Jinfo feedback - benchmarking information services
Jinfo Blog

By Robin Neidorf

Abstract

Find out more about benchmarking your information services department against other organisations.

Item

We received a question from a customer, "Do you have benchmarking data for corporate libraries that would indicate the average number of full-time employees in the information services function compared to overall number of employees?"

Jinfo responded:

This question is surprisingly difficult to answer and one where for some time we've been considering what we might do about getting some concrete answers. Part of the challenge is that different industries and organisations define what fits in "information services" very differently.

Our experience does show that the two industries that tend to have:

• The highest ratios of info pros-to-employees are professional services and pharmaceuticals

• The lowest ratios of info pros-to-employees are technology (including software) and legal.

These are very broad generalisations, and I could name exceptions in every category. But after more than 12 years of studying patterns and trends in staffing, these are my impressions.

• Very few organisations (I can count the ones I know personally on one hand) take a truly strategic view of staffing information roles, compared with the needs of the business. Most of the ones I can describe are in professional services, with perhaps one or two in finance. This means that even those organisations that have relatively high ratios of info pros-to-employees are not optimised for the organisation's needs.

Participate in our benchmarking research

Jinfo is undertaking a new project to define and gather this type of information. This research will be part of the upcoming Research Focus, "Benchmark information roles - optimise your structure", to be released from July - September 2017. 

The research phase is now getting started, and we're actively recruiting information managers who are willing to take part in a 45-minute, confidential, interview on their organisation's structure, staffing and information needs.

If you'd like to take part, we will send you a copy of the findings as a thank you. You don't need to be a Jinfo Subscriber.

To participate, just email our research manager, Amy Burns, who is coordinating elements of the research, including interviews. The 45-minute calls will take place during March and we'll send you a copy of the questions ahead of time.

Do you have a query? 

Responding to customer queries is something we're happy to do and that we answer on a regular basis, so feel free to send your questions to us.

« Blog