If you don’t make the time to plan, you’re essentially planning to fail. There’s a better way.
Proactive shop owners understand that doing it all themselves will only go so far. If you’re going to achieve your goals for growth, you must have a plan for how to organize and scale your team into one that is both effective and unified. A well-crafted org chartserves as the basis for that plan. Shop owners who are committed to making 2023 their best year yet shouldn’t overlook this valuable tool.
As workload and revenue increase, a wave of adaptation flows across the entire business to meet this increased demand. Put simply, It can be hectic to manage. This is especially true when you’re wearing many hats. How can you stack the deck in your favor so those changes don’t cause a chaotic mess? Org charts can help with that.
As someone who wears many hats, pretend that you’re a different person in each of those roles, and give each role a box on the org chart. Define the requirements, responsibilities, and hourly rate for each one. Doing so will provide a clear picture of which roles you’ll need to hire for as you grow. When you hire employees to fulfill the more basic tasks, you’ll have the capacity to focus on the business-building tasks only you can do! Those might be worth $100/hr+ to the business. Mapping out your company structure in an org chart eliminates the confusion, and you’ll know which hiring decision to make next.
With that in mind, let’s walk through some of the top problems an org chart can solve:
Clarify and define the critical functions of your business. Define specific roles. The operations category might include a Manufacturing Manager, Planner, Programmer, Set-up Machinist, Operator, QC Inspector, and so on. The important thing is that each team member has clarity regarding their responsibility and how it is tied to the overall objectives of the business. This might seem obvious, but eliminating those points of confusion can have a huge impact on business performance. Are your employees confused about their specific responsibilities? A well-crafted org chart can solve that problem.
Define a structure of accountability. Machine shops looking to grow must make daily progress on their short and long-term goals. In order to measure that progress, team members must be accountable for getting things done. Not growing as quickly as you’d hoped? Use an org chart to assign accountability to the team members in charge of accomplishing each step of the growth plan. In doing so you’ll create a sense of clarity and momentum in accomplishing the most important tasks.
Workload distribution. Has the growth of your business exponentially increased someone’s to-do list? When roles and responsibilities are defined and assigned in a visual tool like the org chart, you’ll be able to quickly identify where the workflow bottlenecks are so that excess workload can be delegated to someone else or a new role can be created to alleviate the burden. Are you unsure how to balance the workload evenly after identifying the bottlenecks? Leveraging a visual tool like an org chart can help identify where the bottlenecks are so that you can alleviate the burden and maintain your growth trajectory.
Where to start.
If you are considering this for the first time and don’t know where to begin, here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Start now, even if you are small. Build a strong foundation now so that it can be built upon as you grow.
Don’t place specific names in boxes right away. Instead, get clear on defining the roles and responsibilities needed for your shop to operate as efficiently as possible. Once you’ve done that, then start filling in names. This exercise might bring to light some hiring needs and rearranging of responsibilities that are required to support your growth plan.
If you are a small company, you might wear several different hats. You can have the same name in multiple different roles/org chart boxes. This is completely normal, even in bigger operations.
If you define a role on the org chart, and you hire multiple people for the same role, simply add those names to the box rather than adding multiple new boxes..
Eliminate accountability overlap. It’s ok when an employee wears several hats within the organization. Several employees sharing the same hat can be problematic, though. When accountability is assigned to several people, and there is confusion regarding who is ultimately responsible, issues will arise.
Use org charts to map out your future success. Do you have an ambitious plan to grow your machine shop over the next several years? Awesome! Leverage the power of org charts to map that out. If you have a goal for increased revenue over the next 3 years, perhaps the timeline would look like this:
Year 1 – $350K Revenue – 3 People
Year 2 – $750K Revenue – 5 People
Year 3 – $1.25M Revenue – 8 people
Leveraging org charts to map out future growth in a visual way will give you the needed clarity to make decisions that support your growth plans.
Ready, Set, Go! A well-crafted org chart can have a massive impact on your business’s success. When you define the specific roles and responsibilities for the different departments within your business, you gain the needed clarity to make hiring decisions, delegate tasks, and take the right next step. Proactively leveraging these tools to plot a trajectory for growth and success can be a key differentiator that puts you ahead of the competition. When you fail to plan, you almost certainly plan to fail. Embrace the power of org charts as you place the right people in the right seats of your machine shop business. In doing so, you’ll be sure to make this your best year yet!
How ProShop can help ProShop’s built-in Org Chart functionality makes defining the organizational structure of your business a breeze. Not only will your team have clarity regarding their role and the accountability structure, but you’ll be able to link each unique role with its respective training requirements, making new employee onboarding a breeze. Training progress is easily recorded and monitored to ensure compliance with company policies and procedures. Get in touch and find out how ProShop can take your business to the next level. We’d love to hear from you!
