Do You Need to Hire an IT Manager?

You have 40 employees. No one on your team has "IT" in their title. Your office manager resets passwords between ordering supplies. Your ops lead spends Friday afternoons figuring out why someone can't access SharePoint. And last month, a former contractor still had access to your company's Google Drive three weeks after their last day.

You know something has to change. The question is: do you actually need to hire an IT manager?

Short answer: probably not. Most companies between 20 and 150 employees don't need a full-time IT hire. What they need is a system. But let's get into the details, because the right choice depends on where you are today.

What an IT Manager Actually Does All Day

Before you decide whether to hire one, it helps to know what the job looks like in a company your size.

An IT manager at a 40-person company typically handles:

• Onboarding and offboarding. Setting up accounts, permissions, devices, and software for new hires. Revoking everything when someone leaves.
• Day-to-day support. Password resets, software installs, printer issues, VPN problems, "my laptop is slow" tickets.
• License management. Tracking who uses what, canceling unused subscriptions, negotiating renewals.
• Security. Making sure ex-employees don't still have access. Enforcing MFA. Monitoring for suspicious activity.
• Vendor management. Dealing with Microsoft, Google, your ISP, your phone provider, your SaaS vendors.

Here's the thing most CEOs don't realize: about 70% of these tasks are repetitive. They follow the same steps every single time. That matters when you're deciding how to solve this.

The Real Cost of Hiring an IT Manager

Let's talk numbers.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for Computer and Information Systems Managers in the US is $169,510 per year. For a smaller company that doesn't need a senior hire, Glassdoor data puts the range at $100,000 to $167,000, with a median around $129,000.

But salary is just the starting point. Add employer costs:

So you're looking at roughly $135K to $200K per year for one person. And that person takes vacation, gets sick, and eventually might leave, which means you start the whole process over.

There's also a hidden cost most people miss: the management overhead on you. If you're the CEO, you now need to evaluate someone whose work you probably don't fully understand. How do you know if your IT manager is doing a great job or just keeping things from falling apart?

The Cost of Doing Nothing

Here's where it gets interesting. Because the alternative to hiring isn't free either.

Companies without dedicated IT management leak money in ways that don't show up on any line item:

Wasted software licenses. Research from Zylo and others shows that roughly 50% of SaaS licenses go underused every month. For a company with 40 employees using 15 to 20 SaaS tools, that adds up fast. Companies waste an average of $135,000 per year on software nobody uses.

Security gaps from poor offboarding. According to BetterCloud, 63% of companies have former employees who still have access to corporate data. Kaspersky reports that 30% of organizations take more than three days to revoke access after someone leaves, and 20% take a month or longer.

Shadow IT risk. When there's no one managing IT, people find their own solutions. Industry data suggests 65% of SaaS apps in use at the average company are not approved by IT. Nearly one in two cyberattacks now involves shadow IT, with an average breach cost of $4.2 million according to IBM.

Lost productivity. Your office manager spending 10 hours a month on IT isn't saving you money. It's costing you their actual work. And every hour of IT downtime costs SMBs between $8,000 and $25,000.

Add it all up, and doing nothing often costs more than hiring someone. Which brings us to the third option most people don't consider.

Three Paths Compared

The decision isn't binary. It's not "hire an IT manager or suffer." There are three real options, and the best one depends on your company size, budget, and how fast you're growing.

Sources: Cost estimates based on BLS salary data, Glassdoor, Meriplex MSP pricing research, and VC3's MSP cost guide.

How to Decide: A Quick Framework

Answer these five questions honestly:

1. Do you have more than 100 employees? If yes, you probably need an in-house IT manager (or a small IT team). The complexity at that scale usually requires someone who knows your systems inside out.

2. Are you in a heavily regulated industry? Healthcare, finance, government contracting? You likely need either an in-house hire or a specialized MSP with compliance expertise. Automation alone won't cover audit requirements.

3. Is your team mostly using cloud tools (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, etc.)? If yes, most of your IT management can be automated. Account provisioning, license management, access control, offboarding. These are workflow problems, not infrastructure problems.

4. Are you growing fast (hiring 5+ people per quarter)? High-growth companies feel IT pain the most. Every new hire means accounts, permissions, devices. Automation handles this without adding headcount.

5. Is someone on your team currently doing IT "on the side"? This is the biggest red flag. That person has a real job they're not fully doing. And they're probably not doing the IT work well either. No offense to them. It's just not what they were hired for.

If you answered yes to questions 3, 4, or 5 and no to questions 1 and 2, an automated IT platform is probably the right first step. You can always add an MSP or in-house hire later as you grow.

What Automated IT Management Actually Looks Like

Since this is the option most people haven't seen in action, here's what it means in practice:

A new hire starts Monday. On Friday, their manager fills out a form: name, role, department, start date. That's it.

On Monday morning, the new employee has their email account, their Slack access, their project management tool, their shared drives, and the right permission levels for their role. No one on your team touched anything.

When someone leaves? Their manager marks them as departing. Every account, every permission, every license is revoked automatically. No three-week gap where an ex-employee can still read your company email.

The system also flags unused licenses every month. That $50/month design tool that three people signed up for but nobody opened in 60 days? Cancelled.

This is what we built Nsix Digital to do. Fully automated IT management for companies with 20 to 150 employees. No IT manager needed. But we're biased, so do your own homework.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does an IT manager cost per year in the US?

The total cost of employing an IT manager in the US ranges from $135,000 to $200,000 per year when you include salary, benefits, payroll taxes, training, and tools. The base salary alone falls between $100,000 and $167,000 depending on location and experience, according to Glassdoor and BLS data.

When should a small business hire an IT manager?

Most businesses should consider a dedicated IT hire once they pass 100 employees or operate in a regulated industry like healthcare or finance. Below that threshold, a combination of automated IT tools and occasional consulting typically covers the same ground at a fraction of the cost.

What is the difference between an IT manager and managed IT services?

An IT manager is a full-time employee who handles your technology in-house. Managed IT services (MSPs) are external companies that provide IT support on a per-user or per-month basis. MSPs typically cost 40-60% less than an in-house hire but may offer less personalized service and slower response times for complex issues.

Can you run a company without an IT department?

Yes. Thousands of companies with 20 to 150 employees operate without any IT staff by using a combination of cloud-based tools, automated IT management platforms, and occasional external support. The key is having a system for onboarding, offboarding, access management, and license tracking rather than relying on ad-hoc manual work.

What are the biggest IT risks for companies without an IT manager?

The three biggest risks are: former employees retaining access to company systems (63% of companies have this problem), uncontrolled shadow IT that creates security vulnerabilities, and wasted spending on unused software licenses. All three can be addressed through automated IT management without hiring a full-time employee.

The Bottom Line

You don't need an IT manager. You need your IT to be managed. Those are two very different things.

For most companies in the 20 to 150 employee range, the smartest move is to automate the repetitive work first. That handles 70% of what an IT manager would do, at a fraction of the cost, with zero vacation days and no risk of quitting.

If you're curious what that looks like for your company, book a free 30-minute audit. We'll tell you exactly where you're leaking time and money on IT. No pitch, no pressure.