How do I recreate my organizational structure?

Before sending out your first question sets in TeamEcho, it is vital that you think about how you want to set up your teams. A clever structure enables you to pinpoint where actions are needed. And it supports the quality of your feedback.

Teams are the heart of TeamEcho - the name says it all. A clever team structure makes it possible to determine exactly where specific feedback arises and how best to set sustainable improvements. When determining your team structure, it's best to keep the following two things in mind:

1. Avoid teams that are too small: The perceived anonymity of employees should always be paramount. Therefore, teams should consist of 10 or more people - smaller teams quickly lead to insecurity and therefore have a negative impact on the quality of comments. 
2. Form meaningful structures: The various TeamEcho dashboards and displays allow you to effectively classify, monitor and also compare feedback. But only if you cleverly reflect your organizational structure in TeamEcho.

Find your optimal teams

Best practice experience has shown that too small teams are a hindrance to open exchange and optimal use of TeamEcho. As a guideline, we therefore recommend 10 or more members per team. Of course, this is only a general recommendation - individual adjustments are possible. One thing is certain, however: the higher the perceived anonymity of the employees, the more active the use of TeamEcho.

It is important to maintain a good balance:

• Teams should be large enough to give employees enough security to write feedback openly.
• The teams should be small enough to be able to classify feedback well. Only in this way can you target possible further steps and classify the comments in the best possible way.
• The teams should make sense - especially for the members themselves. Ideally, teams should include people who work together frequently and have a common leader.

In some corporate structures, team divisions are very simple and obvious. In other organizations, however, some work may need to be invested here - but don't worry: these initial considerations pay off immediately. This is because an optimal team composition makes it possible to highlight relevant issues in the immediate work environment of the participants and to work on them together.

Learn in detail how to create teams here.

Departments provide an overview

TeamEcho also offers the possibility to classify multiple teams into departments and superdepartments. This way you can mirror your organization chart and recreate individual company departments.

Departments are summaries of multiple team results. Depending on your individual visibility settings, this department head will then have visibility into all teams that are grouped into the department.

The most important thing to remember about departments is that you cannot start or stop surveys in a department. A department has no team members - the allocation of employees is regulated in the teams. Learn more about departments here.

You can create as many super- and sub-departments as you like - this way you can recreate your structures in the best possible way, both in height and in width, and also create e.g. departments or locations. In terms of functionality, there is no difference between departments and superdepartments.

In our experience, it makes sense to first get a good picture of your own structures - for example, through a detailed organization chart of your company. Now try to adapt the divisions for TeamEcho - here we usually recommend starting with the individual teams. This way you can ensure a good team size before creating departments and super-departments.

Tip: If you're unsure about what structures and team compositions are best for your goals and culture, just get help from your organization! Ask team leaders and employees - this will give you a good basis for decision-making.

Still have questions about how to get started with TeamEcho? Check out the following articles:

• What is the best way to implement TeamEcho?
• How do I communicate what I expect of team leaders when working with TeamEcho?
• Why should I involve team leads in the TeamEcho implementation?