I've got a quant gene, so Benchmarking information is precious to me ... especially when it comes to things like operations practices and compensation items. HDI, the world's largest membership association for the service and support industry, has current and archived Practices and Salary Survey information.

From HDI's website:

Here's the inside scoop on statistical information in the support industry-exclusive to members! This must-read information is summarized in HDI's Annual Practices Survey, the definitive resource for trending and statistical information for the help desk and support center manager, as well as for the vendor who serves the support community, and in HDI's Annual Salary Survey that takes an in-depth look into the compensation of support personnel. If you're interested in even more historical information, the report archives date back to 1998.

My take is this. If there's benchmarking information available for one's core work, then it's time to get it. Many support organizations have enough employee churn and turnover as it is - companies need to know whether pervasive factors in their business are a best practice.

The surveys are available to HDI members, and general HDI membership information can be obtained here (note there are ranges of levels of membership). Go on in!

Steve Shu