Visualizing Headcount Data

October 12, 2005 9:03 AM

Any templates/examples of visualizing org structure changes and/or company growth and hiring.

Our company's division is growing. We are currently at around 140 people and plan to grow by 30-40 heads over the next 6 months. This will involve creating new positions, opening one new office, transferring people to new roles and/or geographies. Add to that we have some people who are known to be transitioning to other divisions and others who are likely to be let go. We have been given a net new hire target of X in Q4 and Y in Q1.

Some of us have been brainstorming on the best approach to the hiring and we have been hampered by our inability to elegantly display where we are now and how things might change through time. I'm looking for some inspiration for how to display this three dimensional data (time, geography, positions) that not only clearly shows the way people are moving in/out but convincingly shows us tying out to the net new hiring goal which has been placed before us.

Thanks in advance.

posted by jbradley to work & money (3 comments total)

Given the (relatively) small scope of your problem, I think you're overthinking it. Forget about three-dimensional whatnot.

You just need to think about two things- positions and people. A position without a person is a "To Be Hired" (or, in the rare case, "Termed Without Replacement"). Just plug this into your org chart. You'll quickly be able to see, at any given point, where your greatest concentration of hiring needs are.
posted by mkultra at 9:18 AM on October 12, 2005

A tangentially-related request to the universe: If Visio could display time-series data, particularly if it could be scripted like Flash, I would fall to my knees and weep with joy.
posted by Triode at 10:49 AM on October 12, 2005

What about an Excel spreadsheet with time as the X axis (maybe by quarter) and a Y axis that is the number of employees at a particular location. (The Y axis could further be subdivided into number and type of employee at a particular location).

Then you just generate a Excel chart (possibly 3D, but that may be overkill) that shows progression and changes over time and also allows you to input actual numbers and future projected numbers.

If you want to get into specifically tracking which positions are being eliminated, which are transferred, etc. (versus overall growth/hiring in different geographies), then I agree with Mkultra that you just need to plug things into an organizational chart and track each change. What you'll end up with is a series of organizational charts over time.

If you don't already have an organizational chart, then you might want to create one using something like a mind-mapping software program with expanding/collapsing branches, but again, you will still end up with a series of organizational charts that maybe you pop into a PowerPoint presentation.

I agree with Triode that it would be really elegant to see some sort of Flash animation that has expanding/collapsing branches, but I don't believe it's worth the time.
posted by jerryg99 at 12:19 PM on October 12, 2005