There's no universal formula for how many IT people a business needs - anyone quoting a single ratio is oversimplifying. What actually matters is the complexity of your environment, not just your headcount. Here's how to think about it properly.
Why Headcount Alone Isn't the Right Question
A 30-person business running Microsoft 365, a handful of laptops, and one line-of-business app needs far less support than a 30-person business running a legacy on-premise server, several specialist software platforms, and multiple physical sites. Staff count is a starting point, not the answer - what actually drives IT support need is system complexity, compliance obligations, and how much downtime the business can tolerate.
What Drives the Real Number
- Number and complexity of systems - more line-of-business software, more integrations, more support burden
- Compliance requirements - regulated industries (finance, health, legal) need more proactive security and audit work, not just reactive fixes
- Tolerance for downtime - a business that can absorb a half-day outage needs less coverage than one where every hour offline costs real money
- Growth rate - a business adding staff or locations quickly needs more IT capacity than the current headcount alone suggests
Rough Benchmarks (With a Big Caveat)
Industry figures often cite something in the range of one IT support person per 50-100 users for straightforward environments. Treat this as a sanity check, not a formula - a business with heavy compliance obligations or complex infrastructure might need meaningfully more support per head, while a simple, cloud-native setup might need less.
The Real Choice: One Hire vs a Team vs Managed IT
One Internal Hire
This works while the environment stays simple, but it creates a single point of failure - no coverage when that person is on leave, sick, or focused on a project, and no realistic way for one person to be genuinely strong across helpdesk, cybersecurity, networking, and backups all at once.
A Full Internal Team
Only tends to make financial sense once a business is large enough to justify multiple specialist roles - a genuine team, not just several generalists doing the same job. This is a significant fixed cost most SMBs can't justify.
Managed IT
For most businesses under roughly 50-100 staff, a managed IT provider delivers broader coverage - a full team's worth of specialisation - for less than the fully loaded cost of even one experienced internal hire. See our guide on in-house IT vs managed IT for the detailed cost comparison.
Co-Managed IT
For businesses that already have a valued internal IT person but need backup coverage, co-managed IT fills the specific gaps - after-hours support, security monitoring, specialist projects - without replacing what already works. See our guide on co-managed IT services for how this model splits responsibility.
A Practical Way to Work It Out
Start by tracking how much time is currently spent on IT issues (by whoever handles it now, even informally), how often something goes unresolved for too long, and how many hours of downtime the business has absorbed in the past year. That gives a far more accurate picture than any generic ratio.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a standard IT-staff-to-employee ratio I should use?
General benchmarks (often cited around 1:50 to 1:100 for straightforward environments) exist but aren't reliable in isolation - a business running complex line-of-business software or multiple sites needs more support per head than a simple office setup. Use these ratios as a sanity check, not a formula.
At what size does a business typically need its first dedicated IT hire?
There's no fixed number, but many Perth businesses reach the tipping point somewhere between 20 and 40 staff, when ad-hoc support from an owner or office manager stops being sustainable. Below that, managed IT usually delivers more coverage per dollar than a single junior hire.
Can one internal IT person realistically cover cybersecurity, helpdesk, and infrastructure alone?
For a small environment, sometimes, but it's a genuine risk once the business has any meaningful complexity - if that person is on leave, sick, or simply focused on a project, there's no coverage for anything else. This is exactly the gap co-managed IT is built to fill.
Is it cheaper to hire internally than to use a managed IT provider?
Rarely, once you account for salary, super, leave, training, and the fact that one person can't specialise in everything a business actually needs covered. A managed provider gives access to a full team - helpdesk, security, backup specialists - for less than the fully loaded cost of one experienced in-house hire.
We'll assess your environment's actual support needs, not just your headcount, and give you an honest read on what level of coverage makes sense.
Managed IT Services →Not sure if you need one hire, a team, or a provider?
Call 0433 087 091 - we'll talk through your environment and give you a straight answer, no obligation.
Get Free IT Staffing AdviceFor related reading, see our guides to in-house IT vs managed IT and co-managed IT services.