Navigo will continue to work with both products: OrgPlus Enterprise through HumanConcepts, and also the OrgPlus Desktop range through Administaff.

What does that mean for you?

For all Navigo OrgPlus customers, regardless of whether your solution is Desktop or Enterprise, there will be no change.

Navigo will continue to support, distribute and sell all versions of OrgPlus exclusively in the Australian and New Zealand regions. We’ll continue to answer all of your calls and emails, and continue to provide you the products and service you’ve come to expect.

For OrgPlus Enterprise customers your solution remains with HumanConcepts as the vendor, and remains supported by Navigo. Everything is status quo.

For OrgPlus Desktop customers (those with Standard, Professional or Premium) your solution now resides with Administaff as vendor, but remains supported by Navigo. Moving forward, the OrgPlus Desktop range will continue to be supported by Navigo in partnership with Administaff.

If you have any questions regarding this announcement or any concerns about how it might affect you, please get in touch and we can help. Within Australia call 1300 NAVIGO (1300 628 446) or from NZ/overseas call +61 3 9879 4060. You can also email support@navigo.com.au

To see the HumanConcepts official press release, FAQ’s or to learn more about Administaff, please view the OrgPlus.com webpage.

I read a lot of HR blogs that talk about alternative reporting structures. It’s good to see that with HumanConcept’s latest release the features in the technology are keeping track with shifting business norms.

The best way to understand it is to show it in action – so here we go:

Auxiliary Reports and The Beatles

Start with a simple data file. Here we have five (famous) employees. Note the auxiliary reporting relationship defined in AuxReportsTo.

A simple import produces a chart like the one below. Note the dotted line – OrgPlus has automatically recognised the hierarchy in AuxReportsTo.

Too Easy, but potentially very useful for managing complex relationships… Time to get even more complex.

Auxiliary Reports and Matrix Organisations

The new auxiliary reporting features can be used to build almost any chart direct from your data set. An ambitious example is a matrix organisation, where employees report up to their head of department, but also report to their project head.

New to matrix organisations? Read more here.

Again we start with a data file, this one more complex. Note the AuxReportsTo column, Departments and Projects. Our matrix organisation has department leaders, project leaders, and a number of employees who report to both.

See Jim Turner for example, an IT consultant in Project Alpha he reports to both Simon Dugas (Senior Consultant) and also George Creston (Project Leader on Project Alpha).

Complex? No worries! An import, some chart rules and conditional formats later, and we have this chart which explains it all easily.

Every employee reports up and left to their managers. Your matrix is decipherable at a glance.

Does your organisation have some complex relationships? Tell us your examples below…

Or if you’re interested in seeing how our Matrix chart was made, click through to page 2.

After the chaotic cutting of the latest recession, many employers are looking at workforce planning software to provide more stability in meeting both their short and long-term talent needs.

Read more in this great whitepaper, re-published with permission from Workforce Management.

Download the PDF

Today’s economy has finance professionals and CFOs in organisations large and small focused on efficiencies and costs. When revenue growth flattens or even declines, profit maintenance and increases must come from cost efficiencies. In most organisations, including large organisations such as the Fortune 500™, total human capital cost, also known as total cost of workforce, average nearly 70% of operating expenses (for source and definitions, see notes one and two below). While an organisation’s total cost of workforce percentage may vary, with few exceptions these costs remain the single biggest organisational expense. Given their fluid and rapidly changing nature, workforce costs are extremely difficult costs to manage and control, however organisational charts provide a surprisingly simple solution to the challenge.

Effectively controlling or managing the total cost of workforce often proves difficult because the tools for the job – budgets or approval processes when growing or layoffs when times are tough – lack the up-to-the-minute flexibility or detailed insight that companies need. Simply put, organisations lack tools with which to surgically manage, tune or optimise their workforce.

The net result is often a general inability to effectively control and manage workforce costs during growth periods. Over time, costs get out of control and management is forced to turn to their last (and not particularly attractive) line of defense – directives such as “hiring freeze”, “reduction in force” or “layoff.” The problem with layoffs it that is they are both expensive in the short term (termination costs), and potentially even more expensive in the long term if either the wrong amount of labor is cut or the wrong positions or individuals are cut.

Simply put, organisations lack tools with which to surgically manage, tune or optimise their workforce.

What seems missing from this picture is the capability of top management, finance and HR to systematically assess and surgically implement workforce cost management practices at a level below the company-wide mandate but above the individual manager level. If there were a simple way to review, evaluate and adjust workforce headcount and cost information frequently or on a near real-time basis, perhaps finance and HR could truly control workforce costs.

While there is justifiable reluctance to add yet another tool to the organisation, what if it were possible to use or expand the use of an existing tool that every organisation already has and which is specifically created to focus on and clearly illuminate workforce issues.

Organisation charts have aggregated headcount and clearly illustrated the formal supervisory structure for decades, but today’s digital technology means they can also be utilised to aggregate workforce costs and other metrics as well. With a new window into detailed workforce costs – finer than the traditional department/cost center structure – HR and finance can work together to analyse costs and proactively identify solutions to issues organisations face.

Continue to page 2…

Produced by our friends HumanConcepts, OrgChart.net is a growing resource on intelligent organisational charting including information on how it can be leveraged for corporate directories, workforce analysis, workforce planning, and more.

It also contains links to sections of OrgPlus.com so that OrgPlus users can find additional relevant OrgPlus-specific information.

For the casually interested, the section “History of Organisational Charts” is an interesting read.

Visit OrgChart.net: Organisation chart information, org chart tutorials and templates.

One question I’m often asked during Account Management Meetings with clients is “how can OrgPlus help my organisation identify Baby Boomers easily so we can proactively plan for their retirement by transferring skills and knowledge to Gen-X and Gen-Y staff before they leave?”

The answer is simple, and easy to implement – create an organisational chart using formatting to highlight where the Baby Boomers, Gen-X and Gen-Y staff sit within your organisation.

Implementing this type of chart will provide you with a top down view of each department within your organisation highlighting the Baby Boomers and the Gen-X and Gen-Y staff that work around them. From here you can easily identify the staff who work closest to the Baby Boomers and then pro-actively put a knowledge transfer plan in place or identify if new staff are required.  Simple!

This can be achieved by creating conditional formats in OrgPlus:

First we’ll format a base chart, then we’ll overwrite parts of that with conditional formatting. For convenience, our base chart will be baby boomers.

Step 1: Creating the box properties for the Baby Boomers

1. Right click on any box in your chart -> Box Properties..
2. Select the Box Layout tab
3. Add a new Text Box and add the text BOOMER



4. Ensure that you have the box styled the way you wish the Baby Boomers to appear
5. Click OK

Step 2: Create a conditional format for the GEN-X staff

1. Go to Format -> Conditional Formatting…
2. Click on Add… to create a new conditional format called GEN X
3. Create a condition so that their Date of Birth is after 1/01/1978 and their Date of Birth is before 31/12/1964



4. Click OK
5. Click on Format Box
6. Change the color of the box and the text so that it stands out compared to the Baby Boomers
7. Click on the Box Layout tab
8. Change the BOOMER text to be GEN-X



9. Click OK

Step 3: Create a conditional format for the GEN-Y staff

1. Go to Format -> Conditional Formatting…
2. Click on Add… to create a new conditional format called GEN Y
3. Create a condition so that their Date of Birth is after 31/12/1977



4. Click OK
5. Click on Format Box
6. Change the color of the box and the text so that it stands out compared to the Baby Boomers and GEN X
7. Click on the Box Layout tab
8. Change the BOOMER text to be GEN-Y



9. Click OK

Now you should be able to clearly see where all of the Baby Boomers in your company are and manage succession planning accordingly!

For more information on this chart feel free to call me (Belinda) on +61 3 9879 4060

Note: Date of Birth must be stored within your data extract.

Introduction

When we think of organisation charts, the delivery of analytical and metric information is not the first thing that comes to mind. Instead, we think of one or two page hierarchical charts used to view the reporting structure of a department or two. Usually these charts are in PowerPoint, Visio or similar format. By centralising such information and combining hierarchical data from all departments, many HR and HRIS practitioners are finding that centralised, Web-based organisation charts can deliver value far exceeding traditional expectations.

Many workforce analytics and scorecard systems can cost well in excess of US$4 million and take longer than 18 months to implement. Even with this investment, organisations are frequently left with unfulfilled expectations. For a modest amount of this cost, organisations can achieve a generous percentage of the original goals established for many workforce analytics and scorecard systems. By using a centralised, Web-based organisation charting platform as both a user interface and secure delivery vehicle, they can accomplish many key goals without such an elaborate investment.

The same charts used to visualise supervisory reporting structures at a departmental level can become a convenient launch platform for the delivery of many functions. These include simple reporting, critical data visualisation, organisational modeling, data validation and much more. Many enterprises are finding that Web-based organisation charts provide an effective platform for the delivery and visualisation of analytical data, metrics and organisational information in all forms.

As the structure of the global economy continues to take hold, the sheer complexity of the modern enterprise presents serious management challenges. In order to remain competitive in this environment, an unprecedented level of accuracy is required for a large variety of organisational information. There is no better way to correct inaccuracies than to conveniently and securely expose them to the people with a vested interest in their correction.

Using the unique features of centralised Web-based organisation charting, information can be easily and securely accessed by anyone in the enterprise via the use of just a Web browser and a click on a standard URL Web link. Further, by creating a single centralised platform for enterprise-level organisational charts, implementers create an unprecedented environment for growth, visualisation and accuracy. This strengthens an organisation’s ability to remain competitive in the economic environment of today and beyond.

We do not have to look far to see why this concept works so well. Most often HR analytics and metrics provide information about two things — individuals and organisations. Even when metrics are about individuals, they are best viewed in comparison to an individual’s peers. Additionally, there is not a better place to view organisational metrics than in context with the organisational hierarchy. This natural interface entices even the shortest executive attention span to take a closer look to visualise with a level of accuracy not possible with less intuitive interfaces.

Let’s look at a few simple examples…

OrgPlus voted Best HR Product 2008

HumanConcepts’ OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint Collaborative Workforce Planning Solution Selected for Coveted Award by Human Resources Industry Experts

HumanConcepts today announced that OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint, its new Web 2.0, collaborative workforce planning solution for HR professionals and line managers, has been named as one of the “Top 10 HR Products of the Year” by Human Resource Executive® magazine. OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint is recognised for ease-of-use, innovation and value because it enables HR professionals to proactively model the impact of workforce change spurred by transitions, growth, reorganisations or company mergers.

“Human Resource Executive® has been evaluating HR products and conducting this competition for 20 years,” explained David Shadovitz, editor in chief of Human Resource Executive magazine. “Our goal has always been to identify products and services that clearly offer value to the HR community while demonstrating innovation. With OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint, we were impressed how the solution easily creates “what if” scenarios to model workforce changes with others in a Web 2.0 environment.”

“We selected HumanConcepts’ OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint to give us visibility into the impact of workforce changes as we entered into the reorganisation and merger phases of two large departments at the university,” commented Ana Zavaleta, HRIS Manager, University of Southern California. “The solution enabled us to model scenarios and gain clarity into our best options before embarking on significant changes, which saved us time and money and smoothed the entire reorg process.”

“We are excited about receiving this prestigious award from Human Resource Executive magazine,” said Martin Sacks, CEO, HumanConcepts. “The award affirms our vision behind OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint. Our customers need a way to easily plan and collaborate around workforce changes, to do compensation planning, and to efficiently share results. OrgPlus Enterprise Blueprint drastically reduces the time it takes for our customers to plan, reorganise or to merge organisations, enabling them to quickly realise the business benefits resulting from change.”

The HR Executive award