Organisation Structures: The Model Everything Else Hangs On
Legal entities, business units, departments, get this hierarchy right and payroll, security, and reporting all flow. Get it wrong and everything fights you.
The organisation model in Core HR is the skeleton the whole body hangs on. Legal employers, payroll statutory units, business units, departments, when it's right, payroll and security and reporting all flow naturally from it. When it's wrong, every one of those fights you forever.
Legal structure first, it's not negotiable
Legal employers and statutory reporting units reflect legal reality, tax, compliance, statutory filing. These aren't design preferences; they're determined by how the business is legally constituted. Get them from finance and legal, not from an org chart.
Then the management structure
Business units and departments reflect how the business is run and reported. This is where you have design freedom, but align it to how leadership actually wants to see the organisation, because it drives reporting and security scoping.
Think about how it'll change
Reorganisations happen. A structure so rigid that a routine reorg means major surgery is a structure that'll hurt. Build in reasonable flexibility for the changes you know are coming.
Real scenario: a client set up their legal employers wrong, merged two entities that were legally separate to 'keep it simple'. Statutory reporting was a nightmare, they couldn't file cleanly per legal entity, and untangling it live was brutal. Legal structure mirrors legal reality, full stop. Simplicity's a virtue everywhere except where the law says otherwise.