Struggling with Department Restructuring in Construction HR? Need Practical Advice!

Hey everyone,

I am working in a construction company as an HR Assistant. In our company, there is no proper structure of positions in different departments. I want to make a restructuring plan for all departments in organizational charts. My purpose is to create a setup that will be helpful in the flow of instructions from top to bottom levels. I need suggestions on how to accomplish this task and where to start from.

Hi Md. Ejaz, Before jumping to any conclusions, I need to clarify whether you are planning to restructure the head office reporting system or just focus on the site level. Please provide sufficient data if you are seeking a solution.

Hello Muhammad Ejaz,

Vikash Sharma is right. Please be as elaborate as possible if you want any workable solution(s) to your query.

Also, it's a bit odd that YOU have been given this task, even though you are only an HR Assistant, since such tasks are invariably assigned to senior HR persons in the company. Is your goal more of a knowledge-gaining experiment, or are you expected to submit your report to the higher-ups in the organization? Please note that there's nothing wrong with conducting such an exercise even for knowledge purposes, except that there will be limitations to such an exercise.

One more thing - based on your present posting - is that your focus seems to be just top-to-bottom. For your model/plan to be truly effective from the HR perspective, it has to be BOTH top-to-bottom AND bottom-to-top. One of the main reasons why organizations fail to perform in the long run is the inability to read the indications of the lower-rung employees, which is usually due to a lack of a suitable mechanism to tap such feedback and incorporate it into the overall management strategy/policy.

Regards,

TS

Hi, and thank you Mr. Vikash Sharma & Mr. TS.

@Mr. Vikash, dear, I want to design a complete structure from the office to the sites. In our company, there are 10 existing departments, and all department managers are present here. Every department has its setup, and regarding the sites, all project managers directly report to the VP and the Operation manager. All sites are under their supervision. Therefore, I want to design a comprehensive structure that includes the already existing positions (correcting any positions if some are not in the right place) and positions for our future needs, both in and under each supervisor.

@Mr. TS, please do not consider my position as HR Assistant. Another point is that I wish to undertake this task because we lack a proper plan for the management structure, and also for learning purposes.

Thank you.

Can you provide the names of all departments and existing designations?

Best Regards,
P. Manoz Kumar

Hi Md. Ejaz.

For Head Office
Hierarchical Organization/Structure with hierarchical communication structure sometimes can go straight.

For site level
Hierarchical Organization/Structure but with a straight communication structure (Top to bottom, Bottom to top, middle to top, top to middle, bottom to middle, middle to bottom, bottom to bottom, middle to middle, top to top).
Lastly, the Project manager can only discuss with the head office. Here, the communication system should rely solely on the project manager.

Thank you all. Well, we have the following departments in the office:

- Accounts
- Administration & HR (including some IT staff)
- Tendering / Bidding
- Marketing
- Planning
- Technical
- Procurement
- Infrastructure
- Contracts
- Industrial Projects
- Electromechanical

On every site, we have a sub-office supervised by Project Managers. The staff members at the sites are also accountable to their main department managers at the head office. Project managers report directly to the VP, and the operations manager comes after the VP.

Dear Mr. Vikash, could you kindly provide me with some examples of your response within our departments?

Dear Ejaz,

You can easily prepare an organizational structure. First of all, prepare the organizational chart for the site and Corporate office separately, just depending upon the hierarchy level. For example:

Site:
- Site Head
- Accounts
- HR
- Projects
- Quality

Follow the same type of structure for the Corporate office. Keep the reporting link if necessary or maintain separately if sufficient.

Best Regards,
P. Manoz Kumar

Good Morning Dude,

As I previously mentioned in your quote, here I am giving you some examples as well as benefits for adopting a Hierarchical Structure for an Infrastructure company.

First, for the site level:

At each site level, there are various departments such as Civil, Mechanical, HR and IR, Accountant, Store, Operations, etc. Each department cannot be handled by the Head Office departments alone because this is not a sole project of the company.

Only the Project Manager should be accountable to the Head Office. Each Site Department should be accountable to their respective Project Head only, not to the Head Office or Head Office departments.

Here are the benefits you can note:

1. Discipline can be maintained. For example, if everyone communicates/ is accountable to the Head Office, no one may give importance to the Project Head's decisions because they might think they can explain their problems to their department at the HO rather than at the site level.

2. Accountability - If responsibility lies with the Project Head, the project can run smoothly, each person can play their role effectively, and policies can be implemented easily.

3. Partiality - Can minimize partiality.

4. Working politics will be minimal against one's immediate boss.

5. Work will be done on time.

And for the Head Office:

Here are the benefits you can note:

1. Discipline can be maintained.

2. Accountability will increase for each and every employee.

3. Partiality will be minimized.

4. Working politics will be minimal.

5. Lastly, all policies can be implemented and followed easily.

If you require more clarification, I will guide you.

Have a nice day.