The tech startups of today are lean, often employing as few people as possible in order to cut costs and bring the company to profitability before expanding. Because the office environment is smaller than that of a traditional company, many startups forego the creation of an org chart without realizing the negative effects that the choice could have.
Org charts should be a critical part of any company, but they are even more important for startups that are employing scrappy strategies to carve out market share in their industry. Despite some very prominent publications advocating for skipping the org chart, for most startups it is not a good idea. Not every person is going to have an easily definable job title, which makes it difficult for partners and new employees to effectively collaborate with your teams. A startup org chart may seem like a small thing, but the usefulness of one as a tool cannot be understated in a scrappy startup environment.
Let’s take a look at some of the ways org charts are specifically useful to growing startups:
Starting Now Makes Updating Your Startup Org Chart Easy Later
Getting a start on your org chart in your early days as a company will save you a lot of work down the road. Most people don’t start a company planning on employing five people, they want to employ hundreds. By starting your org chart when you only have a few people to list, it will make it easier to keep it updated as your organization starts to grow.
Often, successful startups have a very steep trajectory. Success is a grind, but bursts of success can grow a startup quickly. The prospect of putting together an org chart is a lot more daunting when you have 115 people within your company instead of just 15.
Get started now, so that as your company hires new people you can add them over time. This also allows you to ensure accuracy as each employee will be able to check their own addition to the chart. Since org charts are an invaluable tool for new hires, you want to make sure that you provide one to each new hire as your startup grows.
Facilitate Effective Partnerships
Startups are known to be scrappy. Often, startups are leveraging relationships with a few specific partners to grow and improve their standing within their industry. That means that the startup and their partners might work closely together on a variety of projects. This will require reliable and consistent communication on both sides.
When startups are in their early stages, there are always several people within the company that are wearing multiple hats. Often, the job title they carry is not completely reflective of the duties that they perform within the startup. This can make it difficult for partnered companies to identify who they should contact about specific issues.
To improve communication between your startup and partnered organizations, start by giving them access to your detailed startup org chart. It’s an excellent way to limit the back and forth to find contact details and allow them to quickly contact the person that they believe is the right choice for specific issues. Additionally, this will allow your partnered organizations to develop closer relationships with more of your staff, solidifying the importance of your partnership within their organization.
Spell Out Complicated Duties
The great thing about Organimi’s startup org chart software is that you can customize the org chart any way that you see fit. As we mentioned, in the early days of a startup the roles that each person inhabits may be difficult to define in a single position title. Your CEO may also be your head of sales. Your “growth” specialist may oversee several aspects of your marketing operations that would traditionally be handled by several different people.
This is difficult for both partnered companies and new hires to understand. Simply giving them a person’s positional title isn’t a good way to make it clear what departments and duties that they handle within your company. Using Organimi, you can create a customized startup org chart that lists all of the different roles that a person is currently juggling within your company, improving the flows of communication and helping you to identify gaps in your hiring practices.
Additionally, many startups today don’t employ a standard organizational structure like you would see at a Fortune 500 company. They tailor their organization to the needs and skill sets of their employees as well as their place in the market. They identify priorities and willingly overlook areas of their business that are farther down the list. By using Organimi to create your startup org chart, you give, you can provide a visual representation of your unique structure and help those within the company to better understand your hierarchy.
Prepare for Growth
Startups can grow quickly. A round of funding can mean hiring dozens or hundreds of employees in a very short amount of time. This makes the onboarding process a difficult one and requires that many employees find their own way in their first days of joining your operations. You want to ensure that you provide them with as smooth of a landing as possible and one of the best ways to do that is to ensure that they have the resources available to them to solve problems. A startup org chart can be a great way to at least ensure that they are able to contact the correct person within a company.
If you have recently completed a round of funding or are expecting to approach investors soon, get your org chart together now. Not only will you need it in your pitches, but it will help to ensure you are prepared for growth.
A Startup Org Chart is a Necessity
Having a startup org chart handy for your employees, partners, and important customers can improve your business in several respects. Communication will be more straight-forward and require less back-and-forth to find the right person to contact. New employees in rapidly growing startups will have a valuable resource at their disposal, especially when a company is growing too rapidly for every employee to receive the full onboarding treatment. As your company grows, the job of updating your org chart is a lot easier when you already have a good foundation to build on.