HR Strategy Brief

Intelligent Org Charts — the New HR Power Tool

 Intelligent Org Charts — the New HR Power Tool

Organization charts are a time tested tool for communicating who does what, and who reports to whom. As a visual
medium, they make it easier for people to comprehend and digest large amounts of information. Containing names and
titles, drawn with lines and boxes, org charts serve a purpose. But an org chart can be so much more. Their familiar,
intuitive nature makes org charts a perfect format for sharing workforce information in a way that is easily understand-
able. When used effectively, org charts help in:

■ Facilitating workforce communications and understanding

■ Providing information and metrics for workforce analysis
■ Fueling decision making
■ Developing planning scenarios
■ Managing change
■ Maintaining organizational data

Can that one basic org chart do all that? No, but an intelligent org chart can.

Intelligent org charts take you beyond the boxes and lines of static org charts into an automated system that boosts
productivity and arms HR and management teams. Intelligent org charts are uniquely suited to address the new work-
force challenges we’re facing today, such as:

■ Continuous workforce changes including reorgs, departures, reassignments

■ The diversification of employee types, such as part time, flex-time, shared jobs and telecommuters
■ Increase in informal reporting structures such as ad hoc project teams or shared resources
■ Increase in non-permanent members of the workforce such as contractors, consultants or temps

In addition to reflecting always current information about a fluid workforce, these dynamic org charts visualize the rich
information you have on each team member to provide a holistic view of the information. From contact details to skill
sets or metrics, org charts present information in way that lends itself to quick analysis and more informed decisions.

Brian Rupert Intelligent org charts contain any information

President in your source data, plus use colors and
Total Headcount 3.450 formatting to make charts understandable at
N. America 2,178
Europe 1,272 a glance.

Brad Cunningham Jennifer Borden Sharon Bilello

SVP, Retail Sales SVP, International Operations Holiday Sales Manager
Total Headcount 1664 Total Headcount 2,729 Total Headcount 358
Customer Service 1056 Operations 1,912 Floor Sales 322
Operations 608 Sales 817 Inventory 36

Molly Miller Kenichi Nishiwaki Maxwell Smyth

VP, Marketing SVP, Asian Operations Service Manager

Total Headcount 26 Total Headcount 722 Total Headcount 120

Public Relations 9 Manufacturing 199 Returns/Exchanges 85
Advertising 17 Shipping 523 Accounting 35

Copyright © 2010 HumanConcepts 1

Why Current Systems Fall Short

Static organization charts are the traditional tool for representing and managing the structure of an organization. But
they hardly do that – they’re updated infrequently, usually inaccurate and rarely provide management information. Where
do they fall short?

■ Charts are created manually

Charts created in PowerPoint or other drawing tools are created manually. Such charts are difficult to maintain and very
quickly consume hours to format, update and distribute. Once charts grow larger than thirty boxes these tools just
become unmanageable.

■ Chart data is simplistic

Because data collection is so laborious, manual charts rarely have more than the most basic information, such as
employee name and title, and do not contain other important employee information or overall branch or
company analytics.

■ Chart data is inaccessible

In most drawing programs, the data in the org chart is not stored in an accessible database, so cannot be used for
further analysis, metrics or reports

The Right Stuff for Right Now

HR teams are being asked to do more with less, manage
workforce metrics more closely, and provide detailed
information on the increasingly complex workforce. The
intuitive, easy to use intelligent org chart technology is the
right tool for they job because it creates real-time charts from
the data you already have, delivers analytics and KPIs, and
provides intuitive tools to plan for the future – instantly.

Charts can show discrete metrics, such as salary, or

calculate roll-ups or averages such as headcount per
group or average tenure.

Copyright © 2010 HumanConcepts 2

Instant org charts – just add data
By connecting your intelligent organizational chart to the HR source system via a simple data feed, charts can be updated
and published automatically – at any frequency. Instead of hours of reformatting, or scheduling updates quarterly to save
time, you can put these dynamic org charts to work for you with the push of a button.

What’s more, the charts can be automatically published to corporate intranets or documents.

To use org chart software, your data requirements are minimal. A list of employees along with a unique identifier and
‘reports to’ information are all the fields you need to get started. Once initial charts are created, the charts update as the
source data changes. Instead of spending time building and distributing charts, you and your team can work with
accurate charts to make better decisions.

Customized views for every part of the organization

Each group in an organization has different information needs. Brad Cunningham Jennifer Borden
SVP, Retail Sales SVP, International Operations
HR may need access to compensation and tenure information. Total Headcount 30 Total Headcount 72
Salary $ 124,000 Salary $ 136,000
IT may need to see assets assigned to each individual or group. Budget $ 1,689,000 Budget $ 3,879,000

Finance needs to look at employees by cost center. Spreadsheets

and tabular reports could provide this information, but they are
hard to navigate and don’t allow for macro views – like costs by Budget First Quarter Budget Second Quarter
department, or headcount by division. Dynamic org charting
software brings the information that’s important for each
group into a single ‘view’ in the org chart. Users access the Brad Cunningham Jennifer Borden
information they need, as they need it. SVP, Retail Sales SVP, International Operations
Total Headcount 56 Total Headcount 86
Salary $ 124,000 Salary $ 136,000
Budget $ 2,961,000 Budget $ 4,661,000

Plan for and manage change

Organizations are fluid, changing daily from reorganizations,
Budget First Quarter Budget Second Quarter
growth, or employee mobility. They need to be able to evolve
rapidly to react to market risks and opportunities. To turn on Scenarios enable you to compare current and
the proverbial dime, managers need a holistic, unified view of future plans.
their workforce – and the tools to plan and manage change.

Intelligent org charts bring order to the chaos that often comes with change. Everyone on the team is able to visualize
the current or ‘baseline’ organization along with the key metrics such as cost, headcount or employee type. Scenarios or
options are quick to create, and with them comes the collective understanding of the impact of proposed changes.
Plans can be submitted for review by securely sending the chart as a PDF, or PowerPoint presentation, or sharing the chart
– complete with an audit trail of changes. Once changes are approved, Personnel Action Notices can be generated to
complete the process.

Managing change with the support of purpose built software ensures that you make decisions on the best available
information, you don’t ‘forget’ employees, and you can get through the process as quickly as possible and get back to
business as usual.

Copyright © 2010 HumanConcepts 3

Return on Investment
The return on investment of intelligent org charting technology is significant, with payback periods of just a few months.
Savings from increased productivity and reduced planning costs are just the beginning of the overall benefits:
■ Always up to date workforce information
■ Visibility into metrics that matter
■ Ability to plan for and manage change

About the Sponsor:

HumanConcepts is the global leader in on-demand workforce decision support solutions. Over fifty thousand
businesses worldwide—including 400 of the Fortune 500—use OrgPlus® every day to better understand their workforce
and manage change using information-rich org charts, easy-to-configure workforce metrics, and advanced collaborative
modeling tools. Named as Top HR Product of 2008 by Human Resource Executive® magazine, OrgPlus integrates
seamlessly with Oracle, SAP, and other leading HCM and HR systems.

OrgPlus transforms conventional organizational charts into a powerful business system to proactively manage workforce
change. Combining the proven benefits of visualization with advanced modeling technology, it makes workforce
information easily accessible to employees, managers and executives making workforce decisions.

The HumanConcepts platform supports workforce information access, analysis, decision making and action, providing the
following solutions for workforce visibility and planning challenges:

■ Find: Visual employee directories

■ View: HR data visualization
■ Understand: Workforce Analytics
■ Plan: Workforce Planning, Org Design, Reorganization, Succession
■ Manage: Manage organizational hierarchies
■ Separate and Retain: Manage employee transitions

To learn more about how OrgPlus can provide solutions to your workforce visualization and planning challenges, or
request a free trial, go to www.orgplus.com/solutions.

Copyright © 2010 HumanConcepts 4