How to Automatically Build Your Org Chart in Lucidchart

Creating an organizational chart (org chart) manually is tedious and time-consuming, especially when your team or company is always changing.

Fortunately, Lucidchart—a popular intelligent diagramming tool—makes it easy to speed up the org chart creation process.

What is Lucidchart?

Lucidchart is a cloud-based platform designed to help you visualize ideas, create diagrams, collaborate on flowcharts, wireframes, org charts, and more. However, manually dragging and connecting each employee can become cumbersome and inefficient.

Lucidchart provides a streamlined way to quickly create static org charts by importing employee data directly from a CSV file, instantly visualizing your organization structure.

Step-by-Step Guide to Automatically Create Your Org Chart

Lucidchart simplifies creating an org chart by allowing you to import a structured table of employee information. Here's how you can quickly and effortlessly build your org chart:

Step 1: Prepare Your Employee Data

You have two options for preparing your employee data:

1. Download the Lucidchart example CSV and populate it with your data.

2. Create your own CSV.

Important: When creating your own CSV file, ensure:

• Every column has a header.
• Ensure your CSV file includes essential fields such as Employee ID, Supervisor ID, Name, Role, and optionally, Image URLs.
• You must carefully input accurate supervisor information for each employee (except the top-level executive) to maintain the correct hierarchy.

Step 2: Login and Create a New Document

• Log into your Lucidchart account.
• Click on '+ New' which is located in the top-left sidebar.
• Select Lucidchart intelligent diagramming.
• Click on 'Blank Document'.

Step 3: Import Your Employee Data

• On the top navigation bar, select File.
• Go to Import and choose Data.

• Then, in the left sidebar, select Org Chart.
• Click on 'Import your data'.

Step 4: Upload Your CSV File

• Choose CSV as the data source and click Next.
• Select your prepared CSV file and upload it.

Step 5: Connect Employees to Supervisors

To visualize your organizational structure accurately, Lucidchart needs to know who reports to whom.

• Select the option 'By ID Number' (recommended).

Step 6: Map Employee and Supervisor Columns

• For Employee ID, choose the column labeled 'Employee ID'.
  • If your CSV doesn't have an 'Employee ID' column, use the 'Email' field instead.
• For Supervisor ID, select the column labeled 'Supervisor ID'.
  • If your CSV doesn't have a 'Supervisor ID' column, you can alternatively use the manager 'Email' field.

Click Next.

Step 7: Map Additional Employee Details

• Match the Name field to the 'Name' or 'Employee Name' column.
• Match the Role field to the 'Role' or 'Job Title' column.

Step 8: Optional—Import Profile Images

• If you'd like to include employee profile pictures, map the Image URL field to your CSV's 'Image URL' column.

Click Next.

Step 9: Finalize and Create Your Org Chart

• Select the option 'Create one org chart for my entire organization'.
• Click Finish.

Within seconds, Lucidchart automatically generates your company's org chart, visually displaying the reporting structure clearly and accurately.

Step 10: Customize Your Org Chart

Lucidchart allows you to adjust your org chart:

• Customize the layout and themes.
• Edit or add employee details directly within the chart.
• Enhance the visual appeal and clarity using Lucidchart's built-in tools.

The Challenge of Preparing Employee Data

Building a comprehensive CSV with accurate employee data, especially for large organizations with thousands of employees, can be extremely time-consuming and prone to errors. There's significant effort required to manually enter or maintain this data.

However, there's a quicker, more efficient solution—importing your employee profile data directly from OneDirectory into Lucidchart. OneDirectory's up-to-date and comprehensive employee profiles and interactive org chart ensure that the data you export is complete, accurate, and ready to import.

This integration allows organizations to automatically create accurate org charts in Lucidchart within minutes, eliminating the need for manual CSV creation and data entry.

Give OneDirectory a try with a 14-day free trial - https://www.onedirectory.com/trial.