatory authority has detailed requirements that it must follow when filling a vacancy within the agency. India’s TRAI, for example, must fill each position by promotion, deputation or direct recruitment, with specific guidelines laid out for each method.1 Detailed regulations, such as TRAI’s, provide transparency to the public, ensure that candidates are informed of selection procedures, and facilitate the orderly internal process of hiring new staff.

However, the fact that regulatory authorities may be empowered to hire staff does not guarantee an abundance of qualified applicants. Regulators face significant challenges in recruiting and maintaining qualified staff. First, they need to identify individuals with the relevant expertise. Second, they must be provided by the government with the resources to offer compensation packages that will attract such qualified individuals. Third, they must be able to retain their staff members despite a highly fluid sector in which technologies, business plans, and regulations change with some frequency. Without addressing such challenges, regulators are likely to face staff shortages and high turnover rates.

In general, telecommunications regulators are composed of a diverse group of professionals that include: attorneys, economists, engineers, market analysts, accountants, and administrative support personnel. In addition, depending on the needs and resources of the regulatory authority, some have provisions that allow them to hire consultants on an “as needed” basis.

According to the results of the ITU’s World Telecommunication Regulatory Database survey for 2005, telecommunications regulator staff sizes range from 5 to over 2,200 employees.2 (See Table 6-6 below.)

Table 6-6: Staff Size of Regulators

Gender composition, a factor taken into consideration by many human resources departments within telecommunications regulators, shows that the number of male staff members is usually much higher than that of women. According to the 2005 ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database, only 24 (21 per cent) of the countries surveyed currently have more than 50 per cent females on their staffs.3 The table below (Table 6-7) shows those countries, per region, which have a higher percentage of female than male staff members:

Table 6-7: Percentage of Female Staff Members by Region

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database (2005)

Interestingly, developing countries tend to have more female than male staff members within their telecommunications regulators, but developed countries have been moving toward more equal gender representation. (See Tables 6-8 and 6-9).

Table 6-8: Percentage of Female Staff Members in Some Developed Countries

Source: ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database (2005)

Despite this, the 2003 ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database showed that the distribution of female employees within telecommunications regulators tends to be within the junior positions. Only 10 (13 per cent) of the countries that submitted responses with respect to gender composition in 2003 indicated their professional staff was composed of more than 50 per cent females.4

Table 6-9: Percentage of Female Staff Members in Some Developing Countries

This same survey revealed that of the countries headed by a collegial body, 55 per cent had females members. However, although these collegial bodies can have from 3 to 11 (sometimes more) members, only 27 per cent of them had more than one female member.5

The average age of employees is another aspect of a regulator’s staffing composition. For the most part, regulatory authority staff members around the world range from 25 to 65 in age, with the 25 to 34 and 35 to 44 age groups being the most significant in number. In Chile, for instance, SUBTEL’s staff of 178 employees had the following age group composition in 2003 (Figure 6-B):

Figure 6-B: SUBTEL Staff by Age Groups

Source: SUBTEL Performance Report 2004

While 70 per cent of SUBTEL employees are between 25 and 44 years old, Romania’s ANRC shows a younger staff composition with about 55 per cent of its employees less than 30 years of age (Figure 6-C):

Figure 6-C: ANRC Staff by Age Groups

Source: ANRC Annual Report 2003

The academic levels of staff members vary from one regulatory authority to another, but usually include: higher education (university degrees such as Ph.D., M.A. and B.A. or their equivalents), vocational/technical education, and high school education. The Estonian National Communications Board (SIDEAMET), with a total staff of 135, has the following academic level composition (Figure 6-D):

Figure 6-D: SIDEAMET Academic Level of Employees

Source: Estonian National Communications Board (SIDEAMET) Yearbook 2003

Telecommunications regulators usually organize their staffs hierarchically. There are various levels including: high-ranking management staff; professionals (which can have different levels based on their expertise, as well as their degree of responsibility); technical staff; administrative staff; and others, including consultants. It is not only the hierarchical levels that differ between regulators, but also the distribution of their staffs within each of these levels. For example, ICP-ANACOM in Portugal has the following levels and distribution (Figure 6-E):

Figure 6-E: ICP-ANACOM Staff Organization and Ranking

Source: Annual Report and Accounts, ICP-ANACOM 2003

In contrast, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) shows the following levels and distribution of staff within them (Figure 6-F):

Figure 6-F: ICASA Staff Organization and Ranking

Source: ICASA Annual Report, 2004

These graphs show how two regulators, with a somewhat similar hierarchical staff structure, can have very different distribution of their employees. While almost 50 per cent of ICP-ANACOM’s staff is upper/senior management and its semi-qualified professionals represent 30 per cent of the total staff, ICASA seems to have an inverted pyramid in comparison, as its senior management is only 6 per cent of the total staff and its administration staff members represent almost 60 per cent of all employees.

Staff members are commonly selected based on their professional background, experience in the sector, and academic accomplishments. Similar to other staff composition characteristics, this distribution also varies among regulatory agencies. In the case of OSIPTEL in Peru, the agency relies on lawyers, engineers and economists for 70 per cent of its staff (Table 6-10):

Table 6-10: OSIPTEL Staff Background

Source: OSIPTEL Annual Report 2003

In Colombia, lawyers, engineers and economists make up 82 per cent of the staff of the Comisión de Regulación de Telecomunicaciones (CRT) (Table 6-11):

Table 6-11: CRT Staff Background

Source: Jaime Andres Estrada, Commissioner, CRT (2005)

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shows the following distribution by profession (Table 6-12):

Table 6-12: FCC Staff Background

Source: 2004 Annual FCC Employee Survey Results

The FCC, OSIPTEL, and the CRT all rely heavily on attorneys and engineers to comprise their staff, but the number of economists/accountants/business employees within the FCC is not nearly as high as at OSIPTEL or the CRT. However, the FCC has a more significant number of employees with a technical/technological background.

There are no specific guidelines regarding the percentage of employees per profession that should comprise a regulatory authority’s staff. The particular expertise required is better determined by assessing the needs and upcoming workload of the regulatory authority. In addition, the legislation establishing the regulatory authority often allows the regulator to hire outside consultants and experts if the need arises, as will be discussed in Section 6.2.5.

Another aspect that certain countries consider regarding the staffing design is racial/ethnic diversity. In South Africa for instance, ICASA strives to have a staff that reflects the demographic diversity of its society (Table 6-13):

Table 6-13: ICASA Staff demographics

Source: ICASA Annual Report 2004

ENDNOTES

1 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Officers and Staff Appointment) Regulation, The Gazette of India, Part II, Section 1, Chapter II, 2001.

2 ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database 2005.

3 ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database 2005. Only 114 of the 137 countries surveyed provided information under this category.

4 ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database 2003. Only 79 of the 122 countries surveyed provided information under this category.

5 ITU World Telecommunication Regulatory Database 2003. Only 81 countries provided information under this category.