This article about organizational structure is the third in a five-part series about workplace health. The first two parts focused on organizational culture and employee engagement.
Organizational structure is way more than which person is in which box on the org chart. It’s one of five key factors—along with organizational culture, employee engagement, leadership, and training—that could be causing big problems in your workplace.
To be strategic about structure, you need to think about your credit union’s goals and make sure that the organization is structured to support achieving those goals. You also need to “annotate” the organizational chart—that is, to dive deep into how it’s laid out, not just gloss the surface in its design.
For example, a structure that is overly hierarchical or siloed can lead to slow decision-making. Or, if roles and responsibilities aren’t well defined, employees may be unclear about their responsibilities or duplicate work.
The wrong structure can lead to difficulty in scaling. When this happens, credit union leaders may struggle to accommodate growth or adapt to changing member needs.
So what do you need to do? Start by discerning whether there’s a problem with your organization’s structure.
Diagnosing an organizational structure issue
I recommend three steps in evaluating the success of your organizational structure.
- Collect relevant artifacts and look at them together. These documents may include the organizational chart, job descriptions, your staff recognition and reward programs, and the strategic plan.
- Have a conversation about each document and the documents together. Look at things like how any gaps in service delivery or member satisfaction might be related to how your teams are structured.
- Encourage questions. Give plenty of time for questions. And if people are willing to speak up, honor their questions with your time and attention. You may find nuggets of gold for your organization.
How to treat an organizational structure problem
After you have identified organizational structure as a problem, look at your goals and how your organizational structure might better support achieving them.
For instance, if your goal is digital transformation but you notice staff resources aren’t aligned, consider your next step: identify options to rethink how your structure can help achieve that goal. You could, for example:
- Move a high-performing branch operations leader with strong process improvement skills into a cross-functional project role to lead digital initiatives.
- If internal resources are limited, consider outsourcing specific functions—like app development or data analytics—to accelerate progress.
- Ensure there’s a clear executive sponsor for digital transformation who can prioritize projects and remove barriers.
Similarly, if your objective is to grow loans, ensure the organizational structure and resources are positioned to support it. In this context, you could:
- Simplify approval layers so frontline lenders can make timely decisions within defined parameters, improving the member experience.
- Bring your lending, marketing, and member service teams together regularly to share data on member needs, campaign results, and process bottlenecks.
- Add support roles or technology tools that free loan officers to focus on business development.
Three key questions to consider
As you work to make your organizational structure better support your overall goals, these guiding questions may be helpful:
- Are we experiencing any gaps in service delivery or member satisfaction due to how our teams are organized?
- Are our roles and responsibilities clearly defined, and do employees understand their individual contributions to the organization's goals?
- Do we have the right people in the right roles, and are they empowered to make decisions within their scope?
The good news about your efforts to have a healthy workplace
While an unhealthy workplace isn’t a good thing to have, take heart. The five key factors in organizational health, including organizational structure, are easy to improve. And, because the five areas overlap, when you work on one factor, you’ll often get improvement in others.
Whether you tackle the challenges of your organization’s health on your own or engage an expert to help, this work is doable now and also sustainable over time. Be one of those credit unions with a healthy workplace, and you’ll put yourself on track to have engaged employees and members, deliver on your strategy, and be poised for sustainable growth.
