Org Chart & Positions: An up-to-date chart and clear reporting lines

Who is it for, and what problem does it solve?

This module is for growing businesses that update their org chart by hand in a presentation file and ask “who will approve this?” all over again with every new request. As headcount grows, three problems stand out:

• The chart goes out of date. Because the drawing is not updated by hand after every hire, departure and promotion, it soon stops reflecting reality.
• Positions and people get mixed up. When someone leaves, the position disappears from the list too; vacant roles and hiring needs become invisible.
• Approval rules are tied to people. Rules written for a person, such as “Ali Örnek approves leave”, quietly break when the manager changes.

Once the organizational structure is set up correctly, leave approvals, managers' team views and headcount reports in Sora İK all draw on the same source. This module is also the backbone of the other modules in the Employee Management category.

What does Org Chart & Positions do?

The module keeps the organizational structure as data and generates the chart from that data; the chart is not drawn separately. The functions available today are:

• Department tree: departments are defined with sub-departments to whatever depth you need; each can be given a code and a department manager. Choices that create a loop, such as attaching a department to one of its own sub-departments, are blocked.
• Positions: job titles attached to a department or with no department. The same title cannot be opened twice in the same department, and a position with staff cannot be deleted. Each position's number of active staff appears in the list.
• Management hierarchy: each employee's card has one direct manager; selecting the person themselves or someone from their own team as manager is blocked.
• Org chart: a tree generated from the management hierarchy, showing active employees' names, positions and departments. Users with permission to view the employee list can move from a name on the chart to the employee card.
• Source of approvals and visibility: leave requests go to the employee's direct manager; managers see the cards, leave and attendance ledger of their direct and indirect teams. The Workflow & Approval Designer resolves its “direct manager” and “manager's manager” steps from this hierarchy; team scope works together with the rules in Roles, Permissions & Security.
• Headcount information: number of active staff per department and position. A headcount report by department, position and employment type is in the Reporting & People Analytics module.
• Bulk setup: when employees are imported, the departments and positions in the file are added to the structure, with missing ones created if you choose.

Coming soon: position job descriptions, norm staffing (planned and actual headcount), a “vacant” label for positions with no staff, and search and collapsing or expanding branches in the chart. A location or branch layer, a position hierarchy in which positions are linked to one another (parent position), structure changes with a future effective date and matrix approvers are not available yet either; they are coming soon. Today the chart is built from people's manager details, not from positions.

How does it work?

The structure is set up once; after that, only changes are entered:

1. Define departments. Enter the department tree and department managers; if you like, choose to create the departments in the file when importing employees.
2. Create positions. Enter each department's position titles; titles not attached to a department can also be created.
3. Link employees. When the department, position and manager are selected on the employee card, the chart builds itself.
4. Leave approvals to the hierarchy. Leave approval goes to the direct manager. If an extra step is needed, use “manager's manager” or a role in the workflow instead of a person's name; the rule keeps working even when people change.
5. Make changes on the card. When a promotion or team change is saved on the employee card, the chart, approvals and team view update immediately. A departing employee, however, leaves the chart not immediately but once the leaving date in the exit record has passed.

Sora İK plans are tiered by the number of active employees; you can compare the plan that fits the size of your organization on the Pricing page.

Why keep positions and people separate?

Keeping the position separate from the person keeps the organizational structure and headcount information intact when someone leaves or is promoted. Suppose Ayşe Örnek, who holds the Accounting Specialist position at Örnek A.Ş., is appointed team lead:

• The Accounting Specialist position is not deleted; if no one else is assigned, its active headcount in the list stays at zero and it waits for the next person to be assigned. Showing this with a “vacant” label and against planned headcount is coming soon.
• When Ayşe Örnek is selected as manager on the cards of the employees joining her team, their leave requests automatically go to her.
• When Ayşe Örnek's login account is given the manager role, her team view includes only the employees who report to her and their teams; because visibility derives from the manager details, no person-by-person permissions need to be defined.

Job postings and the candidate process for open roles are run with Applicant Tracking & Careers Page; today a posting is linked to a department, and linking it to a position is coming soon. The chart shows no personal data other than name, position and department; how data is protected is explained on the Security and data protection page.