3 Reasons you need an automated organizational chart

Then there’s all of the updates to be made when an employee leaves, or a new one starts. Or someone gets promoted. Or moves departments. Or changes roles. Feeling frustrated yet?

Thankfully this tedious HR task is now easily automated.

But the benefits of an automated org chart far exceed saving time. Today, we’ll explore a few strategic benefits you can expect after adopting org chart software, including:

• Why organizational chart updating should be part of your automated onboarding process

• Improving the employee experience and subsequently, retention

• Keeping clarity around the chain of command

We’ll be honest, the thought of simply not having to create your own org charts anymore is probably reason enough to switch to an automated tool right now (you can learn more about that here).

Still need convincing, or need to convince someone else? Okay, okay, we’ll tell you what you can expect from making the change.

1. Org chart updating should be part of your automated onboarding process

Automated onboarding processes allow you to efficiently and reliably ensure your new team members are onboarded into your business as quickly and professionally as possible. A system like intelliHR also allows you to customize this process, allowing you deliver the best possible employee experience. The quicker you successfully onboard your team, the faster they are able to generate a return for your business.

The added advantage of completing your onboarding (and offboarding for that matter) workflow with an HRIS with automated org chart capabilities, is that the system will already know when people are coming, going or changing jobs, which means the in-built org chart updates automatically for you in real-time keeping your employee data accurate and complete. That’s right, there’s no need to create or manually update your org chart ever again and you can even export it as an image or PDF to share externally if needed. intelliHR also offers the flexibility of being able to forward and back-date your view of the organizational chart, which assists with workforce planning, as well as providing absolute transparency to your team.

You didn’t get into HR to spend your days on admin tasks, so leave the manual, tedious jobs to your HR tech and free up your time to focus on your people.

Not only does an automated org chart save time, but also offers strategic benefits. Here’s two big ones.

2. It improves employee experience and retention

There is enormous value in every team member being able to instantly understand where and how they fit within an organization. By having an organizational chart that updates automatically, this visibility is achieved without any effort, and is available to every team member in real time, adding a lot to the employee experience.

No longer should your new starters be left out of the organizational chart for weeks or months. Not being reflected on the organizational chart has a negative impact both upon the new starter, and the rest of the organization who won’t know who they are or what they do.

Knowing that most new employees form a decision on whether to stay or leave a company within their first 90 days, this time is critical to help employees feel welcome and comfortable in your workplace. With an automated org chart that gets updated in real-time, new starters can feel part of the team straight away.

These benefits also contribute to goal alignment, as every employee can clearly see the role they play within the wider business, and who is working above, below and alongside them. That is, whose goals should they be helping to fulfil, whose goals can they contribute to and whose goals should be contributing to theirs. Employees can transparently see who they are working towards common goals with and communicate about them even if they do not physically work in the same location. What’s more, having the flexibility to view your organizational chart not only from a reporting lines, but also a business unit perspective is particularly useful from a common work perspective.

3. It keeps clarity around the chain of command

Beyond the benefits of helping employees get settled in fast, having a constantly up-to-date organizational chart also helps avoid double handling or leapfrogging when there are changes in reporting lines.

This is a particularly significant risk in larger organizations or those with deep hierarchical structures. Any time a new management role is introduced, a management role changes hands or an employees moves up into a higher position, it is very difficult for other staff to be sure who to refer to if the org chart is not immediately updated to reflect these changes.

Using intelliHR, staff can also see internal email addresses of anyone on the organizational chart (if enabled by the system administrator), so not only is everyone constantly aware of who is who and where they fit – but also who to contact about relevant needs or requests.

Even outside of management changes, new starters can get a grip on who’s who in their new workplace from before they even start and not be left unsure exactly who they report to, who is in their team and who they may need to speak to in other departments.

How to automate your org chart

There are a number of org chart generators and builders on the web, but the reality is that you’re always going to have to input data and update it when things change. So why put yourself through this pain? The best option with zero work on your side is to ensure that you have an automated org chart built into your HRIS. Start here to see how you could be using intelliHR to keep your org chart in check for you.