Regardless of the size of your company, organizational charts are an excellent tool in understanding the overall workflow of a company and their reporting structure. Since job roles are easily visible, company growth, restructuring, and flexibility is further encouraged with organizational charts.
What is an organizational chart
An organizational chart is a visual representation of the structure and layout of a business. It serves to show staff which employees work for each department including leadership, hierarchy, and the overall business structure. Organizational charts also show staff the career paths available within a business.
The main purpose of organizational charts is to assist a business’ HR department with new hires, reorganizing staff during internal transfers or promotions, and reflecting any employee exits. By doing so, HR Departments are able to provide managers, new hires, and other employees with an updated visual aid of the company’s structure and workflow.
Managers and other leaders use such charts to assist them in motivating reduction in staff or company growth.
New staff are better able to know who’s who in the company, what the reporting structure is as well as name and face recognition. All of which help settle new hires into their new roles smoother and easier.
The benefits of organizational charts
Here are some of the benefits organizational charts bring to a growing business:
- Shows clear company structure – Not everyone within a company is going to know who works in which department. Organizational charts help bring that clarity thereby improving efficient communication within departments.
- Manages staff workload – Managers and leaders have an overview of their team’s workloads. This helps them to see when restructuring their team or bringing new people on board is necessary.
- Assists new staff – Organizational charts assist new staff in learning the various roles, departments, and staff within a business. This eases tension and unnecessary workloads.
- Assists with any company planning – Besides assisting with company growth, organizational charts are also able to help business leaders use their resources efficiently and effectively.
The disadvantages of organizational charts
The main disadvantages to traditional organizational charts lie with its inability to portray the informal channels within a company and its departments. Plus, maintaining an organizational chart gets trickier and more time consuming as a business grows.
That being said, the benefits to such charts far outway the few inconveniences.
Why you should use organizational chart software
While organizational charts benefit companies, the traditional method of creating and updating such charts proves ineffective and outdated. As such, organizational chart software brings organizational charts into the technology age.
With organizational chart software, your company’s organizational chart is no longer tedious and inefficient. Instead it is
- Easily accessible since each team member can access it from their PC or laptop
- Relevant and up to date thanks to user friendly features.
- Updates are not restricted to HR personnel, rather, managers across the company are able to update the organizational chart at any time.
- Employees are encouraged to upload information and photos of themselves. Some software include “About me” sections per personnel. This adds a more human dynamic to each field instead of the organizational chart remaining cold and strictly professional.
- Improved accessibility to contact information for each employee and the best times to be contacted.
- Employees are able to recognize each other in meetings or around the company offices. This enhances teamwork and company culture.
- Growth opportunities are easily spotted helping staff identify career growth and development opportunities.
With all the benefits organizational charts bring, organizational chart software is becoming more popular. Streamline and propel your business into future growth with organizational chart software.
