Organizational Hierarchy: Setup and Management Guide

Introduction

The Organizational Hierarchy feature in Oberon (formerly EmployPlan) provides a structured approach to managing your organization's practices, groups, and reporting relationships. This guide will help you implement an effective organizational structure that supports proper governance, streamlines workflow approvals, and enables efficient resource management.

Understanding Practices and Groups

In Oberon, your organizational units are called "Practices." Each Practice represents a business division, department, or team in your organization and can have:

A hierarchical relationship with other Practices (superior and subordinate)
A designated Practice Lead/Manager
Multiple members with specific roles and professions
Support roles with specialized responsibilities

Step-by-Step Implementation Process

Step 1: Map Your Real-World Structure

Before creating practices in the system, consider:

Identify your top-level divisions: What are the major departments or business unitst?
Determine reporting relationships: How do these units relate to each other hierarchically?
Identify key leadership roles: Who will lead each practice and serve in support roles?

Step 2: Create Your Practices/Groups

To create a new Practice:

Navigate to Settings > Organizational Hierarchy
Select the Practices tab or the Groups tab, depending on the resource type. We will use Practice here but the process is similar for both types.
Click the Create new practice button
Enter the Practice details

When creating each Practice, you'll provide:

Practice name: A descriptive name (e.g., "Engineering", "Marketing")
Superior practice: The parent Practice in the hierarchy (if applicable)
Practice Lead: The person who will lead this Practice
Support roles: Specialized positions within the Practice
Members: The users who belong to this Practice

Step 3: Assign Specialized Support Roles

Each Practice should have support roles assigned to handle specific functions:

Resource Manager: Oversees resource allocation, assists with hiring or contracting
Learning Manager: Manages skill development, learning plans, and training initiatives
Financial Manager: Handles budget tracking, financial compliance, and ROI tracking

To assign roles within a Practice:

Select the appropriate role from the dropdown
Choose the person from the available list
Save your changes

Step 4: Create Sub-Practices (Teams or Groups)

For larger organizations, create sub-practices that report to higher-level practices:

Create a new practice as described above
Select the appropriate superior practice
Assign leadership and support roles specific to this sub-practice

Subordinate groups will appear nested under their superior Practice in the hierarchy view.

Configuring Practice Settings and User Permissions

After establishing your organizational structure, focus on configuring settings for each practice and training practice managers.

Roles and Permissions Model

Oberon implements a streamlined approach to roles and permissions:

Each user holds exactly one primary role in the system
Roles are scoped to specific practices
Each role can have multiple permissions assigned
Superior practices inherit observer permissions for subordinate practices

Configuring Business Rules and Workflow Settings

Work with Practice Managers to establish practice-specific settings:

Approval Workflows: Define who must approve resource allocations, time entries, etc.
Role Templates: Create standardized roles for common positions within practices
Time-Tracking Norms: Set expectations for time tracking frequency and detail

Training Practice Managers

Before broader user onboarding, ensure Practice Managers understand how to:

Add or remove users from their practice
Create and manage projects within their scope
Monitor team progress and workloads
Generate practice-specific reports
Manage resource allocations effectively

Specialized Support Role Configuration

Before general user onboarding, configure specialized support roles with appropriate permissions:

Key Support Roles to Configure

Resource Managers
Permission to view and assign resources across their practice
Ability to create and modify resource profiles
Access to capacity planning tools
Learning Managers
Rights to create and assign learning plans
Access to skill gap reports and learning analytics
Permission to manage learning content and integrations
Financial Managers
Access to budget information and financial reporting
Permission to approve financial aspects of projects
Ability to manage billing rates and financial settings

Configure Workflow Rights and Approval Structures

Ensure each specialized role has the correct permissions to:

Approve relevant requests within their domain (resource requests, learning plans, budgets)
Access appropriate data for their function
Receive notifications for actions requiring their attention

Managing the Organizational Hierarchy

Viewing and Navigating the Hierarchy

The hierarchy view provides a visual representation of your organization:

Tree structure showing superior and subordinate relationships
Indicators showing number of subordinates and users
Expand/collapse functionality for branches of the hierarchy
Search functionality to find specific Practices

Making Structural Changes

As your organization evolves, you may need to modify the hierarchy:

Moving a Practice: Change its superior practice to relocate it in the hierarchy
Merging Practices: Transfer members from one practice to another
Splitting Practices: Create new sub-practices and redistribute members

Governance and Best Practices

Maintaining Effective Governance

Regular Reviews: Schedule periodic reviews of your organizational structure
Change Management: Establish a process for requesting and approving structural changes
Documentation: Maintain documentation of your hierarchy design decisions

Key Tips for Success

Start Simple: Begin with a manageable structure that can be expanded later
Align with Reality: Ensure your Oberon structure reflects real-world reporting relationships
Empower Practice Leads: Train and trust practice leads to manage their areas
Balance Depth: Avoid creating too many hierarchical levels that could complicate governance
Consider Workflow Impact: Design your structure with approval workflows in mind

The Organizational Hierarchy integrates with other Oberon features:

Action Center: For task escalation and workflow management
Roles and Permissions: For detailed permission configuration
Project Management: For assigning resources from practices to projects
Dashboard: For practice-based data analysis