The document defined as an organizational chart is much more than just names written on it and lines drawn between these names. It is a special, effective and necessary guide that explains the hierarchical structure and operation of your company, supports your efficiency and even guides you about who to go to when solving problems. It would be good to spend some time here to review your organizational chart and the tricks of preparing a chart from scratch.
I want you to imagine that you are the captain of a large ship and that ship is undergoing renovations. Even if you assume that every worker you hire to complete the job here is well-intentioned, add to that the complete chaos where it is unclear who will do what, who will be accountable for their work, or who will make the decisions at what stage.
The chaos inside companies that do not create a good organizational chart when they start their business is similar, although not exactly like this, and it grows in a similar way.
Usually when you go to the management floor of a large company, you will see a chart hanging on the wall where everyone can see it. There are boxes on the chart, names inside the boxes, and these names are connected to other people with lines. Or, whether related or not, you must have come across a similar chart in a presentation about human resources.
Why is this chart so important in the modern business world, and is it just about the names written in boxes colored according to the job done and the lines connecting them?
Someone who is good at their job and is interested in examining the functioning of the places they enter and exit knows that the organizational chart is the skeleton of the company's functioning and is aware that it gives the person the ability to move, whether they are an employee, a consultant, or an external contractor.
I will try to examine organizational charts from four simple perspectives; hierarchy, order, workflow, and growth in this article.
The word that needs to be redefined: Hierarchy
When we think in the traditional sense, when I say hierarchy, the first thing that comes to mind is probably a rigid, outdated and rather cumbersome structure. However, when re-evaluated in today’s sense, it can also be defined as the golden key to efficiency and fast decision-making.
Defining this as a roadmap where it is clearly determined who will report to whom and who actually has the authority rather than going hand in hand to men sitting behind large desks can help change the image of the word in your mind.
It is an undeniable fact that hierarchy in the modern sense provides clarity to workflows in companies. When an employee has a problem or a new idea, they know who to go to first thanks to the organization chart and reach a solution more quickly.
Contrary to confusion and long-lasting authority discussions, the organization chart shows who / which unit has the final say in an important and binding decision that needs to be made, thus endless processes between people and units are not prolonged and decisions are made by the appropriate people depending on the strategic goals of the company.
In modern business life, every manager is also responsible for the performance of their own team. The organizational chart clearly outlines the areas of responsibility within the team and thus strengthens the culture of accountability.
It would be more accurate to define hierarchy today not as a form of an empire of fear, but as a modern structure that solves the confusion you encounter while doing business and prevents this confusion from reoccurring, and ensures proper communication in the right place.
Eliminating uncertainty with order and clarity
You encounter many things in your business life and it is possible to deal with most of them, including economic ones; but one of them in particular is uncertainty, one of the biggest enemies you can encounter both in your work and in your own life.
When an employee is confused about what is expected of them where they are, that is, when their duties are unclear, their responsibilities are intertwined with other people in different areas, and when they receive conflicting demands from more than one person in a managerial position, they become unproductive, their shyness increases, the time they spend defending themselves decreases, and eventually they lose their motivation and start looking for other opportunities.
No matter what the scale of your company is, you can take a small but effective step to disperse the dark clouds filled with the tension of uncertainty around you with an organizational chart.
Creating an organizational chart is not as difficult as you think. This document that you prepared clearly shows the place of each person working in the company within the company.
Whether you have been working together for a long time or you have just met and entered a new process, thanks to this chart you have created, the employee will find the answers to what their duties are at work and who is responsible for doing it when they encounter a task to be done.
Although the answers to these questions may not seem very important at first, having the answers to these questions is very important in terms of preventing employees from duplicating tasks and knowing the limits of their responsibilities.
Organizational charts show employees what their own roles are, as well as serving as a guide for other people they work with on the same team and those in managerial positions. This clarity creates and strengthens a collaborative environment between people, and provides a better understanding of who should expect what from whom within the team.
In short, an organizational chart brings some kind of order to a company and its employees, and allows everyone to work in accordance with their own roles, focus better on their work, and focus on spending the energy they allocate for work in the right place.
Making the workflow efficient and continuous
In the process from receiving an order from a customer to delivering it to the customer, different parts of the work pass through different departments and it is a must for the smooth delivery of the work that these work together and in harmony. The smooth continuation of this process is directly related to the healthy relationship between the departments and, in short, how well the departments can communicate with each other.
The lines on the organization chart are more than just representations that connect people; they also determine the flow plan of information and tasks within the company. If I were to give an example for a model that physically produces; the organization chart clarifies how the invoice for a sale concluded by the sales unit will be transferred to accounting, if a product is to be produced, the order for this will be transferred to the production unit, and the contact information for communicating with the customer in the next process will be transferred to after-sales.
We always go through bottlenecks at work and find a way to overcome them in one way or another. Sometimes it is easy to open these bottlenecks and it becomes more difficult when the work becomes more complicated. Organization charts are also a very facilitating tool in opening bottlenecks that cause difficulties.
Seeing work units as customers of each other and expecting them to continue their business relations in this way is important for a good management style and clear communication.
If it is thought that a department is slowing down the work of others, the organization chart can be examined and the management and resource problem causing the disruption can be analyzed and the necessary initiatives for the solution can be easily initiated.
Organization charts are also important in terms of showing the business relations of different departments with each other and encourage individuals and teams with cross-functional functions to work efficiently. In short, every employee knows what happens in the next stage when they finish and deliver their work and understands what kind of impact the part of the work they have completed has on the next stage.
Growing a business in a planned manner
It would not be wrong to compare companies to living organisms today. They are established with a kind of entrepreneurial method, they grow, expand, change and develop. It is important to know that all growth activities are successful when they are carried out under control and in a planned manner.
As companies grow, it is not unexpected to see that their current structure, processes and even company culture are inadequate at every stage. We see that the works that were small and easily managed with a fast-moving, agile team at the beginning are disrupted with the increase in the number of customers, the expanding product range and the changing work styles. I can classify this as a lack of communication between employees, or you can notice it as the need for more comprehensive solutions for the works that you used to be able to do with simple tools or even free versions of various SaaS systems. Such situations that occur in the business world are defined as growing pains.
This may mean that the operations that were easily managed with a small and agile team at the beginning are disrupted with the increasing number of customers, the expanding product range or more complex projects.
Having an organizational chart can also be a great planning tool that you can use to act strategically and take your business one step further while growing your company.
Growing a business means opening new positions and hiring new people for the job. With an organizational chart that you have in hand and ready, it will be easier for you to decide whether you will hire new people for these jobs or expand the job descriptions of the people you already work with.
When you take an organizational chart in hand and look at it, you will also see the resources, capacity and talents that the people you work with have. This will give you initial ideas on how and in what way you can fill the competency gaps that you may experience while growing your business and reaching the goals you want to reach. It will be easier to organize your recruitment or training plans accordingly.
One of the keys to dealing with as few problems as possible while growing your company is to design the organizational structure of your company in a way that you can easily make room for new positions that will open up in the company in the future. This reason alone should be enough motivation to create an organizational chart as soon as possible. Everyone has big goals, and while you're trying to organize yourself, your competitors will already be making progress.
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I hope that after this article, you will start to see the organizational chart not just as a boring HR document but as a strategic document of your company.
Your organizational chart is now;
- the order of your company
- the key to an efficient workflow
- the assurance of accountability
- sustainability and
- the key to smart growth.
If you don’t have an organizational chart yet, open the document editing program you use to prepare one immediately, and if you already have one, set up a meeting with yourself or a suitable teammate at the first free time you find to review it.
This chart, which shows your organizational structure, can be your guide that lives with your company, grows and transforms with it, guides you when you are in a bottleneck and shows you the door that is ajar when you are looking for a way out. It would not be wrong to say that just like buildings that cannot stand without a solid infrastructure, companies that do not have a solid business organization will not last very long.
All images are created by Imagen 3.
