An org chart can describe the work you have, the people doing it, or both. Org Chart Studio keeps those ideas in one record and gives you 3 separate controls: Position status, Engagement, and Worker type.
Use the controls. Do not stuff “VACANT” or “CONTRACTOR” into a person's name.
Choose the right role detail
Position status describes the state of the position:
- Active is the normal occupied position.
- Open is an unoccupied position you are recruiting or ready to fill.
- Planned is an unoccupied position that is not active yet.
- Interim is an occupied position held on an interim basis.
Engagement describes how the occupant works with the organization. The choices are FTE, Contractor, Intern, and Part-time.
Worker type distinguishes Human from Ai. It does not replace Engagement. For example, a human contractor uses Contractor for Engagement and Human for Worker type.
These fields do different jobs. A contractor can hold an Active position. An interim leader can be an FTE. Open and Planned are the choices that make a position unoccupied.
Mark a position as Open or Planned
- Open People.
- Expand the person's row to show the role fields. On a phone, open the person's actions menu and choose Role details. In the full person editor, expand Status and engagement instead.
- Open Position status and choose Open or Planned.
- Read the confirmation. Choose Clear occupant to continue, or Keep occupant to leave the record as it was.
Changing an occupied position to Open or Planned clears the occupant's name and email. Title, department, reporting relationship, and role details stay with the position.
Casey's name is cleared. Head chef still reports to Alex; Jordan still reports to that position.
Compare occupied and open positions
Occupied:
Open (same reporting structure):
On the chart, an unoccupied card labels the role as Employee · open or Employee · planned when Engagement is FTE. A contractor, intern, or part-time role uses that engagement label instead. If avatars are visible, the empty position uses the open-role symbol rather than an occupant portrait.
When someone leaves and the job remains: set Open, keep the reporting place, fill later. Do not delete the record and rebuild the team.
Fill an open position
Edit the record and enter the new occupant's name and email. In the full person editor, entering either value returns an Open or Planned position to Active. Check the status before saving, then review the title, department, and manager. Those values survived as position details, but the new occupant may need different information.
Mark a contractor, intern, or part-time worker
- Open Role details for the person.
- Under Engagement, choose Contractor, Intern, or Part-time.
- Leave Position status as Active unless the position itself is interim, open, or planned.
Changing Engagement does not clear the occupant. It also does not change the person's manager, title, or department.
The chart shows Contractor, Intern, or Part-time above an occupied person's name. Interim remains occupied and appears with the title, so it does not trigger the clear-occupant confirmation.
On a phone, use the person's actions menu in People, then choose Role details. Compact People has no desktop chart card to select first.
The phone confirmation has the same consequence. Keep occupant cancels the status change. Use Back to return to the People list when you have finished reviewing role details.
Correct a role detail
Return Position status to Active, Engagement to FTE, or Worker type to Human as needed. Role-detail edits are people changes, so Undo can reverse the latest one. Theme and layout changes are outside that history.
If you need to control which ordinary details appear on every card, see How to choose which details appear on your org chart.