How many IT staff should companies ideally have?

Constant automation and implementation of new technologies imply the informational technology (IT) industry is ever-changing.

To keep up with such a dynamic industry, what can HR do to optimise productivity of IT staff while ensuring they are happy?

Spiceworks recently asked more than 600 IT professionals about their IT staffing practices and found that IT staff work are putting in around 52 hours per week on average and 18% work more than 60 hours a week.

IT professionals who work in education (47.2 hours/week), government (48.7 hours/week) and healthcare (50 hours/week) were also found work fewer hours per week than counterparts in other industries.

On the other hand, IT pros in finance, insurance and legal reported the longest hours with an average of 55.4 hours worked per week.

The survey also delved into how many IT staff firms should have in place in order to have a more even workload.

The average overworked IT department was found to have 10 staff members while IT departments that work normal hours had an average of 17 IT professionals in their staff list.

While the report did not cite a golden IT staff to user/device ratio, all numbers pointed to IT departments being overloaded and there is a the need for more IT headcount.

Properly functioning technology is now vital to every company in the world. As such, the report advised it makes financial sense to invest in people that can optimise the usege of such technology in firms.

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