Tag Archives for organizational charts

In order to make sure that your new employees perform to the expected level, you need to give them proper training – from day one onward. Onboarding new employees is not always easy, as it requires you to help them understand how your company operates and help them adjust in terms of work schedules and company culture.

In this post, we will look at how to onboard new employees and methods that you can use to effectively communicate company expectations and help new hires grasp their responsibilities and excel in carrying them out.

Introduce the Company with a Company Timeline

An introduction to the company is essential to a new employee.

In addition to explaining the company mission and vision, you can also highlight the key achievements of the company. This will help set the background for the training session ahead.

You can use a company timeline template or a company profile template like the ones below or a business model canvas to base your discussion about the company.

Company Profile Template 

Company Timeline Template

More Timeline Templates

Highlight Their Responsibilities with Org Charts

Org charts are a handy way to highlight where your new employees fit into the department or the organization. The chart can also be expanded to include such information as employee responsibilities, skills, contact information, projects they are working on etc. in addition to the title they hold.

New employees can use this to get to know the people they’ll be working with and the reporting relationships within the department.

Get More Organizational Charts 

Explain Processes with Flowcharts

It might take new employees to get used to the workflows and the various processes within the organization.

While they should be given a proper practical training in carrying out the process steps they are responsible for, flowcharts or process maps can help them understand and familiarize themselves with the flow of the processes quickly.

With swim lanes, you can specify the roles or the departments responsible for each process step as well.

Product Design and Development Process (Click here to edit the template)

Get More Flowcharts

Help Them Set up Their Network with Network Diagrams

Not all employees are technically savvy, and they might need help from the IT department when setting up their network and computer stations.

A detailed network diagram can also assist them in setting up their network by themselves (if the process is not too complicated for them to understand). The benefit of having a network diagram explaining how to set things up is that they can always refer to it whenever they want and not rely on the support of the IT department.

More Network Diagram Templates

Explain Complex Topics with Video/ Storyboards/ Infographics

During an employee training program, there are many topic areas to discuss. But if you present everything in boring documents or handbooks that span for pages, employees might lose interest and forget things easily. Plus they might not refer back to the text.

Instead, you can use videos, storyboards or infographics to discuss complex topics. For example, you can use a storyboard or a video to show how your new sales executives should interact with the customers step-by-step.

Provide Resources with Knowledge Maps

During the training period (and after), there are a lot of resources the new employees will need to refer to. Some of these might be company policies, HR policies, process manuals, leave policies etc.

If there’s one place for them to access all these internal and external resources, it would make things so much easier.

Use a knowledge map like the one below so you can use it as a central location to store necessary resources for the onboarding new employees.

Tip: Add the link to resources to the shapes that represent the branches of your knowledge map. Once you click the shape, it will open the resource in a new tab.

Coach Them with the Help of the GROW Model

GROW model is a tool used to structure coaching sessions. It helps new employees learn through experience.

With it, you can help your trainee understand his goals, his current situation in terms of performance, the available options to overcome the obstacles he has to reach his goals and then help him create an action plan based on one of the options.

GROW stand for

• Goal
• Reality
• Options
• Will

Do You Know Any Other Techniques for Onboarding New Employees?

What we’ve discussed above are simple and effective employee training methods that you can use to train new hires as well as current employees in your organization. These techniques take a visual approach towards simplifying tasks and removing challenges faced by new employees.

What other methods for onboarding new employees do you use within your organization? Do let us know in the comment section below.

Want to improve your organizational performance? Learn about more techniques to improve employee performance with our visual guide to improving organizational performance.

All the organizational chart examples listed below can be edited online using our org chart software. Once you’re done you can export them and add them to your presentation, website or document.

Below are some of the most popular templates. Simply click on them to create your own org chart using them. There are a lot more templates listed further below.

What Is an Organizational Chart?

An organizational chart is a visual representation of an organization’s reporting structure. It depicts a company’s internal structure by detailing the employee relationship hierarchy, designation, responsibilities, and relationships between individuals within an entity. They are used as a management tool, for planning purposes, or as a personnel directory.

Different Types of Organizational Charts

There are different organizational chart types that can be used in different scenarios, and they include,

1. Hierarchical Structure
2. Matrix Structure
3. Horizontal/Flat Structure
4. Network Structure
5. Divisional Structure
6. Line Organizational Structure
7. Team-based Organizational Structure

Refer to our guide to learn about these org chart types in detail and get access to templates.   

How to Create an Organizational Chart in Creately

Spend 1 minute to watch this video and understand how easy it is to create, style and export an org chart using Creately.

Organizational Chart Examples

We’ve listed the various org chart examples so you can quickly navigate to the one you like. You can customize any of them by adding your company logo, company colors etc. Just click on any image ans we will open it up with all the necessary shapes to create your organizational chart.

• Org chart template with Images (A face is better than a name right?)
• Hierarchical Organizational Chart Template for a Project
• Organizational Chart Template for Performance and Retention Planning
• Organization Structure Template for Business
• Blank Organization Chart Template
• Organization Chart Example for Hospital
• Organization Chart Template for IT Company
• Organization Chart Template for Bank
• Organization Chart Template for Quality Assurance
• Organization Chart Template for Airline
• Organization Chart Templates for Hotel
• Organization Chart Template for University
• Organization Chart Template for Holding Company
• Organizational Chart Template for an Article Writing Company
• Organizational Chart Template of Matrix Structure
• Organizational Chart Template for Transportation Department
• Organizational Chart Template of a State Council
• Organizational Chart Template for Enterprise Landing
• Organizational Chart Template for Human Resources Department
• Organizational Chart Template for Supermarket Chain

Organizational Chart with Images

With this template, you can put a face to the name. No point knowing the name of VP of marketing if you can’t identify him. Even new employees will be able to easily recognize the relevant people and they will thank you for it. Just make sure to add a nice picture or you can do even better by asking them to send a picture. If you want a consistent style across images it’s better to hire a professional and take the pictures yourself.

Hierarchical Organization Chart Template for a Project

A hierarchical organization chart template that shows the reporting structure of a project. Probably the most common structure used at the moment is hierarchical org charts. However, it is changing fast as organizations adapt to the changing times. You might want to look at different organizational chart types if you’re considering a change.

Organizational Chart Template for Performance and Retention Planning

If you’re using org charts just to visualize the structure of your organization then you’re selling yourself short.

This organizational chart shows the growth of an organization. Employees who have worked for more than one year are shown in yellow color boxes, employees who are not performing well are identified with boxes outlined in red and future employees are represented by dashed boxes. Color coding your org chart like this will emphasize its accuracy even more.

Organization Structure Template for Corporate Business

Often, the organizational structure can be large in size. Hence it looks more complex to understand. The matrix organizational chart is often used when you have personal reporting to multiple teams or departments. Refer the previously linked article about different types of organizational charts to further explore this structure.

Blank Organization Chart to Get Started

If you are already confused with the previous charts, here’s a simple org chart template to get started. You can click on the image to open it online and simply replace the data as per your organization’s structure.

Organization Chart Example for a Hospital

This organizational chart refers to levels of management within the hospital. You can click on the image to modify as you see fit.

Organization Chart Template for an IT Company

A simple organizational structure for an IT company. The size of the structure may vary depending on the company and its management levels. Click on the image to modify online.

Organization Chart Template for Bank

An organizational chart template showing the structure of a commercial bank. This structure can be different to government sector banks. You can sometimes see very tall structures than in a commercial bank. Click on the image to modify online.

Organizational Chart Templates for Quality Assurance

In this org chart template, it illustrates a dedicated group for quality assurance in an organization. This diagram has broken down the process into two levels with many departments.  You can modify this chart as per your organization’s QA department or group.

Organization Chart Template for Airline

Drawing an org chart for Airline is tricky. When it comes to the Airline, it is a vast area to cover in a basic chart. As per this orgonogram template, it is really challenging to enter all the levels in one structure. This org chart for an airline shows only the top levels of the management structure. This org chart was inspired by Turkey Airlines. Click on the image to modify it online as you see fit.

Organization Chart Template for Hotel

Here’s a simple org chart template for Hotel structure. This is almost a flat structure. However, this can be expanded in detail by adding other levels. You can add other divisions to the diagram and complete this structure. Click on the image to start it right away.

Organizational Chart Templates for Universities

A hierarchy of a university. This organizational structure was inspired by the Ohio State University leadership organization. These types of org chart structures can be used for schools, kindergartens and other educational organizations. Click on the image to modify it as per your requirement.

Organization Chart Template for Holding Company

This diagram template shows the holding company structure with business operations operating independently.  Create an org chart structure for your own holding companies. Click on the image to modify and get started.

Organizational Chart Template for an Article Writing Company

This organizational chart depicts the organizational structure of an article writing company. It’s simple and elaborative with pictures of those who hold each post attached to the diagram. With Creately, you can search for images on Google directly through the app or import them from your computer. This comes in handy when you are drawing an org chart as you can easily add the images of your coworkers to visualize the structure of your organization.

Organizational Chart Examples of Matrix Structure

This organizational chart is a Matrix organizational structure. Here the reporting relationships are set as a matrix (a grid). This kind of chart can be used to show the working relationships (i.e. which engineers work under the management of which project managers and how they should report to each other) between those who work in a project.

Organizational Chart Template for Transportation Department

This hierarchical organizational chart shows the organization structure of a transportation department. While the boxes have been color coded for illustration, graphics are included for further emphasis. Using Creately, you can also use graphics/images to illustrate your very own org chart.

Organizational Chart Template of a State Council

This org chart, which shows the hierarchical structure of a state council, is neatly color coded to emphasize the different institutions operating under the State Council. With Creately, you can select a suitable color theme to illustrate the different departments of your own organization.

Organizational Chart Template for Enterprise Landing

This template portrays an organizational chart for an enterprise. It shows the core responsibilities assigned to each vice president of each department. A chart like this is not only useful for the responsible personnel to keep track of their own duties, but it is also helpful for the employees working under them to know which supervisor they should report to.

Organizational Chart Template for Human Resources Department

This org chart example representing the structure of a Human Resources Department shows the contact information of the responsible personnel.  A chart like this is extremely useful for an organization; whenever an issue related to HR arises, they can refer to such a chart to see who they should be reporting it to and get the contact information quickly.

Organization Chart Example for Multi-divisional Structure

A multi-divisional structure represents a company structure in its various divisions. The divisions could be based on products or services, geographic locations or different departments as shown in the chart below. It also shows who is in charge of each division and who works under them. An organizational chart like this elaborately portrays the varied levels of an organization.

With this diagram template, we will conclude the article. You can browse more org chart diagram templates in our diagram community.

You can also learn more about how to draw/create org charts effectively in our Org Chart Best Practices article. And to the ones who are still confused about having an Org chart for your organization, can read the Advantages and Disadvantages of Org Chart post and decide if you need to have one or not.

Flat organizations are when the organization has few or no levels of management between everyone in the organization. It is a popular topic these days and many organizations try to become flat organizations.

Some organizations naturally evolve into becoming flat organizations while others are hierarchical or have a different structure and try to move into a flat organization.

Why Flat Organizations ?

Flat organizations have numerous benefits. These include increased responsibility held by each employee aiding their motivation, faster decision making (if people are truly empowered), reduced salaries as the middle management is no longer needed.

Additionally there is a sense of better communication, more clarity of the organization’s purpose and better collaboration among members.

How are flat organizations implemented?

Many a time people equate a flat organization to an open office concept. However nothing could be further from the truth.

A flat organization is more to do with reporting requirements and culture than office layouts. The organization must empower team members to make decisions, it must allow everyone to be accessible at all times and reduce the reporting requirements.

Creating a flat organization takes significant effort from the leaders to ensure there is a high degree of clarity in the vision and goals, ensure everyone’s tasks and work is aligned with the organization’s direction.

Common pitfalls in flat organizations

Flat organizations tend to create lots of generalists but no specialists as everyone tries to know and do everything.

People will feel that they have no where to get promoted and grow in a flat organization as the structure is limited.

Larger companies will have great difficulty in becoming flat as it really is difficult to manage when you are flat and have many people to work with.

The largest pitfall though is that there is a degree of confusion and indecisiveness with who is the boss and who to take direction from in a flat organization.

How Org charts can help flat organizations ?

Clarity of direction is paramount in a flat organization and an org chart can actually help hear. Regardless of the type of structure, you could illustrate the leaders for each team in an organization. You could illustrate it in a way that is not a typical org chart yet shows the key individuals to take direction from or team leaders.

The following Organization Chart diagram shows a way to do this without making it feel like a hierarchical organization. This was drawn using our org chart software and the template is available for free use by anyone.

While the chart is a simple tool, it clarifies many things to the organization and is a key tool in making sure no one is confused in their own roles.

While it keeps away from people’s positions or roles, it draws the reporting lines in a horizontal manner so that people feel that they can collaborate and cross communicate without any need of formality.

Similarly the culture, structure and the organization needs to come into play and needs to be reinforced by conscious decisions by the leadership to ensure that everyone works in a flat manner in the organization and collaboration is the default way of working.

A growing company brings more than one challenge to any leadership team. Going from a 3 person team to a 10 person company to then growing to 20 or 50 people brings about extremely different sets of challenges. Left unmanaged, this may mostly lead to chaos and miscommunication among the team.

Therefore having a clear understanding about your organization and its structure from multiple aspects is essential to be a successful HR leader.

In trying to do this Organization Charts (sometimes called Org Charts or Organigrams) are an essential tool. While many people think org charts are just shows the structure of the company, its use as a planning tool is frequently overlooked. We’ll look at how we can optimally use Org Charts to manage your company’s growth.

Keep track of the current organization

Drawing the org chart to match the current organization structure is an essential step. It takes a few minutes to draw one and the diagram literally can convey information worth thousands of words in a document.

Record additional dimensions on the chart with visual changes

Many people think you can only convey 3 things in an org chart. The Name, Position and reporting structure.

Yet by changing things like Line Style, Outline color, fill color and having one or more text fields in each box can convey so much more in an org chart.

Below is an org chart where it identifies future growth of the organization with dashed boxes. By drawing the future employees and where they belong in the long run inside the same diagram it enables the management to see clearly at a glance where the company is supposed to grow.

The chart is also color coded so it’s easy to spot trends. People with longer service than 1 year are colored in yellow. People who are not performing well are identified by having a red outline. That’s just two attributes and you could add many more attributes by carefully using the parameters of line style, fill color, outline color as well as the actual text content inside the box.

These diagrams were easily drawn in Creately which is a web based organizational chart software with a beautiful set of org chart shapes and pre-done org chart templates.

Mapping out the future

By using the techniques used above you could easily draw out the future state of the organization. It makes sense to do this with multiple diagrams for each period of hiring that you want to do so that you can see the organization growth in stages.

You can use this to align with the strategy of the company and easily spot if there are any issues early on.

In conjunction with a chart, using a spreadsheet to project the growth is essential. Suggested things to track in such a sheet include Roles, hire dates, salary expectation, key skills for the role, department to belong to, hiring manager etc. This would give you a summary view of the larger picture as well a way for you to play with the numbers and budget when planning for the future.

Although extremely useful for many purposes organizational charts are not for everybody. In our previous articles we’ve covered types of org charts and best practices to follow when creating org charts. Now lets look at advantages and disadvantages of organizational charts so you can make an informed decision to whether to have one or not.

Advantages of Organizational Charts

Lets get started by exploring the benefits of organizational charts.

• Shows clear reporting structure – employees know who to report to, who to contact when there is an issue that needs resolving or a question that needs to be answered. This is especially important in large organizations where there are many departments. Someone else from another department can quickly get in touch with the relevant person of another department.
• Helps new employees – enables them to get to know the people he or she is working with even before meeting them, thus helping them to connect much more easily.
• Helps to manage workload – A well managed organizational chart helps to visualize the workload of individuals. This is especially useful to manage the workload of managers because you can clearly see how many people they are managing and in some cases how many departments are under them.
• Makes planning easier – Because you can visualize the structure it helps in future plans. You can allocate resources better, quickly find competencies of individuals and much more.

Disadvantages of Organizational Charts

Depending on the situation organizational charts can be a disadvantage as well. So lets take a look at some disadvantages.

• Not showing informal channels – This is one of the biggest disadvantages of organizational charts. Not all communication channels are formal and well defined and org charts fail to capture them. Although org charts are not meant to capture them, informal channels are vital in any organization or business so failing to capture them might hinder communication.
• A maintenance headache – An outdated organizational chart is almost worthless. But keeping it up to date is very hard, specially for large organizations. Employees might change departments, leave the company, assigned a new role etc. in a short period of time. Since it is hard to keep track of these changes properly maintaining an org chart will be time consuming.

Above I have listed down advantages and disadvantages of org charts. I feel the advantages outweigh the disadvantages but that might depend on your organization. Also you can get started right away with our ready to use organizational chart templates.

What do you think about organizational charts? You think they are beneficial or a waste of time? Do let us know in the comments. If you think they’re beneficial you can easily draw one using our org chart software.

In one of our previous articles, we discussed organizational chart best practices. Now let’s take a look at types of organizational chart structures which can be used in different scenarios. And you don’t have to worry about creating them too. Our organizational chart software supports all the types mentioned below.

Organizational Structure Types

1) Hierarchical Structure

The hierarchical model is the most popular organizational chart type. There are a few models that are derived from this model.

In a hierarchical organization structure, employees are grouped with every employee having one clear supervisor. The grouping is done based on a few factors, hence many models are derived from this. Below are a few of those factors

• Function – employees are grouped according to the function they provide. The below image shows a functional org chart with finance, technical, HR, and admin groups.
• Geography – employees are grouped based on their region. For example, in the USA employees might be grouped according to the state. If it’s a global company the grouping could be done according to countries.
• Product – If a company is producing multiple products or offering different services it can be grouped according to the product or service.

These are some of the most common factors, but there are many more factors. You can find org chart examples for most of these types in our diagramming community.

This is the dominant mode of organization among large organizations. For example Corporations, Governments, and organized religions are hierarchical organizations with different levels of management, power or authority. 

Pros:

• Helps establish a clear line of authority and reporting within the organization
• Clarifies employee roles and responsibilities
• Establishes a clear career path for employees which can in turn keep them motivated
• Allows employees to be in-depth specialists as they are more likely to have niche positions

Cons:

• Slow decision-making due to the complicated chains of command
• A disconnect of lower-level employees from those of the top-level management
• Inconsistencies in communication due to the vertical and horizontal levels between teams
• Restricted information due to the very little downward flow of information to the lower-level employees

2) Matrix Structure

In a Matrix organizational structure, the reporting relationships are set up as a grid, or matrix, rather than in the traditional hierarchy. It is a type of organizational management in which people with similar skills are pooled for work assignments, resulting in more than one manager to report to (sometimes referred to as solid line and dotted line reports, in reference to traditional business organization charts).

For example, all engineers may be in one engineering department and report to an engineering manager. But these same engineers may be assigned to different projects and might be reporting to those project managers as well. Therefore some engineers might have to work with multiple managers in their job roles.

Pros: 

• Helps eliminate traditional siloed communications barriers
• Improved decision-making due to the availability of two chains of command
• Allows employees to use their skills in different roles 
• Better use of resources which leads to increased efficiency

Cons: 

• May result in confusion regarding roles, responsibilities, and priorities 
• Conflict of power between the project manager and the functional manager
• Blurred lines of accountability
• Large overhead costs due to employing several managers

3) Horizontal/Flat Structure

This is an organizational chart type mostly adopted by small companies and start-ups in their early stage. It’s almost impossible to use this model for larger companies with many projects and employees.

The most important thing about this structure is that many levels of middle management are eliminated. This enables employees to make decisions quickly and independently. Thus a well-trained workforce can be more productive by directly getting involved in the decision-making process.

This works well for small companies because work and effort in a small company are relatively transparent. This does not mean that employees don’t have superiors and people to report to. Just that decision-making power is shared and employees are held accountable for their decisions.

So in summary, when deciding on a suitable organizational chart, it is important to have an understanding of the current organizational structure of your company.

Pros: 

• Fosters better communication and collaboration between team members
• More autonomy and responsibility to employees 
• More transparency due to limited bureaucracy
• Because the chain of command is shorter, it allows for faster decision-making

Cons:

• Lack of opportunities for employee progression 
• Risk of power struggles arising due to the lack of a formal system  
• Employees may have a lower sense of accountability because they have one lead
• Risk of confusion because employees don’t have a clear supervisor

4) Network Structure

Network organizational structure helps visualize both internal and external relationships between managers and top-level management. They are not only less hierarchical but are also more decentralized and more flexible than other structures.

The idea behind the network structure is based on social networks. Its structure relies on open communication and reliable partners; both internal and external. The network structure is viewed as agiler than other structures because it has few tires, more control, and a bottom flow of decision making.

Using a Network organizational structure is sometimes a disadvantage because of its complexity. The below example of a network org chart shows the rapid communication between entities.

Pros: 

• Promotes healthy competition, innovation, and collaboration
• Allows organizations to adapt quickly to changes in their environment
• Paves way for an environment that fosters healthy competition, innovation, and collaboration
• Smaller, streamlined teams help save costs and contribute to improved efficiency

Cons: 

• Due to teams being independent and small, large-scale tasks may prove difficult to accomplish
• Without immediate supervision, network organizations may struggle with control over employees
• Can create an environment where employees compete in an unhealthy manner with each other to perform tasks 
• When work is outsourced, secret information about the organization may get breached

5) Divisional Structure

Divisional types of organizational charts have their own division which corresponds to either products or geographies. Each division contains the necessary resources and functions needed to support the product line and geography.

Another form of divisional org chart structure is the multi-divisional structure. It’s also known as M-form. It’s a legit structure in which one parent company owns several subsidiary companies, each of which uses the parent company’s brand and name.

The main advantage of the divisional structure is the independent operational flow, that failure of one company does not threaten the existence of the others.

It’s not perfect either. There can be operational inefficiencies from separating specialized functions. An increase in accounting taxes can be seen as another disadvantage.

Creating org chart with pictures using Creately

Pros:

• Makes it much easier to assign responsibility for actions and results
• Works well in markets where there is high competition as local managers can quickly respond to changes in local conditions
• Tends to yield faster responses to local market conditions
• Helps build a culture that contributes both to higher morale and a better knowledge of the division’s portfolio

Cons:

• Multiple divisions add more overhead costs to the organization
• When a number of functional areas are spread among many divisions, it might lead to inefficiencies 
• With skills being compartmentalized by division, it can be difficult to transfer skills or best practices across the organization
• Since each division may have its own strategic goal, it might not always align with the overall company strategy.

6) Line Organizational Structure

Line organizational structure is one of the simplest types of organizational structures. Its authority flows from top to bottom.  Unlike other structures, specialized and supportive services do not take place in these organizations.

The chain of command and each department head has control over their departments. The self-contained department structure can be seen as its main characteristic. Independent decisions can be taken by line officers because of its unified structure.

The main advantage of a line organizational structure can be identified as effective communication that brings stability to the organization.

Pros:

• It is the simplest method of administration and is easy to understand and manage
• Since it’s easy to add or remove levels of management, this approach can be beneficial to companies that are constantly growing and changing
• Since the decision-making authority is concentrated at the top, it allows for faster decisions
• Ensures that everyone is well-aligned with formalized rules and procedures within a line organization

Cons:

• Being overly reliant on line officials may become an issue in instances where they aren’t available
• Line organizational structures are rigid and inflexible, as such they maintain discipline so rigorously that they can rarely change
• Might create a culture of favoritism based on relationships or friendship
• Since the department manager is concerned only with the activities of his own department, employees are only skilled in tasks of their own departments

7) Team-based Organizational Structure

Team-based organizational structures are made of teams working towards a common goal while working on their individual tasks. They are less hierarchical and they have flexible structures that reinforce problem-solving, decision-making, and teamwork.

Team organization structures have changed the way many industries work. Globalization has allowed people in all industries around the world to produce goods and services cooperatively. Especially, manufacturing companies must work together with suppliers around the globe while keeping the cost to a minimum while producing high-quality products.

Pros:

• Communication between employees is much more free-flowing and effective
• Since communication is more efficient, information flows faster leading to quicker problem-solving
• Allows employees from different backgrounds and different skillsets to come together and learn from each other
• With higher flexibility, team-based organizations find it easier to adapt to a fast-changing industry environment

Cons:

• Personality conflicts within the team can negatively impact efficiency and group harmony
• Have less clear promotional paths for employees
• Since team accomplishments are rewarded rather than individual achievements, it might prove difficult to keep individual employees motivated
• Underperforming employees may hide behind those who are working hard and reap the benefits

Other Types of Organizational Charts

The ones shown above are the most commonly used types of Organizational Charts or organogram structure types as some call them. But there are plenty more models which have various advantages and disadvantages based on the situation and organization. You can easily experiment with different models using our org chart software.

Have questions? Feel free to ask them in the comments or you can reach to us via our social media channels.