How to Draw a Company Org Chart
Drawing Organizational Structures to Show Reporting Relationships
Nov 2, 2009
Drawing an organizational chart for an organization or company can help employees understand reporting relationships. It is important to draw the organizational chart using standard conventions so that employees are not confused about the company reporting structure. This is especially important when presenting a reorganization to employees.
Drawing an Org Chart to Show Reporting Relationships to the CEO
Typically, the organizational chart starts with the most senior person in the organization i.e. the CEO or President. Each row or level on the organizational chart denotes the employees that are at the same step on a pay scale and/or same level of accountability/responsibility. For example, if all of the Directors have the same level of accountability, then they should all be placed on the same row or level regardless of how many direct or indirect reports they supervise.
The organizational chart example in Diagram 1: Org Chart Executive Assistant Reporting to CEO demonstrates how to capture an executive assistant’s position on the org chart. In this diagram, the Executive Assistant is a direct report to the CEO, but is not at the same level of accountability as one of the Directors. To denote this, the Exec Assistant is drawn as a branch on the reporting line to the directors.
Drawing an Org Chart to Show Reporting Relationships to the Directors
To show reporting relationships between the Directors and their subordinates, connect the Director’s box with his or her direct reports with a solid line. If a person reports to two Directors, connect to the main supervisor with a solid line and use a dotted line to denote a secondary reporting relationship.
If many of the reports are at different levels of a pay scale, use a branching down structure starting with the person at the highest pay or responsibility and work your way down to the direct report with the lowest level of pay or responsibility.
In the org chart example in Diagram 2: Org Chart Multiple Reports at Different Levels, the Director 2 has two managers at the same level and so they are drawn side by side. Manager 2 has three direct reports but they are at different levels of pay and responsibility therefore they are drawn as branches from one main reporting line. The reports are arranged in order of high level of responsibility/pay to low.
As Diagram 2 is drawn, the Assistant doesn’t report to the Coordinator and the Coordinator does not report to the Senior Coordinator; they all report directly to Manager 2. To show a hierarchy in reporting, i.e. that the Assistant reports to the Coordinator and then the Coordinator reports to the Senior Coordinator, stack the boxes on top of each other and separate them with a center line in the org chart.
Creating a company org chart requires careful consideration of the reporting relationships and responsibility level of staff. It can be a great tool to help employees understand a restructuring, orient new employees to the company and to present staffing strategies when discussing HR issues and plans.
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