Right-Size Right: 6 Steps To Re-sizing Your Organization

How do you right-size your organization? In times of economic uncertainty or organizational change, businesses often turn to downsizing as a quick fix to cut costs. It makes sense on the surface: a smaller headcount should mean smaller overhead costs, right???

Unfortunately, this slash-and-burn approach frequently leads to unintended consequences, such as the loss of critical talent, decreased morale, and hindered growth potential. At Stratavize, we believe there’s a better way—a data-driven, strategic approach to right-sizing that positions businesses not just to survive but to dominate their industries. Join us on this brief overview to learn how to right-size the right way.?

The Problem with Traditional Downsizing?

When companies face financial pressures, the knee-jerk reaction is often to reduce headcount. Typically, this means cutting middle management, marketing teams, and training or development personnel. While this may reduce expenses in the short term, it can severely hamper an organization’s ability to operate efficiently and grow.

Middle management often plays a critical role in bridging the gap between executive strategy and frontline execution. Marketing drives brand visibility and customer engagement, while training and development ensure employees have the skills needed to adapt and innovate.??

Organizations that focus solely on cutting costs without analyzing the work that needs to be done risk creating operational bottlenecks, lowering employee engagement, and missing growth opportunities.?

So why do they do it?

Marketing, training, and middle managers are often the squeakiest wheels in the company. They’re the ones pointing out gaps, suggesting opportunities, and asking for budgets to grow and improve. They are the departments that don’t make the widgets or sales calls. They are a quick target to save a quick buck.

If your marketing manager suggests the company purchase space in a new area to target a new market, it’s easier to focus on the proposed spending instead of the potential returns because the expenditure is far more tangible than potential future success.

It’s the same for training, too: a budget for leadership development has more concrete dollars and cents attributed to it than the returns your company will face by graduating new leaders from this program who will help your company grow. That’s all too abstract and too distant in the future.

In fact, does your company even need a training and development team… or a marketing team? Of course, they do, but it’s easy for these departments to face brutal consequences when it is necessary to down-size.?

What Does It Mean to Right-Size??

Right-sizing is not just about reducing the workforce—it’s about optimizing it. This means aligning your organizational structure and workforce with the company’s strategic goals and future growth plans. It involves understanding the work that must be done, identifying who is essential to carry out these tasks, and determining what resources are required to support them. Right-sizing is a holistic process that ensures your business is lean, efficient, and positioned for long-term success.?

The Stratavize Approach: A Data-Driven, Bottom-Up Strategy?

At Stratavize, we approach right-sizing differently. Our process is thorough, unbiased, and rooted in data. Here’s how we do it:?

1. Analyze the Work, Not Just the People?

Before making any staffing decisions, we start by analyzing the work that needs to be done daily. We trace these tasks throughout the company to uncover who is essential to carrying them out, who supports those individuals, and what resources they need to succeed. This ensures that critical functions are not disrupted and that the organization can continue to operate smoothly. We’re focused not just on smooth daily operations but also on positioning roles to be ready for future growth and expansion.?

2. Bundle “Like” Jobs Together?

Once we understand the tasks, we group similar jobs together. This helps identify redundancies and overlaps (places where you may want to reduce) and opportunities to streamline processes and improve efficiency. Bundling like jobs also allows us to see where there may be gaps in skills or resources that need to be addressed to support future growth.?

3. Evaluate Job Descriptions and Titles?

We take a close look at employees’ job descriptions and titles to ensure they accurately reflect the work being done. In many organizations, job titles can be misleading, and roles may have evolved over time without formal updates to job descriptions. By clarifying roles and responsibilities, we can better align the workforce with the company’s strategic goals. You may recall us discussing this in our article, Org Chart vs. Organizational Design: What Does My Business Need??

4. Adopt a Bottom-Up Approach?

Unlike many consultants who take a top-down approach (which is how you end up losing your middle management team), we start from the bottom up. Understanding the day-to-day operations and the people who carry out essential tasks is key to making informed staffing decisions. This approach helps uncover inefficiencies and identify opportunities for improvement that might otherwise be overlooked. We want to ensure a correct number of workers to carry out the work and a right-sized management team to support their work, advocate for them, and liaise with the executive team on strategy.?

5. Make Data-Driven Decisions?

Right-sizing your business is uncomfortable work. Our recommendations are based on data, not personal biases or office politics. We assess performance metrics, productivity data, and other key indicators to determine who is essential to the organization’s success. We’re not afraid to recommend changes, even if it means letting go of someone who has “been there forever” but is no longer contributing to the company’s goals.?

6. Position for Growth and Success?

Right-sizing isn’t just about trimming the fat—it’s about positioning the business for future growth. We identify which positions will be necessary for the company to find stronger footing and thrive in the future. This ensures that the organization is lean and efficient and prepared to seize new opportunities and dominate its industry. We view right-sizing less as a failure or response to economic factors and more as a strategic positioning to allow for long-term potential.??

The Importance of an Outside Perspective?

One of the biggest challenges in right-sizing is maintaining objectivity. It can be difficult for internal leaders to make tough decisions about staffing, especially when personal relationships and office politics come into play. That’s where Stratavize comes in. As an external partner, we bring a fresh, unbiased perspective to the process. Our data-driven approach ensures that decisions are based on facts, not feelings.?

An outside perspective also helps identify blind spots and uncover opportunities that internal teams may overlook. We’ve likely seen others in your position. We bring industry insights and best practices to the table, helping businesses make informed decisions that drive long-term success.?

Right-Sizing the Right Way

Right-sizing isn’t just about reducing headcount—it’s about aligning your workforce with your company’s strategic goals and future growth plans. By analyzing the work that needs to be done, bundling like jobs together, evaluating job descriptions and titles, and making data-driven decisions, businesses can optimize their workforce for efficiency and success.?

At Stratavize, we bring a fresh, unbiased perspective to the right-sizing process. Our bottom-up approach ensures that no stone is left unturned, and our commitment to data-driven decision-making means that your organization is positioned for long-term growth and success. If you’re ready to right-size right, we’re here to help. This is just one part of our four-part process in the Stratavize Transformation Model. When you activate all four parts of the model, you’ll see Whole Systems Change: everything improves together.???

Together, we can design an organization that’s not just functional but exceptional. Request a consultation now. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing list so that you never miss a tip: sign up here.?