What are Business Units?
In Workpath, Business Units are a structural feature designed to help large organizations manage their Goals and Teams more effectively. They enable better navigation, streamlined collaboration across units, and overall organizational alignment.
In Workpath, the Organization represents the highest level of alignment, covering long-term Goals, KPIs, and Initiatives for the entire organization.
Business Units form the first level within the organization hierarchy and support vertical alignment with the organization’s strategy, with department and teams within a Business Unit, as well as horizontal alignment across other Business Units.
Why Use Business Units?
Key benefits of using Business Units include:
- Simplified Navigation: Navigate complex organizational structures with ease, making it simpler for users to locate Goals and collaborate effectively.
- Promoted Collaboration Across Units: Stakeholders can participate in and contribute to Goals across Business Units, breaking down silos.
- Flexible Membership: Users can belong to multiple Business Units, enabling cross-functional work.
- Scalable and Secure Member Management: Membership to Business Units is managed via SAML or SCIM integrations for secure and efficient user provisioning. Users assigned to multiple Business Units are still billed under a single license.
- Customizable Visibility: Define how Goals are shared across or restricted within Business Units to align with organizational transparency requirements.
How Business Units Work
Membership and Hierarchy
- Each Business Unit has its own pool of members, which are managed via SAML or SCIM.
- Teams within a Business Unit can only include members of that specific unit.
- Business Units allow for unique hierarchies of Teams tailored to specific departments or divisions.
Visibility Settings
Business Units offer two visibility options for Goals:
- Public: Goals are visible to all other Business Units by default, promoting transparency across the organization.
- Private: Goals are only visible to members of the specific Business Unit, ensuring confidentiality and restricted access.
- These settings apply to all existing and future Goals within the Business Unit.
- Regardless of the Business Unit setting:
- Teams can create private Goals visible only within their Team.
- Teams can also expand visibility by adding:
- Collaborators (with edit rights).
- Followers (with view-only rights).
Analytics
Business Units are available as filters and aggregation options in all Workpath reports.
Analysts will only be able to see data of Business Units which they have access to.
Contrast with Multiple Instances
Unlike setting up multiple Workpath instances, using Business Units allows:
- Streamlined user management (versus isolated systems in separate instances).
- Cross-unit collaboration, which isn’t possible with completely separate instances.
Caveats
While Business Units offer substantial flexibility, but you need to be aware of these caveats:
- Global Goal Cycles: If different Business Units operate on distinct cycles (e.g., quarterly and bi-yearly), Workpath currently supports a global cycle structure. This means that all Business Units can create Goals in all cycles.
By leveraging Business Units, your organization can achieve a clearer, more structured workflow while encouraging cooperation and alignment across departments.