The age-old question when it comes to an IT Department is how many users should there be per IT person? Some smaller companies may experience a 20:1 ratio, while larger companies can be as high as 800:1. According to research done by Gartner in 2003, the ideal number would be 70:1, however, to reach that perfect number within your organization there are certain factors you must take into account:

• How many employees are in your organization? You don’t want your help desk to be overwhelmed, more employees = more IT staff.
• Where are your employees working from? If the organization is centralized and employees are strictly working out of the office, that becomes a much simpler process. Given our current environment, many offices have people working from home which increases the workload and responsibilities of the IT department
• Are these employees using company devices or personal? The help desk team’s job becomes much more intensive and harder to track when employees are using personal devices.
• What are your hours of operation? If employees are working the same schedule, you only need IT support during that time frame. If you have employees in other countries or working staggering hours, you will need to hire more support to accommodate.
• What programs, operating systems, and security do you have in place? Not only is your IT team supporting users, but they also must monitor the tools being used. It can take a team to keep track of a cyber security solution alone..performing updates, tuning, etc.

There may not be a golden number when it comes to the IT Help Desk. Nonetheless, if you ask yourself these questions it can help you better understand your organization and its needs.

If you need assistance finding IT Help Desk professionals or are looking for a new IT role, be sure to contact us at the form below or give us a call at 630-789-2525.