Family businesses grow on quick decisions and strong commitment. They also tend to take a long-term view. Once growth reaches a certain point, those same strengths start to cause problems. Every decision needs approval from a few people, responsibilities are not written down, and the answer to "who does this?" depends on whom you ask. All of this slows the company down.
What professionalisation is not
Professionalisation tends to bring to mind thick procedure manuals and long approval chains, along with piles of forms. But the goal is not to produce bureaucracy. The aim is for the company to run without depending on particular people. Decisions should be predictable, and everyone should know what they do. A well-built structure speeds work up rather than slowing it down.
First step: seeing the current structure
It is tempting to start by drawing a new organisation chart. But first you need to see how today's structure actually works. Who reports to whom? Where are which decisions made? Which tasks overlap between two people, and which have no owner? The answers reveal the gap between the chart on paper and the way the company works day to day.
Roles and job descriptions
Once the current picture is clear, the organisation chart is reworked around the company's needs. The purpose of each role, its main responsibilities, its authority and its relationship with other roles are defined. At this point, job descriptions are not a formality: they help employees see their own area of work and their place in the organisation.
Decision rights and governance
In family businesses, the most sensitive question is who makes which decisions, and at what level. At this stage, the following are made clear:
- Which decisions are made by the board, and which by the management team?
- Which spending and hiring decisions are approved at which level?
- What are the roles of family members in the company, and what is expected of them?
- Which meetings are held, for what purpose and how often?
Defining the roles of family members as clearly as those of professional managers builds trust, both within the family and among employees.
Titles, grades and pay
Clear roles also bring the title and grade structure into question. Grouping jobs with similar responsibilities into common grades and making titles consistent creates a shared basis for pay management, promotion and career planning. Without that basis, pay decisions remain personal and grow harder to explain over time.
Planning change at the company's pace
Professionalisation is not a project completed in a day. Priorities have to be set, the steps need to be split into phases, and management and employees need to adopt the new structure at each step. Handing the system over to the company and following it up together for a while keeps the structure from staying on paper.
The goal is for the company to have a self-sustaining HR structure that runs without depending on particular people.
You can find the scope of our work with family businesses on the Organisational Development page. To talk through where your company stands today, book a call with us.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a professionalisation project take?
It depends on the size of the company, its current structure and its priorities. In the first meeting we assess the current situation together, split the work into phases and set out the scope and timeline of each phase from the start.
Does professionalisation change the place of family members in the company?
Professionalisation does not aim to distance family members from the company. The aim is to make their roles, and what is expected of them, clear. When it is clearly defined in which roles and with what authority family members take part, trust grows both within the family and among employees.
