Design organisations that perform

Design operating models, organisations and workforce structures that are simpler, more agile and built to perform in a changing world.

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Our approach to design

Leaders are increasingly asking whether their organisations are set up to deliver the ambition they have set out and can respond to the challenges and opportunities ahead. We work with them to answer that question.

From focused team redesigns to enterprise-wide transformation, we design operating models, organisation structures, roles, skills and workforce models, and ways of working that align people, activity and accountability around what matters most.

Our approach combines rigorous analysis with practical co-design. We help organisations understand how work needs to happen, how the organisation should be set up to deliver it, and the workforce and capabilities they will need for the future.

Trusted by organisations facing complex change

We are trusted by leading global organisations across Public Sector, Retail & FMCG, Media, Financial & Professional Services, Energy, and Manufacturing/Industrial sectors to redesign for growth, efficiency, transformation and changing customer or stakeholder needs. We work with clients from all of our offices, including across the UK, North America, Australia, and the Middle East.

Powered by data & digital tools

Our design work combines practitioner expertise with Q5’s suite of organisation and workforce analytics tools, helping leaders move from assumptions to evidence-based decisions.

Together, these tools connect organisation design with strategic workforce planning, helping clients design not only the organisation they need, but a credible path to building the workforce required to deliver it.

OrgMaps

OrgMaps is our core organisation design tool, providing a dynamic model of the organisation and enabling leaders to:

Visualise current structures, roles, reporting lines and cost
Analyse spans, layers, geographic distribution and organisational shape
Model and compare future organisation scenarios
Understand the cost and headcount implications of different choices
Map the existing workforce into the future organisation

Workforce Architect

Our Workforce Architect brings workforce and external labour-market data into organisation decisions. It enables organisations to:

Understand the current workforce through job families and skills profiles
Identify critical capability and skills gaps
Model future headcount requirements under different scenarios
Forecast workforce costs and compare talent markets
Understand where critical skills are available
Explore build, buy and location choices for future capabilities

Strategic Workforce Planning

Our Strategic Workforce Planning approach helps organisations understand the workforce they need to deliver their future strategy, balancing capability, capacity, cost and risk. It enables organisations to:

Understand future workforce demand and compare it with current capabilities and capacity
Identify critical skills gaps and workforce surpluses
Model the impact of AI, automation and alternative delivery models on the workforce
Forecast workforce costs and inform longer-term investment decisions
Build greater workforce resilience, flexibility and clearer pathways for talent progression

Why organisation design matters now

Organisations are operating in a world where strategy, technology, workforce expectations and customer needs are changing faster than traditional structures and planning cycles can respond.

Leaders increasingly need to reshape how work gets done while maintaining performance, managing cost and ensuring they have the capabilities to deliver in the future.

Four pressures are making organisation design, operating model design and workforce planning more important.

1. Strategy is changing faster than organisations

Growth, portfolio changes, new business models and transformation programmes can quickly leave operating models, structures, roles and accountabilities out of date. The result is an organisation configured to deliver yesterday’s priorities.

Effective design translates strategy into practical choices about what work needs to happen, where it should sit, how teams interact and how resources should be deployed.

2. Technology and AI are changing how work gets done

Automation and AI are reshaping activities, workflows, roles and the capabilities required to deliver work.

The opportunity is not simply to remove work. It is to rethink how work flows across the organisation, what should be automated, how people and technology work together, and where human capability matters most.

This makes AI as much an operating model and workforce question as a technology one.

3. The skills organisations need are changing

Traditional workforce planning based primarily on jobs and headcount is becoming less effective as capabilities evolve more quickly.

Organisations increasingly need to understand the skills they have today, the capabilities they will need tomorrow and how they will close the gap. That means making informed choices about what capability to build, buy, borrow, automate or locate differently, and being able to redeploy talent towards changing priorities.

4. Complexity is increasing the cost of unclear accountability

Organic growth, acquisitions and multiple transformation programmes can create duplication, blurred ownership, fragmented workflows and slower decisions.

Good operating model and organisation design simplifies the system by creating clearer accountability, better interfaces and effective governance, while ensuring resources remain focused on the outcomes that matter most.

Case studies

Discover how we’ve helped our clients

Q5 helps leaders answer the questions that matter most:

Designing organisations that perform

What needs to change?

Understand the current organisation, operating model and workforce: its performance, activities, structures, capabilities, cost and pain points. We combine qualitative insight with quantitative organisation and workforce data to establish a robust baseline.

How should work happen in the future?

What organisation do we need?

What workforce and skills will we need?

What will make the model work?

How do we make the change stick?

Understand the current organisation, operating model and workforce: its performance, activities, structures, capabilities, cost and pain points. We combine qualitative insight with quantitative organisation and workforce data to establish a robust baseline.

Our design expertise

We support clients across the full journey, from understanding how work needs to change, through designing the organisation, building the workforce and implementing the new model.

Operating model design

Translate strategic priorities into a practical model for how value will be delivered. Define future activities, organisational boundaries, accountabilities, interfaces, governance and where work should be centralised, decentralised, shared, outsourced or automated.

Detailed organisation design

Turn high-level blueprints into practical structures, teams, roles and capabilities, supported by activity and workforce analysis.

Strategic workforce planning

Connect business plans and future operating models to the workforce required to deliver them. Model future workforce demand, identify critical roles and skills, assess capability gaps and develop practical plans to build, buy, borrow, redeploy or otherwise access the capabilities required.

Skills and capability planning

Move beyond headcount to understand the skills that exist across the organisation and those that will matter in the future. Develop job and skills architectures, identify capability gaps and create a stronger evidence base for recruitment, development, mobility and workforce decisions.

Cost and efficiency-led design

Identify duplication, simplify structures, and redesign work to deliver sustainable efficiency rather than short-term cuts.

Data-led organisation design

Use organisation, activity, and workforce data to understand how work is really being performed and design and test future-state options before decisions are made.

Designing for growth

Built organisations that can scale, flex, and invest in the capabilities that matter most for future growth.

Always-on organisation design

Help leaders build the governance, data, and internal capability to keep organisation design aligned as strategy continues to evolve. Q5’s OD thinking increasingly positions design as a continuous discipline rather than a once-every-few-years exercise.

AI-enabled organisation design

Explore how AI and automation change activities, spans, capabilities, workforce shape, and ways of working whilst keeping judgement, leadership, and human capability at the heart of the organisation.

Meet some of our Organisation Design Leaders

Adam Lewis

Consulting team

John Okten

Partner

Natalie Firth

Associate Partner

Scott Jones

Consulting team

Jay Patel

Associate Partner

Sam Whittaker

Consulting team

Emily Koltunicki

Consulting team

Sophia Ambrono

Consulting team

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Q5 is a trading name of Q5 Ltd, which is registered in England and Wales, Registration No. 15266902.
The Registered Office is Thorney House, 34 Smith Square, London, England, SW1P 3HL.