Communications Staffing Ratio Falls Amid Growing Complexity

Over the past five years, communication support staff as a percentage of IT staff has remained relatively flat. However, the communication landscape is rapidly evolving, driven by advancements in AI, IoT, 5G, and cloud technologies. While these advancements offer opportunities, they also introduce new complexities for communication support staff. This technological impetus, coupled with remote work, is fundamentally reshaping client and stakeholder engagement modalities, necessitating an evolution in the skill sets and operational focus of communication support functions. 

In 2024, the median size of the communications system support staff as a percentage of the IT staff fell, as shown in Figure 1 from our full report, Communications System Support Staffing Ratios. This minor decline may be influenced by the inclusion of very large organizations in our sample, as the median percentage for these organizations is lower than the overall median. It is also possible that this is a sign of cuts to communications support staffing, but it is more likely due to increases in other areas of staffing, such as project management, data analytics, and security. In other words, it is not that organizations require fewer communications support staff. Rather, they have been able to hold support staff steady while other job functions have been increasing.

The personnel who comprise the communications system support staff include engineers, analysts, specialists, and administrators. They manage email, texts, telephone, videoconferencing, unified communications, and other communications systems.  

While the absolute number of communication support staff may not have significantly decreased, the skill set required for these roles is undergoing a significant transformation. To thrive in this evolving landscape, communication support staff must adapt and expand their skill sets. This includes developing strong analytical abilities to evaluate communication data, improve user experience, and proactively address system maintenance and issue resolution. 

“As interaction evolves from in-person to AI-powered, communication support must follow suit,” said Asif Cassim, principal analyst for Avasant Research, based in Los Angeles. “Stagnation leads to irrelevance and a damaging disconnect with clients and stakeholders.” 

This human-AI collaboration is crucial for ensuring a seamless and user-centric communication experience while navigating the complexities of an ever-growing technological landscape. Ultimately, this fosters greater efficiency and innovation in how we interact with information and systems. 

The full report helps IT managers determine whether their organization is keeping pace with changes in communications systems by comparing their support staff against industry benchmarks. The study uses three metrics to make that assessment: communications system support staff as a percentage of the IT staff; percentage of communications support staff in relation to organization size; and communications support staff by number of users. We provide benchmarks for the composite sample and by organization size and sector. We also provide a benchmark for the larger Network and Communications Group, which includes personnel engaged in supporting network and web infrastructure and security personnel. We conclude with recommendations for optimizing the productivity of communications system support personnel. 

This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, Communications Support Staffing Ratios. The full report is available at no charge for subscribers (click for pricing).