SmartDraw's automation makes building org charts a breeze. You can click simple commands to add employees while creating and maintaining the organizational structure automatically. Add, move, or remove employees, and SmartDraw's org chart creator reconnects and aligns your chart so that everything continues to look great without any manual adjustments.
You can make a large organization seem manageable by breaking their org chart into smaller sub-charts. SmartDraw lets you create a sub-chart with just a click of a button for departments and teams as needed.
You can build your org chart manually, but if you have access to your organization's data, you can have SmartDraw do all the work for you. Generate your organizational chart from data automatically, without any drawing at all. All you need is a list of employees in an Excel® or CSV file. You can get one from where you manage employees—whether that's Workday®, BambooHR® or some other HR software.
SmartDraw will also let you connect to Entra ID to generate an organizational chart automatically from your Azure directory.
An organizational chart can contain lots of data about employees in addition to their roles and names. You might have email addresses, phone numbers, office location, or even salary information. SmartDraw makes it easy to add this information to your org chart without visually cluttering up your diagram using shape data. You can choose which information is always visible in the org chart and what information is only displayed as a tool-tip. You can even create conditional formatting based on data points. For example, you can highlight top earners on your sales team or show anyone falling behind on their quotas. Learn more about conditionally formatting shapes with data.
SmartDraw is easy to work with no matter what other apps you use. You can add org charts to:
Unlike other apps, SmartDraw doesn't force you to save files to its own cloud unless that's what you choose. You can keep full control of your data by saving files directly to your existing provider. You can save your org charts directly to:
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Get feedback on your restructuring or succession plans by sharing your organizational chart with your team.
You and your team can work on the same org chart in real time. Just invite your collaborators by emailing them a link.
SmartDraw also works where you already communicate with your team. You can collaborate on org charts in Microsoft Teams®, Slack or Confluence.
Browser these examples created with SmartDraw's org chart creator. You can edit and customize these or import your own data to create your org chart automatically.
The easiest way to make an org chart is to generate it automatically from data. You can make an org chart from Excel® data or data you export from any common HR software like BambooHR or Workday. Wherever your company manages employees, you'll want to export a data file of your company information as a CSV.
Generate your organizational chart by importing your data into SmartDraw's "Build Org Chart from Data" template. Once you data is loaded, you can select which data you want to display in the visual, which to ignore, and which to show only as a tooltip.
Once your visual is generated, you can easily edit it and modify it using SmartDraw's built-in tools. Plan for change or succession without disrupting your live data.
If you don't have access to data, the steps for making an org chart are a little different. You can quickly build an organization chart manually by following the steps below.
First, decide what part of the organization you want to include. Most companies are too big and complex for a single organizational chart. You'll want to pick a department or team to limit your scope.
Usually, an org chart will contain the names of employees or the titles of each position. You can include both. You can also include additional information like phone numbers, email addresses, office location, and so on.
It's easiest if you have an org chart maker, with lots of professional org chart templates and designs to help you get started. In SmartDraw, you can start with the basic org chart template.
Select the top box and type to add the name of the top position you want to include in your diagram. This may be a CEO, a department head, or a team leader.
Next, you'll want to fill out your org chart with positions. To add another position to the org chart, click any yellow arrow around a shape to add another shape in the direction of the arrow. The new shape will be automatically connected to the other shapes in your chart.
Communicate more than organizational structure by adding photos for each position. Put a face to that name by inserting photos for each employee.
Dress up any organizational chart with professional colors. You can apply pre-designed color themes. You can also create a custom theme that matches your brand or organization.
In a lot of cases, organizational charts are used to plan new teams, reorganize an existing structure, or make a plan for succession in case employees leave. Using SmartDraw to collaborate on your org chart and succession planning is easy. You can easily share an organizational chart and collaborate with your team in real-time. Your team can leave comments or edit the org chart. You can control who can view or edit any diagram.
Once your organizational chart is ready you can export it as a PDF, PNG, or SVG. You can easily insert into PowerPoint®, Word®, or Excel® or any Google Workspace app like Google Docs.
Use SmartDraw's org chart creator to help clarify your organization's existing structure and easily collaborate with stakeholders about reporting, restructuring, redundancies, staffing gaps, succession and more.
A good organizational chart can also help onboard employees, so new hires know where to go for help and understand who owns what responsibilities in an organization.
By building an org chart in SmartDraw's org chart creator, you can plan and propose changes without affecting your existing structure in any HR software.
SmartDraw's org chart software is used by most Fortune 500 companies and thousands of businesses worldwide. Why? Because it's easy to use and offers incredibly powerful features.
Excel has access to SmartArt and its limited capabilities for making org charts. Alternatively, you can import a CSV file from Excel® or other sources to automatically build an organizational chart with SmartDraw's org chart creatoir. Learn more about importing Excel data for org charts.
You can import an org chart from Visio® into SmartDraw and continue to edit it. You will be able to add new shapes, change text, change colors, and more. SmartDraw currently imports VSD and VSDX files. Learn more about Visio import.
SmartDraw is the best org chart creator because it combines ease of use with powerful automation and data import. You can try it free.
Unlike a lot of visuals, organizational charts are never generic. They represent the unique reporting structure at your company or organization. Making an org chart in ChatGPT could involve writing a fairly complex prompt that has to contain the specifics of your reporting structure and the resulting diagram is not editable. Newer LLM models will also let you import a CSV file or structured data to create an org chart, but the resulting visual is still not easily editable and importing your company's sensitive data into an LLM could create privacy concerns and violate your company's data governance policy. It's easier and safer to create an org chart from your data using a dedicated organizational chart tool like SmartDraw.
You can easily rearrange or make changes to any position on your org chart. Just drag and drop any box to where you need it to be. SmartDraw’s org chart software will always keep your chart organized automatically. You will never have to redraw lines or reconnect boxes manually.
Photos can really enhance an organizational chart, by letting you put faces to names. You can easily add headshots to your org chart. SmartDraw’s org chart software will let you upload photos and automatically format it to fit your organizational chart. Learn how to add photos.
Discover why SmartDraw is the best organizational chart creator today.