Who reports to whom in a small company, with teams, open roles and what each person looks after.
An org chart saves a new hire from asking the same two things all week: who someone is, and who they answer to. The one to open here is for a made-up 24-person software company. It adds the two things most charts leave out, which are the jobs nobody holds yet and what to ask each person about.
Who it's for
A founder or whoever handles HR at a company of ten to fifty people, sending it to the whole company and to each new hire in their first week.
Past a hundred people, a single page stops working, and the HR system's own directory does the job better. A page also knows nothing about who joined yesterday. Someone has to own it, and the sample says who: "Eleanor Price keeps this chart".
What a good one contains
- One box per person, with name and role. Titles alone age badly, and names alone tell a newcomer nothing.
- Lines that mean one thing. Here a line down and to the right means "reports to the box above". Dotted lines for "works closely with" are where charts turn into arguments.
- Teams you can count. Each lead's box says the team and its size: Engineering, 8 people, 1 open role.
- Open roles, drawn differently. Three dashed boxes show what's being hired and where it stands. People plan around a gap better when they can see it.
- Who covers a gap. The empty Head of Sales box says its team reports to Hannah until someone starts.
- What each person looks after. Tap Tom Ashby and you learn he's the first call when a pay run is stuck. A title like "Engineer" never tells you that.
- A date and an owner. "Updated Tuesday, December 1, 2026" lets a reader judge how far to trust it.
- First-week answers. Four lines under the chart name who to ask about laptops, time off, expenses and a customer's problem.
Keeping it true
Charts go stale within a month, and a stale one is worse than none, because people act on it. Tie the update to something that already happens, like the day a new hire's laptop is ordered. Change the box and the date in the conversation where you made the chart, and replace the page. The link in your onboarding notes stays the same.
Before you send it, ask each lead to read their own column. They'll catch the title that changed in the spring and the report who moved teams. Leave salaries, home towns and phone numbers off. The chart says who does what, and the personnel file holds everything else.
How to send it
To named people. It lists every employee by name and role, which recruiters and cold callers would be glad to have. Limit it to your company's email domain, and a new hire can open it on day one.
Every page you publish gets one link that opens in any browser. You choose who can open it: anyone with the link, anyone with the password, or only the people and company domains you name, who sign in with Google or Microsoft. Change the page later and the link stays the same.
