When your business first opens, your team’s responsibilities might seem pretty obvious: after all, there aren’t too many possible communication gaps when there are only 2 or 3 people on staff. However, as your business grows and you begin to hire more employees, knowing who to report to and how accountability is spread can eliminate a lot of headaches and lost productivity.
It’s never too early to create an organizational chart for your business. Follow these 5 tips to improve the organizational flow within your company.
1. Find a Template That Works for You
There are plenty of organizational chart templates online that you can download, modify, or use as inspiration for your own. There is no need to reinvent the wheel and create some new or innovative organizational chart for your business.
Often with business, the easiest path is the best—and that sentiment couldn’t be more true when it comes to creating an organizational chart. Unless your business model is groundbreaking, there’s probably an existing organizational chart available for you to use.
2. Keep Your Chart Limited to a Single Page
In line with the thinking above, try and make your organizational chart simple to read and understand. You can do this by limiting its length to a single page.
By fitting your organizational chart onto 1 page, people can easily see where they fall and who they report to, limiting any confusion. If your business gets so large that it cannot fit onto a single page, make sure each department has an organizational chart so your employees know where they stand.
3. Include Both the Position and Person Occupying It
There are 2 key pieces of information that your organizational chart needs: the job title and the person who fills it. This makes it easy for team members to understand what each person does and their corresponding role in each department.
For example, each department would have a manager at some level directly below the CEO. Someone on the marketing team could easily identify the manager of hiring or accounting even if they’d never met them.
4. Provide a Clear Hierarchy
Let your team members know where they fall on the chart and where the hierarchy is. Even if you want to empower your employees to take on management tasks and grow their knowledge in the field, it will still help them to understand who’s able to make decisions. At a glance, a new employee should be able to use the organizational chart to see who does what within the company clearly.
5. Explain the Roles of Each Employee
Along with creating an organizational chart, you may want to develop a document that explains the roles and responsibilities of each position. This can also be built into your chart if you choose an interactive model.
These position descriptions can empower employees to understand what they’re allowed to do and which areas they supervise. This also makes it easier for interdepartmental collaboration as employees can reach out to the right people for assistance.
Evaluate Your Organizational Chart Annually
The chart you create might work for your current situation, but that doesn’t mean it will stay the same once your business starts to grow. Audit your chart each year to see if departments need to be broken up or teams need different leaders. This review can help your company to stay effective as each employee remains on the same page.
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