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Jennifer Gidner wonders: <<I am the senior tech writer of our group (of
two)... I work for a company of 5,000+ employees. Ratio sounds a bit
off, doesn't it?>>
Nothing wrong with that ratio if only 2 of those employees produce
stuff that you need to document. <g> That somewhat facetious statement
provides the clue you need to start your analysis. What types of
documentation (e.g., policies and procedures, an intranet of "best
practices", training modules for your key software) do the other 4998+
need? What would they benefit from having available?
<<Well, we just got a new boss and he wants to expand our group. He
has asked me to "make him believe" - come up with a strategy to expand
the group.>>
Start by asking him what types of metrics he believes that his peers
(other managers) and bosses (the people who approve his
recommendations) will accept. They're the ones who have to buy in
before you can hire new colleagues, and you'll need to present your
case in a manner that they understand. For that matter, ask him to ask
them what types of documentation have been requested in the past but
not provided because you had insufficient resources to do the work. In
short, appeal to their self-interest and the overall interest of the
employer.
Then think of some of the payoff from producing these types of
documentation: Could you reduce employee calls to the help desk by
producing a kickass intranet? Could you avoid delaying software
releases by 2 weeks by adding an additional staffer? Could you provide
in-house training and save costs for training consultants? In short,
think of what kind of payback would be meaningful to the people who
will approve or reject the decision to hire more staff. This will
include both things that affect them personally, and things that affect
their employees and the employer as a whole.
Once you have a list of the things people want to do, you can use your
productivity estimates (how fast you and your colleagues work) to
estimate the minimum number of new hires required to produce this
information.
<<In the past, I marketed our services by standing up in front of
directors and project managers and demonstrating various Help systems
and passing out information on the other types of manuals and user
guides that we can produce.>>
If they liked what they saw, then you've got enough credibility to
persuade them that you can do the same with other projects--if only you
had time and staff to do so.
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