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Organization Structure

Learn how demographics influence your org structure and master effective Organization Structure building with Goals (new)

Jessie Walsh avatar
Written by Jessie Walsh
Updated over a week ago

Who is this guide for?

  • Admins

Available on:

  • All Culture Amp subscriptions that include goals (new)

Overview


Your organization's structure, or org structure, is an important aspect of using Goals (new). It allows you to add the structure of your organization to Culture Amp using the demographics in your employee data. This structure can then be used to classify and set group goals, as well as align goals within your organization.

In this article, we will cover:

  • Principles: Key principles for understanding how organizational structure works.

  • Walkthrough: Step-by-step guide on how to build your organization structure in Culture Amp.

  • Scenarios: Examples of different organization structures you can create to optimize goal management.

Org Structure workflow


  1. Set Up Employee Data: First, set up your employee data file and import it into Culture Amp. This step establishes key information like your users and their associated demographics.

  2. Add Organization Structure: Once you've imported your employee data, you can define your organizational levels in Culture Amp using demographics like region, department, or team.

  3. Set Goals and Permissions: Utilize your established structure to set goals and manage goal permissions across your organization.

Example of the Organization Structure Workflow

☝️ Organization Structure Workflow

Principles: How it works


When you upload your employee data, you'll have your users and their demographic information (e.g., department, team, region, and store). These labels are called demographics.

The values in your employee data, like sales, support and so forth are demographic values. The organization structure uses this demographic information to show how they relate to each other. Starting at the company level, you can break down into departments, regions, and further into teams or stores. These are just examples and can be completely flexible based on your data.

Example of an Organization Structure setup in the employee data

☝️ Example of an Organization Structure setup in the employee data file

Components of Organizational Structure

As you add organizational unit types to your structure, employees are automatically added to these units based on their demographics and demographic values in your employee data.

  • Organizational Unit Type: Named after the selected demographic (e.g., Region, Department, Team).

  • Organizational Units: Named after the demographic values of the selected demographic (e.g., APAC, US, EMEA).

Organization structure Unit and Unit Type example

✨ Example: Adam has been assigned to Region > APAC in your employee data. This means that in your organizational structure, Adam will roll up to the Regional organizational unit type for APAC.

Organization structure level example

Filtering Employees

Each level you add to your structure filters employees based on the demographics and their respective values.

Example: You have created 2 levels of your org structure, selecting Region and Department. For a specific Department org unit to populate, an employee with the corresponding demographic values must exist. For instance, this could be Region = APAC & Department = HR.

💡 Tip: Explore our support article on How Employee Data Affects Organization Structure for different scenarios on how demographic updates can impact your Org Structure.

Creating your Organizational Structure


Once you have uploaded your employee data, it's time to begin creating your Organizational Structure.

1. Go to Settings and select Organizational structure under the Account menu.

Organization structure page navigation

2. Click on the Build organization structure button.

 Build organization structure option

3. Choose a demographic from the Demographic Title dropdown to represent the top level of your organization structure. For example, if your business is primarily broken down by Region you would select this demographic. Click Add top level.

Add top level of organization structure

The pop-up confirmation will show you a list of all regions in your employee data and the number of employees in each region.

4. To add another level, click the drop-down beside the existing Org unit type and select Add level.

Add another level to your organization unit type

5. Select a demographic from the Demographic Title dropdown to represent the next level of your org structure, like Division. Click Add level. This new org unit type will be added to all existing org units under the selected level, including all regions.

Demographic drop down for adding another level to your org unit type

You can continue adding levels to reflect your organization structure but just make sure the group sizes are meaningful for how you plan to use them.

Managing your Organizational Structure


Navigating your Organizational Structure

Bird's Eye View

Use the "Bird's eye view" on the left-hand side of the Organization structure page to get an overview of your structure.

 Organization structure birds eye view

View the Org Type Breakdown

Click the drop-down on the org unit type to view the list of organizational units and the number of assigned employees.

Use the drop-down arrow to view the list of organizational units

Getting Back

If you get lost, simply click the Go to top level button to return to the top of your structure.

Go to top level navigation

Removing Org Unit Types

Deleting Levels

Removing an org unit type removes all instances of that type on the selected level and any sub-org units beneath it.

⚠️ Be cautious when deleting org unit types, as this will also affect other parts of Culture Amp that use your structure, such as goals (new).

How to Remove:

  1. On the Organization Structure page, click the drop-down next to the desired org unit type and select Remove [org unit type] level.

  2. Review the warning message.

  3. Click Remove [org unit type] and its levels to confirm.

Navigation for deleting an Org Unit

Deleting an Org Unit confirmation message

Creating an Additional Branch

To add a new top-level org unit type:

  1. From your Organization Structure page, click on Add top level.

  2. Select a demographic from the Demographic Title dropdown.

  3. Click Add top level.

Now, you'll have two top-level org unit types, for example: Region and Division.

 Add an additional top level navigation

add level to your org unit type confirmation message

Organization structure example with two top levels

Creating a Stepped Structure

You can also use the same org unit type across multiple levels of your structure. This is useful when one branch of your structure has a different number of levels. For example, you can add the "Team" org unit type to both the Region and Department levels, creating a stepped structure.

Stepped structure example

To set this structure up:

1. On the Organization structure page, select Add top level to assign Region as a top-level org unit type.

Add top level example

2. Click the drop down arrow beside Region to expand the list of Organizational Units. Select Add level, then choose Department from the Demographic Title drop-down. Click Add level to confirm.

Navigation to add another level to your organization unit type

add level to your org unit type confirmation message

3. Next, add the Team org unit type to Region. Click the drop-down arrow beside Region to expand the list of Organizational Units.

 Navigation to add another level to your organization unit type

4. Click Add level, and select Team from the Demographic Title dropdown. click Add level.

Add level confirmation pop-up

5. Now, navigate to Department. Click the drop-down arrow beside Department to expand the list of Organizational Units.

Add another level to your organization unit type

6. Click Add level and choose Team from the Demographic Title drop-down. Click Add level to save.

The team now exists across 2 separate levels of your structure.

Key resources



🌐 Additional Support

If you have any questions or feedback about the Goals (new) experience, please don't hesitate to speak with a Product Support Specialist by replying with “Ask a Person” in a Support Conversation. We are here to help make this transition as smooth as possible for you and your team.

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