You can’t optimize your business operations if you don’t know what you’re working with. In this blog post, discover six ways what-if planning and org charting software help your organization.

No one has a crystal ball to see the future, but you can prepare for it with the right tools. Org charting software with what-if scenario planning allows you to formulate data-backed strategies that can positively impact your entire organization. From succession planning to the business impact of a merger or acquisition, your org charting software can help you assess the possible outcomes that result from how you deploy talent across your organization.

Org charting tools increase your visibility into your workforce so you don’t make decisions you might later regret. Below are six ways that you can leverage org charts and what-if planning to ensure your business runs smoothly.

READ MORE | ‘3 Reasons Why What-If Planning Is Vital for Your Organization’

1) Determine the Economic Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are some of the biggest changes your organization will experience. To determine your optimal organizational structure, you need to understand where the talent currently exists across the entire organization. It’s essential to identify any gaps that need to be filled as well as any skills surpluses that can be reallocated to other departments or eliminated to improve efficiency.

With an org charting tool like PeopleFluent OrgPublisher, you can create a unified organizational chart that includes your original and newly acquired teams. This lets your management team and HR department easily manage reporting structures and integration processes so they can optimize your workforce. The software lets you see multiple data points to inform your decision-making, such as budgeted salaries and projected headcount against actuals.

Org charting software can help you visualize your entire organization and how a merger or acquisition will impact the business by showcasing employee data like:

• Loss impact
• Retention risk
• Salary and total compensation
• Direct reports
• Hire date
• Position or title

Additionally, you can group your charts to best suit your needs. For example, look at who works in your corporate and sales departments, and quickly see which employees are remote, hybrid, or on-sight workers. You can also determine which employees fit into multiple groups across your workforce. All of this vital information will help you make the best decisions for optimizing your workforce and easing the transition after M&A activity.

2) Ensure Your Employees Complete Mandatory Compliance Training

If your organization is in a highly regulated industry, then you’re likely all too familiar with compliance training requirements. Your employees have limited windows of time to successfully complete their mandatory training. If they don’t, then you could face serious consequences from regulatory agencies for being non-compliant, including fines, penalties, and in some cases, legal action.

Org charting software helps you mitigate the risk of non-compliance. A color-coded dashboard gives your managers a visual of their direct reports’ compliance training activity so they can swiftly identify employees who:

• Have already completed their training
• Have fewer than 30 days to complete their training
• Missed their training deadline, making them non-compliant

With this information readily available, your managers can immediately see which of their direct reports still haven’t met their compliance requirements. Managers can then take the necessary actions to ensure these employees finish their mandatory training activities on time.

KEEP READING ABOUT COMPLIANCE TRAINING | ‘3 Success-Driving Functions Every Compliance-Focused LMS Must Have’

3) Integrate Data From Multiple Systems to Accurately Visualize Your Entire Workforce

If your organization operates in multiple regions, then you’re probably managing your global employee data with more than one HR system. While this is fine for your daily operations, it can pose challenges when it comes to representing your total workforce and making decisions about the future. Without a centralized data hub, you can’t get an accurate picture of your organization’s talent distribution, making your what-if planning less reliable.

With org charting software, you can integrate data from multiple HRISs and ERP systems into a centralized organizational chart and improve the accuracy of your what-if planning. Robust org charting software allows you to bring in every employee type across your organization, such as full-time workers, contractors, and even vacant positions. Having all of your employee information in one place makes it easier for you to see how talent is distributed. Color coding can show you when employees have too many direct reports so you can take action quickly to avoid worker burnout and make informed decisions regarding your overall organizational structure.

4) Identify Your Potential Future Leaders

Organizational change is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to impede your business. What-if planning can help you visualize potential successors for key roles across your talent pool. Highlight employees who are part of succession plans, identify who occupies your critical roles, and see their potential and readiness for leadership positions, all within your org chart so you can make informed decisions about your entire organization.

Robust org charting systems like PeopleFluent OrgPublisher let you add and remove employees from your charts so you can run scenarios for your key roles. See what would happen if one of your vice presidents retires or accepts a more senior role within your organization. Quickly visualize which employees have the skills to fill that VP’s role so your teams can transition with minimal disruptions to their productivity.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SUCCESSION PLANNING | ‘3 Ways Succession Planning Improves the Employee Experience’

5) Anticipate Your Org Structure Changes to Help You Meet Your DEI and ESG Targets

When your employees pursue opportunities outside your organization, it can impact more than just your succession planning initiatives. A change in your organization’s structure could keep you from hitting your DEI and ESG (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Environmental, Social, and Governance) targets. While you can’t prevent your people from leaving, you can leverage your org charting software to anticipate and prepare for possible setbacks.

Scenario planning lets you visualize your entire workforce so you can see whether you’re currently hitting your targets and how your business will be affected if critical personnel exit the organization. With that information in mind, you can devise a plan to improve your metrics and remain compliant with DEI and ESG requirements.

6) Mitigate Pay Compression

As your business needs change, your organization will likely make compensation adjustments to entice talent with in-demand skills to join your team. You might offer new hires with the right skills a salary that’s considerably higher than the same role would have earned five years ago. That’s just the nature of supply and demand. But over time, these pay range adjustments can lead to compensation compression and have negative impacts on your workforce morale and company culture.

You can mitigate these concerns with your org charting software. See where certain employees could be earning too much or too little within your organizational structure so you can make a plan to improve pay equity. Leverage the org charting software to capture different salary components and summarize the information by department, cost center, or other pertinent organizational units.

You can also leverage what-if planning to see how promotions, lateral moves, or resignations and retirements could impact your organization’s bottom line. Visualize departments or your entire organization and determine how compensation adjustments connected to internal mobility might affect pay equity. Additionally, you can compare employees’ responsibilities to those of their peers and determine whether their compensation aligns with the expectations of their role.

DOWNLOAD THIS EBOOK TO LEARN MORE | ‘The Value of Visibility: How Workforce Planning Aligns Talent and Business Strategies’