So, you’ve discovered how org charting software can improve efficiency and save your company  time and resources? Now, all that’s left is to gather an expert team and pitch your idea to stakeholders. While org charting software may be an obvious winner for the HR team, Senior Leadership usually needs some convincing.

So what’s the best approach? Two words – business case.

Before you present your idea, you need a plan outlining how you will finance, sustain and execute the project. A business case will put all these in place. This article breaks down everything you need to get your org chart business case off the ground. We’ve even provided a free template to get you started.

First, let’s go back to basics. What is a business case and why is it important?

A business case brings together the benefits, disadvantages, costs and risks of the current situation and future vision, allowing the C-Suite to decide if the project is viable for the business.

 8 Key Elements

1. Executive Summary
   • Brief summary of all your major points
   • It should not contain any information that’s not mentioned elsewhere in the document
2. Project Definition
   • Project name, sponsor and manager
   • Background
   • Problem statement
   • Strategic objectives
   • Project objectives
3. Options Analysis
   • Evaluation of options
   • Recommended option
4. Cost Benefit Analysis
   • Risks
   • Benefits
5. Project Stages & Duration
   • Different phases involved in the project
   • Detailed timeline of each stage in the project
6. Financial Analysis
   • Budget breakdown
7. Project Management
   • Governance
   • Quality management
   • Progress monitoring
8. Appendices
   • Additional details such as company backgrounds of each alternative considered, statistical data to back up the claims made in the business case etc.

Best Practices

• Speak to all the internal stakeholders and outline all positive impacts that the solution will have – try to make them measurable e.g. automated reporting within org chart with save the HR executive xx hours per week – a $xx saving per year
• Use business terminology rather than HR-specific phrases
• Be specific and clear – present facts, avoid fluffy language
• Understand where your project fits in relating to resourcing requirements, impact to the business, implementation timeline etc.
• Personalise your case to the stakeholders and understand what’s important to them. In the case of org charts, the following table is a helpful example:

What’s Next?

After writing your business case, the next step is to present to the stakeholders. Within the HR context, this could be your HR Director, Procurement Manager, the C-Suite or IT. It’s important you anticipate their questions and prepare accordingly. Here are the 3 important aspects you should consider before presenting your org chart business case:

• 1. Present state of the company and how the proposed project will change your organisation for the better. Some examples are provided below:  
     • Improve communication across the organisation by showing the relationship between positions and insight into your org hierarchy
     • Reduce manual workload for the HR team and local administrators by providing real-time, configurable and easily exportable charts
     • Enable improved workforce management by providing visibility over staffing levels, including easily identifiable vacant positions 
     • By making HR data visible to the entire organisation, staff are quick to reach out to fix errors. Crowdsource ongoing data cleansing by making line managers responsible for maintaining their dataset – easily keeping data up to date
     • Support diversity and inclusion initiatives by highlighting gender split and ratios in a diversity chart
     • Potential to use org charts for strategic decision-making and more effective staff management (e.g. use of leave balances, span of control, skills mapping etc.)
     • Data security. No more spreadsheets with confidential employee information flying around.  
  2. Why now is the right time – maybe your organisation is going through a merger or has decided to restructure – having a tool to visualise your workforce would save lots of time and effort in the future. E.g. Succession Planning helps keep your organisation one step ahead, developing employees who are next in line to take over. When companies anticipate this, they are well prepared to deal with unforeseen situations.  
  3. Understand the contingency costs – what happens if the company doesn’t do this, what are the costs to the organisation.

Download your template for an org chart business case

Supporting Information

Download the template as a guide for your next project, it includes detailed instructions on what each section of the business case should include.
Remember: The main focus should be on the solution, the implementation timeline and providing strong numbers to back your case.

Want to learn more? Watch our webinar below ‘how to build an awesome HRIS business case’ to learn tips and tricks relating to selling HR tech internally, plus what to avoid when presenting your business case.

Creating an org chart business case is no simple task. If you have any questions, our team would be happy to assist you along your journey. Feel free to get in touch via our contact us form or give us a call on +61 3 9879 4060.