Practice 02
Organization Design and Workforce Architecture
Our approach connects organization design, job architecture, workforce planning, and job evaluation to build an effective and sustainable workforce
Who it's forExecutives and HR leaders whose structure no longer fits the work.
01 —Business challenges
Sound familiar?
- Our structure no longer fits the strategy.
- There are too many layers between the top and the people who do the work.
- Two departments believe they own the same work.
- Roles, grades and career paths are unclear.
02 —Approach
Six stages, the same every time
Every engagement moves through the stages of the Architecture Chain, so you always know where the work stands.
Diagnose
Find where the chain breaks, with evidence, before proposing anything.
Define
Agree the principles, scope and decisions the design must respect.
Architect
Design the structure, roles, measures or rewards, layer by layer.
Quantify
Cost the design and test it against budget and market data.
Govern
Set the policies, owners and decision rules that keep it working.
Implement & evolve
Roll it out with an owner, a first step and a date; then review and adjust.
03 —Scope
What the work covers
- Diagnose the current structure: layers, spans, duplication and gaps
- Agree design principles with leadership before drawing any chart
- Design the structure, roles and accountabilities, unit by unit
- Build the job architecture: job families, levels and grades
- Plan the move from the current structure to the new one
04 —Deliverables
What you receive
Organisation diagnostic
Where the current structure helps the work and where it gets in the way, with evidence.
Structure and role design
Charts, role profiles and accountabilities for each unit.
Job architecture
Job families, levels and a grade structure, built with one consistent evaluation method.
Transition plan
Who moves where, in what order, and how people are told.
05 —Outcomes
What changes afterwards
- Decisions are made at the right level.
- Each piece of work has one clear owner.
- People can see their role, their level and where they can go next.
06 —Engagement models
How we can work together
Advisory
Regular sessions with your leadership or HR team to test decisions, review designs and unblock work you run yourselves.
Best when your team has the capacity and wants a second opinion.
Defined project
An agreed scope, deliverables and dates, from diagnosis to an approved design and a plan to implement it.
Best when the question is clear and a decision is due.
Embedded support
We work inside your team for a set period, alongside the people who will run the design after we leave.
Best during implementation, or when internal capacity is short.
For this practiceUsually a defined project. Larger restructures add embedded support during the transition.
08 —Book
Talk to us about Organization Design and Workforce Architecture
Tell us what is happening in your organisation. We will reply with a suggested first step.
- You describe the situation in a few lines.
- We meet for a first conversation.
- You receive a short proposal: scope, deliverables and dates.