Organizational structure chart

This is the organizational chart planner, and it answers the question that has to be settled before a single box is placed: what shape does the company you actually have imply? Enter the headcount, the direct reports the average manager carries, the people reporting to the chief executive, the contractors who need a box, how often the chart is redrawn, how long that takes and what an hour of the person doing it costs. It returns the boxes the chart needs, the managers the span implies, the people with nobody reporting to them, how far three layers reach, the layers the chart needs, and what redrawing it by hand costs a year. The figure to argue over is the span of control: every point you take off it adds managers.

The managers, off the span

120 people at a span of seven is 15 managers and 105 people with nobody reporting to them. Take the span down to five and the same company needs 20 managers, which is five more salaries and one fewer layer of distance between the top and the work.

The layers, off the people at the top

Four leaders reporting to the chief executive reach 28 people in two layers and 228 in three, so a 120-person company fits inside four layers. If your headcount is past that reach, the chart needs a fifth layer or the top needs to be wider.

What redrawing costs

Four redraws a year at ninety minutes each is six hours, and at $38 an hour that is $228 a year across 128 boxes, about $1.78 a box. That is the cost of keeping a picture rather than a record, and it is paid again every time somebody joins.