An Organization Chart, or Org Chart, shows the structure of
a company by showing the different levels of management. It should show all the
different positions in an easy to understand and easy to revise, especially
when you are a part of a quickly changing company. You do not want to be
spending all your time keeping your org chart up to date! Here are some of our
best tips:
Tip 1: Organize Your Organization Chart Logically
Organization charts resemble family trees, with the highest
authority of the company, like the CEO, at the top of the tree and all
subordinates branch below that box based on rank. The exception is assistants
such as secretaries. Their box should connect to the branch below the person
whom they assist. In first putting the
chart together, think of your organization as a collection of positions, not a
collection of people. Taking this approach leads to a much more logical
organization than starting with people. Each position should have defined by
the goal of the position, the responsibilities of the position, and what
position the position reports to. Then, fill in the names.
Learn how to make an Organization Chart with SmartDraw here.
Tip 2: Break up Large Organization Charts and Leave Off the
Teams
In a large company, organization charts can quickly become
unruly! In these cases, break up your organization in chart by department and then
fill in your organization hierarchies. With SmartDraw, sub-charts can be
hyperlinked to the top-level charts for easy access. Following this convention,
will also maintain the rules of Visual Grammar, which defines a set of rules to
create consistent and professional visuals.
Additionally, to prevent any confusion, you should only
define an org chart hierarchically, by who reports to whom. This means every
person on the org chart should report directly to the person who sets his or
her salary. Every organization has teams and workgroups, but these often are
not organized hierarchically. Teams and working groups often bring members
together across departments. Instead, use team charts to describe these groups.
Tip 3: Put a Name and Face to Every Role
Many companies avoid including names and most avoid
including photos on their org charts. This requires time and maintenance of the
organization chart. However, the time it takes to upkeep the organization chart
will save your employees time, especially when they are first hired, putting a
name and face to every role in the organization.
To add pictures to your organization chart, select the
position to which you want to add a photo and then click Add Picture in the SmartPanel.
After you select the photo, you can easily scale or crop your photo. Also, you
can click on the Picture tab in the
upper ribbon area and change the brightness and other features of your photo.
Learn more about changing the style of your
organization chart.
What best practices would you add to this list of tips? What do you feel makes a good, usable org chart?
