Organization Chart Builds - How to's (Part 2 - 6 key steps)

Before I get into the symantics of the "how to's", one needs to ask one self- why create an org chart in the first place? Why take the time to do this? Great question really as this endeavor can take some time - several hours, several days or a few months actually - depending on how big the company is or what departments you need to figure out. What's your goal in doing this in the first place? There are many ways to use an org chart - competitor analysis to compare organization structures by departments, size, titles, product lines, etc. because you want to reorganize your own firm or get ideas from the competition that's kicking your butt; maybe you're in sales and need to find the decision makers or talk to others to get to the decision maker or buy-in of others; maybe you're a recruiter and looking for candidates; perhaps you're in a role of Merger and Acquisitions and looking at the value of a potential company purchase and want to know who the people assets are?





Back in 2001, one of my Executive Search firm clients called me and asked me to build her an org chart for a Fortune 50 client of her's . She was attending the Board of Directors meeting and wanted to know how the Executive team was structured and all their direct reports before her meeting. I asked her a seemingly obvious question to me, "you've been doing business with this company for years now, do you not know the Executives and their structure already? You talk to the Executive team all the time." Her humble response back, " Yes, but structures change all the time, I'm not visual where I can piece these people together without an org chart and this company pays me $2M a year to know their company in and out. It would look bad on my end to not know who the team is when talking to their Board of Directors and I can't ask them for this information because they expect to me know and pay me a lot to know this. " Made sense to me then and I gladly took her $10K for a 40 hour gig. :-) Peanuts to my client.





Before you start building an org chart, I highly recommend white boarding - brain storm with yourself. Ask yourself, simple Business 101 questions - what do I know about Company A's industry, who are their competitors, what do I know holistically about departments in general (ie, Marketing, Sales, Legal, Finance, Operations, HR, etc.) . Example, no matter the industry, an HR department tends to have the following functions: Compensation, Benefits, Recruiting, Employee Relations, etc. The larger the company, the more these roles are divided up. It could be that Recruiting has 100 recruiters - Recruiting could be divided by internal skill sets/function, geography, etc. Again - white board and think about the industry and size of the company...If a smaller company, these HR roles may combine somehow. With org charts, roles in a company and quantity of roles within a company - size does matter - lol! The more employees, the more structure a firm tends to have!!

Think about titles - President, VP, AVP, Sr Director, Director, Sr Manager, Manager, etc. Maybe the structure is a services model: Partner, Principal, Associate, etc.



Step 1, Forecast what the company might look like as far as structure by department in general. In other words, write down on your white board all the functions of a typical department whether Sales, Marketing, etc.





Step 2, Research the company's industry, the location (is the company in 1 location or do they have multiple sites), how does the company generate revenue and who are the clients they service (example, do they manufacture goods {Pepsico}, do they resell a product by combining other company products to make a new widget to sell {Dell}, do they distribute products {Wal-mart}, do they only provide a service {Accenture}.





Step 3, Research - the fun stuff. Start with the company website. Websites these days spill the beans - Executive summaries, customers, product lines, EMPLOYMENT/CAREERS - golden info for a researcher. What positions are the company hiring for - titles given away for free and often, listed out by department.





Step 4, Assuming you have no budget and absolutely no access to proprietary tools like Zoom Info, One Source, Hoover's (paid version), Monster.com, etc., build upon what you drew on your white board. You don't really need these tools though these tools can expedite your time. LinkedIn is a great tool to use these days and free. Though, paying $50/mth is worth it because you have access to so much more data and LinkedIn has started to profile firms with % of female - vs-male employees, connect others in similar industries, shows references, etc. Tools is an entirely separate blog entry to come later...organizing the information overload highway is yet another blog entry too...





Step 5, You should now have somewhat of a "shell" for the organizational chart. At least, an idea from your primary research to start secondary research - pick up the phone. As a CI professional, I always have a specific purpose in calling someone and always honest about the purpose. Before you pick up the phone, if needed, write yourself a script so you are prepared with questions in advanced.





Example, so you know the VP of Sales is Brad Pitt, but you want to find out Brad's direct reports. Prepare questions for the receptionist or Executive assistant in advance. "I know Brad is the VP Sales, but he is too busy and not the person I need to talk to "Angelina". I need to talk to the person under Brad that does XYZ. Can you transfer me to that person?" Be prepared for objections though...without a name, some will not transfer you, though I really don't have issues still today because I've done my whiteboarding and prepared in advanced. Answer - I'm not sure who it is Angelina, but I know they are responsible for XYZ, your company is so large that it's hard to understand the organization or who does what, but the reason I need to speak with them is because....As simple as this sounds, this is the truth and I 99% of the time get transferred believe it or not because I'm honest. Maybe, being polite helps too or southern charm.





Step 6, document your calls. ALWAYS, when you get someone on the phone that is willing to talk to you, in turn, be helpful back to them. Keep them on the phone and talking. Bond - can you set aside business and figure out something you might have in common?? Are you from a similar region, traveled somewhere similar, like the same sport, college, etc. TRUST me - people like to talk about themself or their passions. It is much more enjoyable for me too talking to someone from my home state or someone who likes my favorite NBA team. It helps set yourself apart too and people are more willing to talk openly about business when they share a bond with you. I'm like this anyway with no motive really because I like people in general, but if you're just after the business factor in the end...highlight this tip.



In Summary, creating an organizational chart is simply a puzzle. Start at a very high level with what you THINK an organizational chart might look like. Gather information from various primary sources. Fill in the blanks and verify your information through secondary research (phone calls).