Tag Archive for: dotted line

Happy Holidays from orginio

Happy holidays from your orginio team!

It’s that time of the year again and as we are taking a look back on the past months we hope that orginio was of great use to you in 2018 when creating your org charts!

Maybe our cloud solution helped you share details on the org hierarchy with your colleagues? Did you integrate it into your company’s intranet portal? Or, were you able to visualize additional relations such as succession within the org chart via dotted line?

Whatever the scenario, in order to keep working with orginio easy and straightforward, we’ve published some articles this year in the orginio blog that target various possible application scenarios.
In addition, you’ll find some helpful videos on our Examples page as well as articles to cool features on the Favorite Features page. You should have a look 😉

New design for greater user experience

To further optimize the orginio user experience, we introduced a design update this year. It’s modern and fresh, and allows you to present more information in the org chart, e.g. additional details of a selected object.

Thanks to new display rules, objects can now either be blanked out or highlighted via color coding. If you haven’t tried these rules out, you should. This way, it’s so much easier to focus on the information relevant to you!

But before you dive back into org charting with orginio, we would like to wish you happy holidays and a healthy, prosperous new year!

Let there be more smart org charts in 2019! 🙂

Visualizing organizational relationships in your org chart

Ingentis HR gimmicks

 

By Kelly O’Hara

 

Relationships within an organization are neither simple nor one-way. Therefore, it’s not enough to display a standard hierarchical structure when trying to point out the deeper connection of co-workers. As mentioned in an earlier article about organizational visualizations, illustrating relationships that are cross-departmental, project-based, or otherwise outside of an employee’s regular reporting structure helps HR and managers see all areas of the organization that an employee touches. So let’s have a look at different visualization possibilities in this next Ingentis HR gimmick.

Why visualize relations

Structures and relationships in organizations aren’t always black and white. For example, an employee can directly report to one team or manager but also work closely with another team. Or, there is a special connection between two colleagues that may not have too much impact on the everyday work life but is generally of great importance, e.g. a mentorship. This is why it’s very helpful to use different visualizations to highlight specific connections.

Solid and dotted lines

The most common way to do this is by implementing solid and dotted line structures.
The solid line is also known as legal line and typically represents the reporting structure concerning for example vacation requests, everyday workflows and legal processes. Dotted lines on the other hand can be a bit more nuanced and are implemented differently amongst companies. Here are some examples:

Mentors

At first sight, it may not seem necessary to include a mentorship on an org chart, but they can be helpful for oversight especially during employee onboarding. If your company has a formal mentor program for new employees, it can help to keep track of who is working with whom, or show if there are enough mentors for all the new employees.

Successors

To assume that your org chart is set in stone and that no one will move away from the company or change roles only hurts you in the long run. Org charts are constantly changing due to joiners and leavers, promotions, or role changes. One way to stay on top of these changes and make transitions easier for your organization and teams is to implement a successor program.
Not every role needs an official successor documented, but high- to mid-level managerial positions can benefit from having a successor in place. Successors can be visualized on an org chart through the use of dotted lines. This allows both HR and upper management to track a successor’s relationship with their current and future role and make sure that processes are in place for future success.

Deputies

Another reason to work with dotted lines is to point out one’s deputy. Let’s say, you’re planning on going on a sabbatical. Your colleagues will need to know who to get in touch with once you’re out of office. Implementing dotted lines in your org chart is a quick and easy way for them to find the answer. No need for the time-consuming questioning of several co-workers in vain – it’s all there, in your organogram.

Network visualizations

One valuable structure to document is that of agile networks, such as project teams. These networks are typically temporary and comprised of employees from multiple departments. For example, a product launch would require employees from product, engineering, and marketing to work together closely. A customized relation, illustrated as what we call a network visualization, could connect all team members, including the project team lead.
To avoid confusion, this network visualization would not be part of the default org chart but an additional view.
As a result, the default org chart would provide an overview of the legal structure while the network visualization shows how many project teams there are and who is part of them.

Both our org charting solutions Ingentis org.manager and orginio offer the possibility of highlighting relationships via dotted line. In addition, Ingentis org.manager enables network visualizations. To find out more about the software, visit:

Ingentis org.manager 
orginio

Successor planning with orginio

No successor appeared from nowhere

Who will be the successor for the position?

Unfortunately, this is a question that is not resolved in time at many companies. According to a global study entitled “Succession Matters” by Hanover Research, which was commissioned by the world’s largest executive search company “Korn Ferry”, every third respondent is dissatisfied with the successor management. Just 47 percent of the 1,000 executives surveyed think that their employer has sufficient up-and-coming talents. Twenty four percent even stated that their company did not maintain any successor program at all for board members and managing directors. Successor programs for middle management are only used by 38 percent of the participants.

This is a result that gives food for thought. After all, staffing gaps should be avoided and key positions must be replaced in good time. This ensures that qualified employees with appropriate expertise take up the position and no idle time periods occur for the company.

Successor planning

Successor planning can also be a good instrument for staff retention if employees are prepared for moving up to the new position in good time. The binding prospect of a higher position gives the employee perspectives and fosters company loyalty. Particularly in the case of positions that will be unfilled in the future because of retirement or parental leave, a successor program makes sense.

An organization chart is appropriate for depicting relevant successor information, such as potential, know-how and fluctuation risk. Employees with the appropriate criteria can be found via the search function. If the successor has already been decided, then they can already be displayed directly in the organization chart via the link (e.g. “dotted line” representation) to the position or to the employee.

Even the departure risk of employees can be faded in. The information in the organization chart serves as a kind of warning signal here and makes people aware of the need for action in good time. Only authorized executives have access to this sensitive data. Furthermore, vacant positions can be highlighted and it becomes apparent where immediate need for action exists.

Thus, nothing can prevent the first step towards successor planning anymore!

Visualize potential successors in the org chart in orginio

Fig. 1: orginio – depicting departure risk and successor in the organization chart (dotted line – in green here)

 

Display unfilled positions in the online org chart in orginio

Fig. 2: orginio – displaying unfilled position in the organization chart