Removing the role doesn't remove the work
A restructure plan is usually written in roles: which boxes go, which merge, which move. The work inside those roles isn't in the plan, and it doesn't leave when the role does.
Cut a position and its work lands somewhere: on a manager who is already full, on a team that was never sized for it, or back with a contractor at a higher rate. Months later the savings are smaller than promised, and nobody can say where they went.
The opposite mistake is just as common. A role looks expensive, so it’s cut, when the real problem was the mix of work inside it. Moving that work to the right role would have saved money without removing anyone.
Orgsure measures the work in every position, puts a cost on it, and lets you test the restructure before you announce it. You see what moves, what it costs and what the organization looks like afterwards, while the plan is still a plan.
How it works
- Load your HR export. Positions, reporting lines and pay, uploaded as CSV through Orgsure’s import templates. No HRIS integration project.
- Run one activity survey. Every position allocates its time across the same shipped catalog of work activities, so roles are compared on what they actually do, not on their titles. Your own function framework maps onto the catalog as a lens; you don’t rebuild it.
- Price the work. Each role’s time is costed from its pay, so every area of work has an FTE count and a dollar figure, and you can see when an expensive role is carrying work that a less expensive role is paid to do.
- See the structure you’re changing. Span of control and layers for every manager, measured the same way across the organization, so you know which levels and spans the restructure will touch.
- Test the restructure before you announce it. Move or remove work in a simulation and see the change in FTE, cost and structure. Try removing a role, then try moving its work instead, and compare the two before anyone hears about either.
What you get
- Every role’s work, sized in FTE and dollars, so a restructure plan accounts for the work as well as the headcount.
- The roles where a cheaper job is hidden inside an expensive one, where moving work pays back without removing anyone.
- For any role you plan to remove, a view of where its work has to go, and what that costs, before the decision is final.
- A tested scenario, with cost, FTE and structure, that you can take to the executive team and the board.
An example from a modeled demo organization
In a modeled demo manufacturer of about 2,900 people, a VP of Transformation costs $290K a year, fully loaded. Thirty percent of that VP’s time goes to accounting work. That is $87K of VP pay spent on work that costs about $38K at the average accountant’s loaded pay.
Move that work to an accounting role and the organization gets about $49K a year back, with no one removed. The work moved; the person stayed, with 30% more of their time for the transformation work they were hired to do.
Now run the other version. Cut the VP role to save $290K, and the work doesn’t go with it. The 30% of accounting work still has to be done by someone, and so does the other 70%: the leadership of the transformation program. Unless the plan says who takes on each part, the saving on paper is not the saving you get.
These figures come from a modeled demo organization, not a customer.
Why test before you announce
Once a restructure is announced, changing it is expensive: in credibility, in attrition among the people you meant to keep, and in the time it takes to unwind. Before the announcement, changing it costs nothing. A simulation built on measured work lets you find the gaps while they are still cheap to fix: the role whose work has nowhere to go, the manager whose span would double, the saving that turns out to be a transfer.
Where Orgsure fits in the restructure
Orgsure is the measuring layer under the restructure, not a replacement for the people designing it. If a consulting firm is leading the program, Orgsure gives them activity-level data on every position instead of a round of interviews, and the data stays with you afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
Can we test the cost of a restructure before we announce it?
Yes. Once the work is measured and priced, you can move or remove work in a simulation and see the change in FTE, cost and structure. Nothing changes, and no one is told, until you decide.
Why isn’t removing the role enough?
Because the role’s work stays. A restructure that removes positions without placing their work moves the cost somewhere else, often somewhere more expensive. Orgsure shows the work inside each role, so the plan can say where it goes.
Will employees see the survey as a sign of layoffs?
It’s positioned as work measurement, not performance measurement: one wave, a fixed list of activities, usually sponsored by the CHRO. It asks what work people do, not how well they do it.
We have our own function and job framework. Do we have to replace it?
No. Your framework maps onto Orgsure’s catalog as a lens. You keep your vocabulary; the measurement underneath is consistent.
How long does it take?
The HR export loads in the first two weeks, and the survey runs as one wave. A pilot takes 60 days. First findings come in 30 days, from your HR export. The activity findings follow once your survey closes, in weeks 6 to 8.
Does this replace our restructuring consultants?
No. Consultants design the future organization and run the change. Orgsure measures the work they’re designing around.