Org charts offer plenty of value for business leaders, but they aren’t just useful to the executive team. Every employee can enjoy the benefits of a public org chart. In fact, an org chart can help you on your first day of work, when working cross-functionally or even during the hiring process.

Here’s how to make your job easier with a public org chart.

Joining a new company can feel like a job in itself. Learning the ropes, getting acquainted with your team and figuring out your responsibilities all take time. Because an org chart gives you a visual layout of the whole company, it can help make the whole process easier. At a glance, you’ll be able to see where you fit into the broader structure, who you report to and who’s on your team. Digging deeper, you might learn something new about your colleagues from their “about me” page on The Org that helps you connect more quickly or work together more efficiently.

In short, a comprehensive org chart will answer most of your onboarding questions before you even need to ask. That means you can find your place much more quickly and get right to work.

Understanding how your role fits into the broader organization can provide some serious motivation. As your company’s org chart evolves, you’ll be able to see how your team is contributing to the business’s overall growth. Knowing that your work makes a difference is fulfilling. Fueled by that inspiration, you’ll be all the more ready to help the whole organization forge ahead to new heights.

Hiring the right candidate is not easy and it ultimately affects everyone. It takes a village (or in this case, a team!) to convert the best talent. While you might not be the direct hiring manager, you play a pivotal role in the hiring process.

In today’s market, candidates are considering more than just salary when applying for jobs. In fact, as many as 77% of people would consider a company’s culture before applying for a job there, according to a 2019 survey by Glassdoor.

To help with their research, candidates turn to social media, job boards and org charts to learn about the job and company culture. Companies with a strong employer brand can use these same outlets to build trust among prospects and authentically demonstrate what it means to work for your company.

In fact, you and your colleagues are the employer brand. This is how you can showcase your company’s culture without getting on the phone to explain it to every candidate. It automates part of the candidate conversion process and also helps surface and introduce more motivated candidates to hiring managers.

Help both your hiring managers and potential candidates out by providing an insight into what it would be like to work together. You can do this by showcasing who you are, what led you to your current role, how you prefer to work, your day-to-day responsibilities, any passions you might have outside of work or fun facts about yourself on your position page!

What is something you would have loved to see and know about your future colleagues?

The better you get along with your team members, the more fruitful your professional life will be — and having an org chart can help.

Org charts function as a visual directory of a company’s entire staff. At the click of a button, you have your colleagues’ names, photos and professional profiles on hand. This can help you engage them with confidence. No more struggling to attach a name to a face or remember anyone’s role in the team.

Plus, because many org charts include a brief “about me” section for each employee, you may be able to find common ground and establish deeper connections. They might mention their hobbies, interests, backgrounds, pets and favorite foods.

…all of which can become an easy ice breaker. Maybe someone else in the office likes the same music as you or roots for the same sports team. That’s the first step to that coworker becoming a friend.

Being able to successfully communicate and build meaningful relationships with your colleagues will promote unity in the workplace and make your days feel more satisfying. No one wants to feel alone in a crowd.

Public org charts help clear up the bottlenecks and information gaps that often form in professional settings.

With a public org chart, you know who you work with, who you report to and who you should go to with a question. That kind of transparency can save countless hours of lost time and boost your productivity significantly.

For example, let’s say that you work in marketing, and you’re trying to find a legal executive who can answer questions relevant to your department. Normally, you might waste the better part of a workday trying to track down the right person before finding them. Even after you find them, the extended delay may make it harder for you to get back into your standard workflow. You’ve interrupted your usual rhythm.

But with an organizational chart, you’ll have the entire legal department laid out clearly for you. You can pinpoint exactly who to talk to, and their contact info will likely be included right there in the chart. You’ll be able to get the answers you need and get back to work in a fraction of the time you’d have lost otherwise.

More and more companies are transitioning to remote work, and that comes with plenty of benefits and drawbacks for employees. Obviously, it’s nice to skip a boring commute and work from the comfort of your own home. But remote work can also make it harder to maintain relationships with your coworkers, keep track of your place in the broader hierarchy and feel like you’re really a part of the team.

Each of those problems can create distance within the company and stunt productivity. A public org chart helps keep you connected, in the loop and fully aware of your place in the company. It also fosters clear communication even from a distance, acting as a sort of professional social media within your organization.

An org chart can also show where else you might grow in the company — especially as you climb the ladder.

Seeing the layout of your organization makes it easier to plan your career progression. Maybe there’s a position above you that you’re interested in, or maybe you just think you’d be better suited to another department. Either way, the org chart will give you an idea of the skills and experiences you should develop to find your ideal role in the company. It also lets you know which coworkers you should form relationships with in order to get an “in” for a specific team or department.

An org chart can help make climbing the rank more practical, too. By showcasing your place in the company, you can get the credit you deserve for your team’s accomplishments, making it more likely that colleagues involved in your potential promotion will take notice of you. That could come in handy once the time is right to pursue a new position.

Even if the trajectory of your career leads you away from your current company, public org chart software can still be helpful. An org chart can serve as a kind of visual resume. By showing potential future employers what responsibilities you had at your previous jobs, who you worked with and who you reported to, you can establish credibility and increase your chances of getting hired.

Don’t just tell hiring managers what you did at your previous job. Show them.

Companies can add open positions to their org charts, showing job candidates what roles are available and what team they’d be on. Better still, this method of job hunting can give you a deeper insight into whether a particular company is a good fit for you. You can use their org chart to get a feel for how they’re structured, who you would be working with, who you would report to and what your specific role would entail. Any of these factors could help you decide whether you want to apply for the position.