Organizational Design
Organizational design software on the org you actually run
Kinnect renders your live supervisory org and cost center trees from the same positions Finance budgets and Recruiting hires against, then hands every reorg to a scenario before anything changes. On Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, ADP and Dayforce.
The Kinnect hierarchy viewer with Type set to Supervisory: the Office of CEO card with headcount 1,872 above division cards for Marketing, Product Marketing and Finance, each showing its lead, filled versus open bar, headcount and sub-org count, with a Scenarios button
Definition
What is organizational design software?
Software for seeing the org you have and designing the org you should have. Kinnect draws two trees from one set of position records, so a seat that moves cost center in a scenario changes the financial rollup, not just the picture.
See
The supervisory org chart
Who reports to whom. The tree HR and the HRIS team own, and the one a manager recognizes as their team.
Kinnect for HR and HRISFund
The cost center tree
Who funds what. The tree FP&A budgets against, built from the same position records as the org chart.
Kinnect for Finance and FP&ADesign
Scenarios
A reorg drafted as an overlay on the live org, compared against it, then exported as a change list.
See Scenario Modeling
Card anatomy
What every org card tells you
- LeadThe org lead, with initials and name. Empty orgs show "Lead unassigned" so a gap in ownership is visible on the chart.
- HeadcountPositions in the org, with a filled versus open bar so you read staffing at a glance without opening the node.
- Sub-orgsHow many organizations sit beneath this one. Collapse a branch and the count tells you what you are hiding.
A canvas subtree: the Finance & Legal group above Finance, Legal and Business Operations cards, Business Operations wearing a MOVED badge; each card shows its lead, a filled versus open bar and headcount
Ownership is access
Roles come from the tree, not from an admin
Manager and budget owner are derived roles. The CEO persona in the demo tenant has full reach with zero granted roles, because every org rolls up to the Office of CEO.
- Manager, from the supervisory orgOwn a supervisory org and you manage it. An individual contributor sees only their own subtree.
- Budget owner, from the cost centerOwn a cost center and you are its budget owner. Nobody grants either role by hand.
- A reorg moves the approval pathMove a team under a new leader and who approves what follows, with no separate approver matrix.
The org detail panel on the Overview tab for ML Embeddings, a Team marked MOVED: org lead Lily Reyes, headcount 45, open positions 0, reporting to ML Platform, with Overview, Positions and History tabs and an Edit organization button
See it live
See the org canvas in action
Tell us about a reorg you are weighing. We will walk the hierarchy viewer, draft one like it as a scenario and read the change list back, on demo data.
- Thirty minutes
- Demo data, shaped by your requirements
- No obligation
A Kinnect position request at the approval step, with the approver's required comment recorded against the decision
What the org tree feeds
One tree, read by every module
The same supervisory orgs and cost centers structure the Dashboard, the Finance tables and the Hiring Tracker. Organization settings decide which org levels the tree includes and which are required on a position.
Dashboard
The "By supervisory org" view reads actual, plan and open positions along the same tree.
See the platform overviewFinance
The cost center table and the Cost Center Hierarchy view roll budget up the funding tree the chart shows.
See the Finance moduleHiring Tracker
The Supervisory Organization Hierarchy button opens the tree from the position list, so a request is placed in context.
See the Hiring Tracker
From the chart to a decision
Every reorg leaves the chart and becomes a scenario
Click Scenarios to draft a reorg as an overlay on the live org. Nothing changes in Kinnect or your HRIS until you export the change list and apply it there.
- Draft as an overlayRe-parent an org, dissolve one, move positions between cost centers. The chart itself is never edited in place.
- Compare against the live orgOrganizations, positions, open positions and target base pay, side by side with Base or another scenario.
- Export the change listA CSV of every org moved, renamed or dissolved and every position added, moved, reassigned or closed, for your HRIS.
A Kinnect scenario canvas for the demo reorg Data & ML rebalance, Option A: ML Platform group: org cards with lead, filled versus open bar and headcount, a MOVED badge, a new dashed ML Platform org, a dragged card mid-move and the Change Summary button
From your HRIS
Built around positions, ingested from your HRIS
Supervisory organizations and cost centers ingest from Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, ADP or Dayforce along with the positions and workers that fill them, so the chart is not maintained by hand.
Ingested
Supervisory orgs and cost centers
Both trees arrive with the positions and workers that fill them, so the chart does not drift from the HRIS.
Every HRIS integrationStaffing model
Position management first
Kinnect is built around positions. If you run job management, the decision guide covers the trade-off.
Position vs job managementStarting point
If the org lives in spreadsheets
When the current state of your org sits across department files, start with the consolidation guide.
Headcount without 47 spreadsheets
Questions about organizational design software
What is organizational design software?
Software for seeing the org you have and designing the org you should have. Kinnect renders the live supervisory org chart and cost center tree from your position records, then lets you draft a reorg as a scenario, compare it against the live org and export the change list for your HRIS.
What is the difference between an org chart and organizational design?
The org chart shows the org you have. Organizational design is deciding the org you should have: which teams report where, which cost centers fund them, which seats to add or close. Kinnect draws the first from live data and does the second in Scenarios.
Which trees does Kinnect show?
Two: the supervisory org chart (who reports to whom) and the cost center tree (who funds what). They are built from the same position records, so a position moved between cost centers in a scenario changes the financial rollup, not just the picture.
How does a scenario differ from the live org?
A scenario is an overlay on the live org with its own Change Summary. Nothing in a scenario modifies live data in Kinnect or in your HRIS. Compare puts the scenario against Base, the live org, and shows the difference in organizations, positions, open positions and target base pay. The handoff is Export change list, a CSV you execute in your HRIS.
Which HRIS does organizational design work with?
Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG Pro, ADP and Dayforce. Positions, workers, supervisory organizations and cost centers ingest from the HRIS through the connection in Settings > Integrations, so the chart is not maintained by hand.
Does it need position management?
Kinnect is built around positions and ingests them from your HRIS along with supervisory orgs and cost centers. If you run job management, the position management versus job management decision guide explains the trade-off.
How do managers and budget owners get access?
By owning something in the tree. Manager and budget owner are derived roles: own a supervisory org and you manage it; own a cost center and you are its budget owner. Nobody assigns them by hand.
Who can create a scenario, and what is logged?
Anyone who can reach the Organizations page can open Scenarios and draft one; scenario permissions are not gated today, so drafts are shared workspaces. Every edit lands in the scenario's Change Summary, grouped by type. Each org also carries a History tab, and positions ingested from an HRIS start their History at ingestion.
How do I keep the org chart from going stale?
It is not maintained by hand. It renders from the positions and workers Kinnect ingests from your HRIS and the positions requested and approved in Kinnect, so it moves when they move.
See your org, then design the next one
A demo walks the hierarchy viewer and a scenario end to end, from the live chart to an exported change list.