Case Study

Growing headcount and a business need to have more focus on project delivery led to a restructure within a technical consulting company.  The opportunity was seized to move from the traditional line manager and employee reporting line.  A small team was responsible for managing this as a change programme and HR worked alongside the business to define, articulate and transition to a new model.

From an employee perspective, the one constant was their Career Manager and the relationship focussed on the individual’s career and development goals.  Separate to this was the Project Manager, and the focus of that relationship was on the project or the mission.  The Career Manager worked closely with the different Project Managers to ensure regular feedback on the individual was shared, in particular at significant milestones or the end of the project.

Feedback from employees found this model beneficial as they had a clear champion and supporter who was a skilled coach who also faced into difficult conversations when required.  And the Project Managers appreciated the change as they were freed from line management duties and could focus on delivering results.

You may find yourself with a structure that’s just evolved through time which may not fit your current or future business requirements.  You may also find yourself with politics between different functions and some dysfunctional teams.

Maybe you’ve got some “accidental managers” who just happen to have been great in their technical domain and so were given the role of line manager in the hope that they’d be great at that too.  Add to this that as companies grow, flatter organisations tend to be seen as reducing career opportunities.

Alternative structures can be put in place to optimise the Organisational Design.  And PeopleStance can use the latest thinking to work through the options and drive the implementation.

Here is a list of questions to get you thinking about the extent to which your current structure is working for you:

• How many organisational layers do we have?  And the average number of direct reports?
• To what extent are the different functions working together?
• How many roles are filled internally?  Either level transfers or promotions?
• How successful are you at project execution?
• What’s the level of innovation compared to your client demands and your competition?
• Regarding the manager quality, a good question to ask yourself is: “Would I like to be managed by this person?  Would I be inspired, enthused and go the extra mile for this person?”