Give Every Site, Sales Office and Function a Clear Place in Your Organisation
A construction or real estate company is really three organisations under one name: a head office, a set of project sites and a sales operation. Each answers to a different clock. Our organisation design services help you decide who reports to whom, who decides what and up to what limit, and who steps in when the site in-charge is away. The structure is built to carry from one project to the next.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsThe starting point
Does Your Structure Hold When a New Project Starts?
In project businesses, structure often grows by accident. A project is awarded, a team is formed around a capable person, and the arrangement stays. A few projects later, nobody is certain whether the site in-charge answers to the project director, the head of construction or the managing partner.
We help you draw one structure that works at head office, on site and in sales.
You may be experiencing:
- Site in-charges unsure whether they report to the project or to a function head at head office.
- Approvals for purchase, labour deployment and extra work stuck waiting for a director who is on another site.
- Planning, procurement, contracts and accounts each claiming to own the same delay.
- Sales and site arguing over handover dates, defect lists and who speaks to the customer.
- No clear cover when a project manager or site engineer is away, so decisions stall on the ground.
- One person carrying several projects with the title of one.
- A structure drawn for the first project and stretched over the fifth.
- Titles and levels that mean different things at head office, on site and in the sales office.
What we can help with
Our Organisation Design Services for Construction and Real Estate
Structure Assessment
Review how head office, project sites and sales are organised today, who reports to whom in practice, and where the chart and the reality differ. Identify the points where work waits for a person.
Corporate, Project and Sales Structure Design
Define the functions at head office, the standard project team and the sales organisation, and how each connects to the others. We design a project team template that can be scaled up or down by project size.
Matrix Reporting Rules
Settle what a dual reporting line means: who sets the daily priorities of a site engineer, who writes the review, who approves leave and who can move the person to another project.
Site In-Charge Authority
Write down what a site in-charge may decide alone, what needs the project manager and what goes to head office: labour deployment, material receipt, minor purchases, extra work, subcontractor measurement and safety stoppage.
Role Accountability
Describe the key roles from project director and project manager to site engineer, planning engineer, quantity surveyor, store-keeper and safety officer, in terms of what each owns and answers for.
Approval and Delegation Matrix
Set approval limits by role for purchase, hiring, overtime, advances and expenses, and who holds the limit when the approver is on leave or in transit between sites.
Deputy and Handover Arrangements
Name a deputy for every critical site and corporate role, and set out what a handover note must contain when a person moves between projects.
Position Levels and Titles
Build a simple ladder of levels that is readable across site, corporate and sales, so a role means the same thing in every office.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on your needs, your engagement can include:
- A structure chart for head office, a standard project team and the sales organisation.
- Reporting lines, including the rules for matrix reporting between projects and functions.
- A role accountability sheet for each key position.
- A site in-charge authority statement.
- An approval and delegation matrix by role and limit.
- A deputy list for critical roles.
- A level and title framework that applies across sites and offices.
- An implementation plan with owners, dates and a review after the first project cycle.
Step by step
How We Work
Understand How You Operate
We discuss your projects, the way decisions travel between sites and head office, and where you already feel delay or conflict.
Map the Structure as It Works
We trace who actually approves, instructs and escalates on a sample of projects, and compare that with your charts and titles.
Design Options
We draw one or two structures that fit your size and project pattern, along with the effect of each on cost, span of control and speed of decision.
Settle Authority and Cover
With your directors, we agree the approval limits, matrix rules and deputies. These are your decisions, and we record them plainly.
Roll Out and Review
We prepare the charts and role sheets, help you explain them to site and sales teams, record where you stand before the change, and review after the first project cycle.
The difference
Make Decisions Faster Across Sites and Offices
A clear structure helps you:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering how long approvals take, the number of roles with a named deputy, and the reporting questions raised during site visits, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Let site in-charges decide the matters that should be decided on site.
- Reduce the approvals that wait for directors who are elsewhere.
- Give each function a clear owner for each delay, so that blame has somewhere to land.
- Move people between projects with fewer disputes about who they report to.
- Keep sales, site and customer relationship teams working to the same handover facts.
- Reuse the same project team template for the next project.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Developers and Builders
Set the line between project, function and sales teams before another project is added.
Civil and Infrastructure Contractors
Give package managers and site heads clear authority and cover across geographically spread sites.
Interior, MEP and Architecture Firms
Define who leads design, who runs the site and who owns client communication in project-led teams.
Real Estate Agencies and Property Consultants
Set team leads, branch heads and back-office roles in a sales structure with many reporting lines.
Property and Facility Management Companies
Organise property managers, supervisors and shift teams across the buildings you manage.
How it usually shows up in construction and real estate
A construction business runs on sites, projects and a head office, and the lines between them decide who acts when the programme slips. Procurement, planning and finance at head office have their own priorities, and the site is left to make the pieces fit. On site, the engineer, planner, supervisor and storekeeper each own part of material and progress with no single point of accountability. Each new project usually builds its structure afresh, and who manages a subcontractor's gang day to day depends on the day.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in construction and real estate
Site and head office pull in two directions
Procurement, planning and finance at head office have their own priorities, and the site is left to make the pieces fit.
Roles on site overlap
Site engineer, planner, supervisor and storekeeper each own part of material and progress, with no single point of accountability.
Project structures are rebuilt each time
Each new project starts with a new chart, and the lessons of the last one are not used.
Contractor supervision is unclear
Who manages a subcontractor's gang day to day, the contractor's supervisor or the site engineer, depends on the day.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Define the project structure once
A standard site structure for each size of project, with roles and reporting lines, adapted not rebuilt. The organisation design work sets the standard.
- 02
Give each site a single point of accountability
The project manager or a named lead owns whether the day's work can happen, with authority across material, labour and plant.
- 03
Write the head office and site interface
Who at head office the site calls for what, and what the site can decide without calling.
- 04
Settle contractor supervision
The contractor supervises their gang, the site engineer accepts the work, and both are written down.
What to check this week
- Ask a site engineer who owns a short delivery and who decides what to do about it.
- Compare the structure of two recent projects of similar size.
- Check whether the interface between head office and site is written anywhere.
- Find out who manages a subcontractor's gang day to day.
- Look at how many decisions go up to the project director that a site lead could take.
What this looks like in construction and real estate
The parts of organisation design that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Corporate, Site and Sales Structure
Three organisations under one company.
What this coversHide
Corporate, Site and Sales Structure
Three organisations under one company.
What this coversHideThe commonest structural failure is leaving unsettled whether a site in-charge reports to the project or to a function head at head office.
- Corporate structure
- Project and site structure
- Sales organisation
- Site in-charge authority
- Matrix reporting rules
- Roles and responsibilities
- Approval matrix
- Position levels
Questions on this, in construction and real estate
Usually not. We design a standard project team and then adjust it by size and type. This gives your people the same roles and levels from one project to the next and makes redeployment simpler.
We write down what each manager decides, how conflicts are resolved and who writes the review. Where the rules are clear, a dual reporting line can work. Where they are not, it becomes the source of most disputes.
Titles and levels may be simplified. Pay is a separate decision and part of compensation work, which we can take up if you wish. Any change to roles or terms should be reviewed with a qualified professional.
Yes. Even a small contractor benefits from a clear authority statement for the site in-charge and a deputy list. We scale the work to your size.
It depends on how many projects and offices are involved. A single-site contractor needs far less than a developer with several projects and a sales network. We confirm the scope after the first discussion.
We draft the matrix for people-related approvals such as hiring, overtime, advances and expenses, and we can include purchase and contract limits you already hold. The limits themselves are set by you.
The project manager, site engineers, a planner, a safety officer, a storekeeper and supervisors, with reporting lines and who owns material, labour and progress. Adapt it for the size of the project.
One named person, usually the project manager or a delegated lead, with authority across material, labour and plant. Without that, the owner is whoever is on the phone.
Keep a standard for each size, record what worked and update it after each project. A new project adapts it instead of inventing it.
As a defined layer: the contractor supervises their gang, the site engineer accepts the work, and the reporting is agreed in the contract.
Set Up a Structure That Travels From Project to Project
If decisions slow down every time a project is added, begin by putting the structure and the limits on paper.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an Organisation Design Consultation
Tell us about your offices, your projects and where decisions get stuck.
The general method — what organisation design covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the organisation design page. What is above is the part that differs for construction and real estate.
Other HR topics for construction and real estate
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for construction and real estate, or another industry.