WeSalute Company Structure
Introduction
Welcome to WeSalute Open: Company Structure. Here we provide insight into how the company is structured, with our Enterprise Architecture. Our Enterprise Architecture maps out teams, roles and responsibilities, and cross-team communication and collaboration. The purpose of this document is to transfer knowledge of WeSalute’s Enterprise Architecture so that you can reference it in WeSalute Open and throughout the organization.
Glossery of Definitions
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Organization | The business as a whole sharing the same mission and overall goal of creating a thank you for the WeSalute community. |
| Types | Team Member Types. A label used to determine employment structure with WeSalute. |
| Operation Team / Organization Unit | These are organizational units of WeSalute. They are top level entities of our organizational structure. |
| Custom Team | Custom Teams are based on goals and responsibilities. They are sub-units of Operations Teams. They live in Deel - please contact PeopleOps to configure a Custom Team. |
| Makers | Individual Contributors “making” business goals come to life to provide incredible value to the company. |
| Managers | Managers empower Individual Contributors. They perform span of control operations and represent fellow team members. They also perform compliance and budget operations. |
| Tiers | Tiers reflect company experience and span of control within the company. Tiers are not reflective of compensation or prior work experience. Job Titles are structured to be in alignment with Tiers. |
| Dotted-Line Manager | Managers are assigned as the employee's first line of supervision; dotted line managers are typically assigned to serve as secondary managers. Dotted line managers are used commonly for time-off requests and performance review management. |
| Squads | Squads are an end-to-end experience management and enhancement team. They are comprised of a cross-functional and cross-discipline team. They follow Product-Led Growth methodologies. |
Team Member Types
As a general rule of thumb, if you have an @wesalute.com email address. You are a WeSalute Team Member.
| Team Member Types | Description |
|---|---|
ALL | All Team Members : Full-Time, Part-Time, Agency, Contractor, Interns, etc. |
FULL-TIME | Full-Time Team Members and are exempt employees |
PART-TIME | Part-time Team Members paid hourly and are exempt employees |
CONTRACTOR | Team Members who are contractors, either for short-term or long term engagements ubnder contract |
AGENCY | Team Members not directly employed by WeSalute, but work under contract for WeSalute |
INTERN | Team Members who are Interns qualify for this benefit |
Freelanches and consultants. Who deliver work to WeSalute independent to WeSalute do not have a @wesalute.com email address and are not WeSalute Team Members.
Team Structure
WeSalute uses Deel as our single source of truth for HRIS, Organizational Composition, and management of team member operations.
Any questions regarding where and to what capacity an employee belongs to a team can be found in Deel under the section “Teams”. To see how you are allocated to a team(s), you can also refer to the “Org Units & Teams” tab on your individual Deel profile.
Operations Teams & Organization Chart
Introduction
The organizational structure of the company follows the reporting relationships assigned within Custom Teams & Allocations on a Team Member’s profile, which flows into the Org Chart. The structure of these Org Units cannot be modified.
Operations Teams are important organizational structures in that they provide a direction and ownership to individuals working here at WeSalute. Whether you are on the CustomerOps team, ProductOps team, etc., you know your “teammates” and what your common goals are.
Allocations
Team Members can belong and contribute to multiple Operations Teams. This is known as “Allocation”. A Team Member's Allocation must add up to 100%. For example, if a Team Member had membership due to roles and responsibilities to one Operations Team, their Allocation would be 100% for that Operation Team. If a Team Member had roles and responsibilities for six Operations Teams, their allocation may be 40%, 12%, 12%, 12%, 12%, 12%. With the 40% allocation determining their primary Operations Team, showing on their profile, and their time split equally with five other Operations Teams, which do not show on their profile preview.
Allocations are set and determined in a Team Member’s Deel HRIS profile.
Operations Teams Structure
Operations Teams are structured into Tiers within the Ops Teams and that is reflected into an organizational chart in Deel. We have made this transparent to anyone in the company because we want individuals to know where to go when they need more information on a process, career development, have questions related to a different Ops team, etc.
Organization Chart
Deel references an Organization Chart. This resource is available under the “People” section in Deel and gives insight into who reports to whom within the organization.
Dotted line managers are not visible within Deel’s Org Chart but are available to view within an individuals' personal profile.
Makers and Managers
Within the different Operations Teams there are sub-roles of Makers and Managers. Makers are essential to keep the company running and their roles are generally more asynchronous. Managers are generally more of a reporting type role with more meeting based work.
We always try our best to match the team member to the best title while not creating deviations in our Enterprise Architecture. Here’s a rough guide showing the design pattern of Titles here at WeSalute.
Due to the nature of our Enterprise Architecture and HRIS systems (WeSalute Workspace etc.) all titles must be pre-approved and configured before changes or recruiting is preformed. Otherwise systems will break.
Deel represents the source of truth for all available company titles.
| Tiers | Prefix/Suffix |
|---|---|
| Tier 1, (“T1”) Maker | * Representative, * Associate, * Assistant, * Analyst |
| Tier 2, ("T2") Maker | * Engineer,* Designer, * Coordinator, * Administrator (Generally - T2 Titles are “generic” titles that do not have prefix or suffix seniority associated with them.) |
| Tier 2, ("T2") Manager | * Manager (Makers can also have "Manager" in their title if the Title is aligned with the greater job market) |
| Tier 3, ("T3") Maker | Senior (“Sr.”) * (Generally T3 Titles are “generic” titles that have Senior (“Sr.”) prefix on them.) |
| Tier 3, (“T3”) Manager | Senior (“Sr.”) * Manager (Generally T3 Titles are “generic” titles that have Senior (“Sr.”) prefix on them.) |
| Tier 4, (“T4”) Maker | Staff *, * Lead (Generally T4 Maker Titles have the “generic” title then a “Staff” prefix or a “Lead” suffix.) |
| Tier 4, (“T4”) Manager | * Director (Generally T4 Manager Titles have the “generic” title, then a “Director” suffix.) |
| Tier 5, (“T5”) Maker | Senior Staff *. Sr. Staff * (Generally T5 Makers have their T4 titles, then prefixed with a Senior (“Sr.”) before.) |
| Tier 5, (“T5”) Manager | Sr. Director * (Generally T5 Managers have their T4 Titles, then prefixed with a Senior (“Sr.”) before.) |
| Tier 6, (“T6”) Maker | Principal * (Generally all T6 Makers have Principal prefixed before their role.) |
| Tier 6, ("T6") Manager | VP,*, SVP,* (Generally all T6s are Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents. Due to the Management nature of this Tier, Senior and “regular” VP are not differentiated.) |
| Tier 7, ("T7") Maker | Chief * (It’s extremely rare to have a T7 that’s not a Manager, but it does happen in technical roles.) |
| Tier 7, ("T7") Manager | Chief * (All Executive Leadership in the organization has “Chief” before their titles. These are CxO titles.) |
Operations Teams (“Org Units”)
Introduction
Operations Teams are akin to traditional organization departments.
Self-Organizing Teams
- WeSalute Open is the foundation for each Ops Team.
- Each Ops Team inherits the principles and practices of WeSalute Open and is free to self-organize outside of those principles to execute their goals. That organization is minted in an Ops Team Charter.
- Operations Teams are encouraged to take ownership of their “smaller piece” of the larger puzzle that is the organization of WeSalute.
Productivity and Collaboration
Productivity and collaboration should be most efficient in Operations Teams. While meetings are important to moving things forward, too many “cooks in the kitchen” can be hindering to team productivity while working towards a goal. The “two pizza rule” (meaning a meeting should be no larger than two pizzas needed to feed the whole group) should be practiced so that all voices are heard, and that is encouraged with our smaller Operations Teams.
Leadership
Leadership Competencies
Leadership is not the same as Management. Both Makers (“individual contributors”) and Managers (“organization stewards”) need to exhibit good leadership. Management is more concerned with making sure that projects are successful and that teams form good working relationships together. Leadership is about providing clear and compelling direction to follow.
Managers
Managers coordinate projects, organize and lead meetings, manage teams and make sure that their makers have all of the tools and support needed to help move a project forward. They are reporters for their teams to the larger organization and a resource to the makers.
Manager Competencies
Managers are responsible for many things here at WeSalute. A manager is a leader as well as an advocate for their Maker team members.
Managers are responsible for making sure that deadlines are being met, reporting team blockers to cross operational Ops Teams if and when necessary, making sure Makers have the resources they need in order to fulfill their responsibilities and oversee executing quarterly performance reviews for their Team Members.
To excel as a Manager, Team Members should have excellent focus on time management, reporting progress as well as blockers and have “above and beyond” trust and communication skills with their Team Members.
Maker Competencies
This section is concerned with how a Maker’s deliverable performs in a production environment. This includes looking at the resources required to run the operation, product, and/or workflow. Some examples are computing power, time to execute, user time to completion, time to resolution of workflow, and/or efficacy of the internal operation.
To excel at the Maker role, Team Members should focus on delivering value to our mission and organization while embodying the following principles:
-
Quality
- Quality goes further than just polishing the deliverable. A Maker needs to deliver at a high standard that is well executed, well written, tested and quality assured, properly documented, maintainable, and achieves the original goal of the requirement.
-
Security
- Makers need to be able to fix security issues in their deliverables when they arise, and as Makers become more senior they need to become more adept at preventing security issues from being introduced.
- Security also encompasses the domain of compliance, and more experienced Makers need to be aware of the compliance implications of the requirements that they are asked to build, and be prepared to question these requirements if necessary.
Organizational Tiers
Organizational Tiers reflect a maker’s or manager’s experience within the company. Their Title is reflective of their Tier. As part of WeSalute’s Enterprise Architecture we seek to make titles reflective across Tiers and Operations Teams. This means that if the Team Member is a Maker, or a Manager if they are both Tier 2 (“T2”) they are considered equals within the company. Our goal with this Enterprise Architecture is to create as much as a flat and equal structure as possible, while acknowledging that titles are important for Team Members to do their job.
Title and Tiers are representative of authority and span of control as far as organizational hierarchy. However, Tiers are not representative as equal compensation throughout the organization or tenure at the company. Compensation is based off of market rate, skill set and value delivery to the team as a whole.
The key fact here is that being a “Manager” is not in anyway “above” or ”below” or “reporting to” a Maker. Being a “Maker” isn’t “above or “below” being a Manager depending on your Tier. Individual Contributors, in terms of what value they contribute to our mission, are essential to our goals as a company. Managers' #1 responsibility is to set up their fellow Makers for success.