Every business has ten departments within their organisational chart. You may already have a team in place, but do you have clearly defined departments and functions within your business – and does every employee understand their roles and responsibilities?

In order for a business to run effectively and efficiently, there needs to be a clear understanding of departments, functions, roles and responsibilities.

This is even more important for a business that wants to grow or plan for succession.

The most important hat is leadership

When I ask the question “As a business owner, do you find you are wearing too many hats?”, the answer is invariably “Yes”.

Your organisational chart (a.k.a. ‘org chart’) – along with strategy, systemisation and the establishment of best practices – is part of the foundation of gaining more control over the direction of your business.

First, we need to get clear on where the problem areas are in the current structure and what needs to be fixed. This starts with the business owner wearing too many hats.

To free yourself up you need to understand that as a business owner, the most important hat is leadership. To achieve this you may need to free yourself of other hats to lead, so let’s take a look at all those hats.

The 10 departments in every business

The org chart gives structure to a business, holds it upright and provides the link between shareholders and business activities. These are the ten departments in every business – yes, even the small ones.

1. Shareholder – funds and owns the business
2. Director – sets the direction
3. Leadership – implements the plans / maximises business efficiency
4. Marketing – attracts leads
5. Sales – converts leads to paying customers
6. Delivery/Operations – do the doing / generate cash
7. Product R&D – develops new products and services
8. Finance – manages cash
9. HR – employs and manages the team
10. Admin/IT – maximises efficiency

Department responsibilities

Three ways to define the responsibilities of each department in your business are:

1. Map the key responsibilities and tasks to each department

In most cases, team members are wearing too many hats. It is helpful to define the roles more clearly and reassign some responsibilities.

2. Define 7–10 key responsibilities

These should be the key responsibilities, not individual tasks. This should not be exhaustive, as the granular details can go into the job descriptions for each role.

3. Compare key responsibilities to current job descriptions

This will help you capture the most important responsibilities and identify those that may belong in a different department. Always refer back to the department’s function. The person responsible for finalising each department’s key responsibility should reality-check that they reflect what’s happening in the business, by comparing them to the tasks each team member currently performs.

Your structure should be reviewed regularly and updates made to the key responsibilities if they change. Keep your org chart as a living and breathing document that supports your business as it grows.

If no clear job roles and position responsibilities exist within your business, then I advise that you begin this project as soon as possible.

If you are planning for expansion, this will help to clarify roles and responsibilities required for a sustainable, scalable and saleable business.

This article was originally published in April 2022.

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