For example, if the organization uses different tools in different departments, it has a greater reliance on technology. How Many Software Programs, Business Applications, and Operating Systems Does the Organization Support?In many cases, the reason smaller IT support teams may not be able to handle a larger quantity of users is because they’re handling greater responsibilities. They’ll likely have a more complicated (and more time-consuming) set of responsibilities. Is the Organization Centralized?Some IT departments support multiple office locations, field agents, and full-time employees and contractors. Questions to Ask When Calculating IT Help Desk Staff to User RatiosFor IT to showcase they’re thinking beyond technical firestorms and considering the organization’s success as a whole, there are a few numbers (and questions) to consider when determining what the best IT staff per user ratio may be for your organization: Technology companies and organizations with younger workers can have lower ratios of end users to IT help desk workers, and educational institutions tend to have much higher end user to help desk worker ratios (understandable, given the number of students included in this user count).Ĭompanies experiencing rapid growth tend to add non-IT employees and play catch-up later by adding IT help desk support after service desk workers continuously make the case and convince management they’re understaffed. Broad Industry Trends to Know About for Help Desk Staffing RatiosThere are, of course, outliers in this data about ideal IT staff to user ratios. Additionally, 17 reported user to service desk worker ratios on numerous IT discussion threads found an informal average of 242 users to one service desk worker. For example, one lucky support member working in a tech-savvy environment reported a 30:1 user to service desk worker ratio while another was outnumbered with an 800:1 ratio. If you look through discussion threads online, you’ll see help desk to user ratios are all over the map. A more recent survey from Robert Half Technology echoes the Gartner research, suggesting a 70:1 employee to help desk ratio is suitable, though it often depends on a number of variables in an organization. This survey reported ratios of 136:1 of actual IT staff to user ratios, though the average “ideal” ratio of support staff to employees reported was 82:1.Īnother common ratio you’ll see batted around as an “ideal” end user to IT service desk worker ratio includes research from Gartner of 70:1. ![]() IT Staff Per User Ratio Survey and Benchmark DataWhen you start researching IT staff to user ratios, a 2008 survey by Robert Half Technology of 1,400 CIOs is often cited. In this article, let's dive deeper into industry reports about service desk staffing ratios and what to consider when calculating your ideal IT staff to employee ratio. "We have too many IT workers and too few IT problems.”- No service desk, ever.Īsk any IT help desk manager, “What’s the ideal IT staff per user ratio?” Almost all of them will say, “Lower than ours.” However, since IT service management environments differ so much across industries and individual businesses, it’s not easy to pin down “good” or even “average” end user to service desk staff ratios. It’s common to hear the IT service desk staff has become so swamped with work they feel like IT “firefighters,” working long hours and straining to keep the company’s IT infrastructure functioning during business hours and throughout the nights and weekends.
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