One of the most commonly asked questions we see in the IT industry is, “how big should my IT department be”?
And in truth, the answer is relatively complicated. Every business has its own requirements and demands with different software and users. From small companies of 20 people to multinational corporations of over 1,000, IT requirements and IT departments are not one-size-fits-all.
Ensuring your IT department is well-structured and appropriate for your business needs is a huge competitive advantage and an essential part of your business’s success.
Assess Your Business Size and Needs
Before hiring a full-time team of IT experts, you need to evaluate what sort of IT support you need and how many people will be relying on your IT department.
Small businesses – who often rely on cloud-based solutions for data protection and cyber security – may choose to rely on the person with the highest IT aptitude and only call in an expert in an emergency.
Whereas larger companies will need at least one in-house IT expert, even if that person is only a contact point for an external managed service provider.
As well as considering the size of your business, you also need to consider your business’s needs. Do you need basic support when things go wrong? Is software and IT crucial to daily business functions? Do you want to get ahead of the competition using IT solutions and be at the cutting edge?
The demands you will make of your IT department will significantly impact how large the department should be.
How many people should be in my IT department?
For larger companies, the general rule is for one full-time IT expert for every 100 people. On average, one IT expert can handle between 8-12 support tickets per day.
Of course, it’s never that simple. IT support tickets such as those we receive in our London office tend to come and go in waves meaning that sometimes your one IT expert may be twiddling their thumbs and then be totally overwhelmed at other times.
Furthermore, they will likely be able to cover simple support but won’t be able to tackle managing software, tracking updates and proactively planning for the future. Generally, a one-person IT team is reactive, not proactive.
Building An Effective IT Department
Having one person to handle the IT support tickets of 100 people is a bare minimum. If you require more support, want help setting up and updating software or plan on growing your business, you need more than the bare minimum.
Since IT departments have peaks and slow periods, many companies outsource their IT support to a Managed Service Provider. This way, you can achieve greater value for money, increase and decrease your level of support as needed, and have an entire team on hand in emergencies.
Building an effective IT department or investing in an external managed service provider is usually overlooked until it’s too late. IT teams are often built in response to an issue rather than to prevent it from occurring.
Just as your requirements differ from another business, your requirements may vary over time. For most companies, the ability to create a skilled, flexible team of IT experts means outsourcing.
To discuss your requirements and for a no-obligation, bespoke quote, get in touch today.
FAQs
How many people should be in my IT department? For larger companies, the general rule is for one full-time IT expert for every 100 people. On average, one IT expert can handle between 8-12 support tickets per day. Of course, it's never that simple.
How big should an IT team be? ›
Calculating the best IT ratio of staff to employees
On the other hand, a manufacturing firm that employs a lot of manual workers will have a comparatively smaller IT department. However, some generalizations can be made: the average ratio across all sectors and company sizes is one IT worker for every 27 employees.
How to right size an IT department? ›
Establish the size of the IT department
Here you should consider what you want your IT support team to achieve. For example, if you want them to provide 24/7 support or you want them to solely support your employees, be able to handle a specific volume of clients and customers, or a combination of both.
How big should a tech team be? ›
To prevent silos, you then make sure that each team talks freely with each other, as well as move members around occasionally to develop their skills and career. Without necessarily being aware of Price's Law at the time, my experience was that an optimum size for a development team should be 8-10.
How many people should be in an IT department? ›
Gartner recommends that organizations with over 7,000 employees should have a 1:100 or 1:200 IT staffing ratio. These variances in common staffing ratios punctuate the idea that there is no single answer to how many staff IT departments need to have on hand.
What is the average size of an information security team? ›
The average size of an information security team is 15-25 FTEs, including fewer than 5% offshore employees and 5-10% contractors.
What is the ideal team size? ›
Hackman's research on team size
For their research they created teams of 2 to 7 people and asked them to complete tasks that required decision making and judgment. They then asked them to score whether they thought the team was too small or too large. From this they found out that the “ideal” team size was 4.6.
How big is a typical IT department? ›
It really depends on the level of support that the users will require and the complexity of the servers they use… but for typical office users I'd say around 100 staff per IT pro is acceptable.
How many IT staff per employee? ›
Ratio of IT Staff to Total Employees
| Organization Size | 25th Percentile | 50th Percentile (median) |
|---|
| Less than 500 | 1:8 | 01:18 |
| 500 to <1,000 | 01:14 | 01:25 |
| 1,000 to <5,000 | 01:11 | 01:23 |
| 5,000 to <10,000 | 01:10 | 01:25 |
9 more rowsApr 10, 2023
It's important to define clear roles when structuring your IT department. This means laying out the levels of authority and accountability associated with each role. To do this effectively, create a clear hierarchy that outlines who has decision-making power for each aspect of IT operations.
Once you have determined the scale and complexity of your project, you can then decide on the appropriate team size. A team of 5-7 developers may be suitable for small to medium-sized projects. However, a team of 10 or more developers may be necessary for larger and more complex projects.
How do you scale a tech team? ›
4 Key Areas You Must Address When Scaling a Tech Team
- The Vision. Why Do You Want to Scale Your Team? ...
- The Team. Who Will Help Scale, and Who Will You Need to Hire? ...
- The Structure. How Will Your New Team Be Set Up? ...
- The Process. What Processes Will You Bring In OR Adapt as You Scale?
Development and QA teams consist of full-stack, back-end, and front-end developers, as well as software architects, engineers, and testers. In agile software development, product managers, project managers, or scrum managers also play an integral role in development.
How do you run an IT department efficiently? ›
Here are some of the VectorUSA team's key tips to make a great IT department even better.
- Leverage Automation. ...
- Enable and Encourage Self-Service. ...
- Have a Patch and Configuration Management Plan. ...
- View Business Users as Partners. ...
- Identify an Experienced Partner. ...
- Don't Be Afraid to Over-Communicate.
To provide some context for determining IT budget allocation, it's useful to look at industry benchmarks for IT budget spending. According to a recent study, the average IT budget for a small business (under $50 million in revenue) is around 4% of revenue.
What is the ratio of IT staff to user base size? ›
" An overall employee-to-help desk ratio of about 70:1 for organizations with a single operating system and network is considered suitable. That number drops to 45:1 for enterprise networks using a number of operating systems and no consistent hardware standard."
What is the IT staffing ratio recommendations? ›
IT Staffing Ratio Recommendations By Gartner
According to Gartner, organizations with less than 2,500 employees should have a ratio of 1:70 to 1:100. Organizations with between 2,500 and 7,500 employees should have a ratio of 1:130 to 1:175.
What is the basic structure of an IT team? ›
The functional IT organizational structure is a traditional hierarchical structure where the IT department with its own management team leaders is divided into different functions such as networking, software development, infrastructure, and support.
How many people does IT take to be a team? ›
The size of a team is therefore a trade-off or balance between variety and individual input. A team of between five and seven people is considered best for the effective participation of all members, but to achieve the range of expertise and skills required, the group may need to be larger.
