namkrowa
12-11-2005, 09:08 AM
A Guide to Forum Staff
by namkrowa (Andrew Workman)
Starting a forum. What a wonderful thing. You have your design up, your content is done, and you're ready to open. Staff is the furthest thing from your mind, right?
A few months later, your forum is very large. You're still the only staff member, and you need more, but you're not sure on how to hire some. Who to hire. How to hire. Hopefully you can find some tips in here that will help you out with future staff.
Hiring Staff
You're first going to want to set up some way you are going to hire staff. Take the following to mind.
A lot of people find it easier to set up a board or a single thread for staff applications. However, it is not always so. On a larger forum, you tend to have a lot of people who want to be part of your staff, and therefore you will get a lot of applications. Choosing people could prove to be tedious and hard.
Some find it better to put people under observation. This is an excellent way to hire staff members, because they will not know they are under observation and do not know they might be a future staff member. They will act like they usually do, and no different. This works to find polite staff members.
Hire people off the spot. It works, but only a small portion of the time. Some people aren't patient, and want staff right away. It's not recommended, but it may possibly work.
Most people put their members under observation. True, this will take a longer time to find staff members, but it works out better. Doing it like this, you might be able to find out:
How they act to other members without pressure.
A little bit of history on the member(s).
What they think about the forum, and if they would actually be interested in serving on the staff.
There are a lot of things you can find out putting members under observation. I suggest trying it, and see where you end up.
Managing Staff Members
Now that you have your staff, you need to be able to manage them properly. You might consider adding a private section to your forum for staff members. There, you can converse with them: talk about forum issues, etc. It's easier to communicate that way. Also, you can keep tabs on what staff member is doing what, daily records, etc. They will all be able to see it and know what they have to do.
But what about that one bad staff member? What should you do?
Most staff members won't change any after being placed on your staff. However, there are some that have a whole attitude change. They may become mean, disrespectful, and may not follow any of the rules. They think they can do this because they are a staff member.
How to take care of them? Well, for one, if you encounter a staff member like this, I would recommend putting them on probation for a certain period of time. Tell them what they did wrong, how long they are on probation, and what they can do to get their position back.
Once they are back on the staff, if they continue these acts, they don't deserve to be part of your staff anymore.
Staff management is an important part of running a forum. You need to be able to step up to people, tell them you're not right for the staff position, and be willing to fire them without feeling any remorse.
Some people will fire a staff member, then hire them back because they feel bad. You do not want to be like that. You want a solid staff, and hiring back a staff member you previously fired is not recommended.
Do you have something to add to this?
Have you had an experience with managing your staff members? Perhaps you'd like to share it with us and how you handeled the situation? Well, make a post here, and I will put your little story into this article, right above this section.
Or maybe you have more advice for somebody? Just let us know it here, and I'll add a little section above this article.
by namkrowa (Andrew Workman)
Starting a forum. What a wonderful thing. You have your design up, your content is done, and you're ready to open. Staff is the furthest thing from your mind, right?
A few months later, your forum is very large. You're still the only staff member, and you need more, but you're not sure on how to hire some. Who to hire. How to hire. Hopefully you can find some tips in here that will help you out with future staff.
Hiring Staff
You're first going to want to set up some way you are going to hire staff. Take the following to mind.
A lot of people find it easier to set up a board or a single thread for staff applications. However, it is not always so. On a larger forum, you tend to have a lot of people who want to be part of your staff, and therefore you will get a lot of applications. Choosing people could prove to be tedious and hard.
Some find it better to put people under observation. This is an excellent way to hire staff members, because they will not know they are under observation and do not know they might be a future staff member. They will act like they usually do, and no different. This works to find polite staff members.
Hire people off the spot. It works, but only a small portion of the time. Some people aren't patient, and want staff right away. It's not recommended, but it may possibly work.
Most people put their members under observation. True, this will take a longer time to find staff members, but it works out better. Doing it like this, you might be able to find out:
How they act to other members without pressure.
A little bit of history on the member(s).
What they think about the forum, and if they would actually be interested in serving on the staff.
There are a lot of things you can find out putting members under observation. I suggest trying it, and see where you end up.
Managing Staff Members
Now that you have your staff, you need to be able to manage them properly. You might consider adding a private section to your forum for staff members. There, you can converse with them: talk about forum issues, etc. It's easier to communicate that way. Also, you can keep tabs on what staff member is doing what, daily records, etc. They will all be able to see it and know what they have to do.
But what about that one bad staff member? What should you do?
Most staff members won't change any after being placed on your staff. However, there are some that have a whole attitude change. They may become mean, disrespectful, and may not follow any of the rules. They think they can do this because they are a staff member.
How to take care of them? Well, for one, if you encounter a staff member like this, I would recommend putting them on probation for a certain period of time. Tell them what they did wrong, how long they are on probation, and what they can do to get their position back.
Once they are back on the staff, if they continue these acts, they don't deserve to be part of your staff anymore.
Staff management is an important part of running a forum. You need to be able to step up to people, tell them you're not right for the staff position, and be willing to fire them without feeling any remorse.
Some people will fire a staff member, then hire them back because they feel bad. You do not want to be like that. You want a solid staff, and hiring back a staff member you previously fired is not recommended.
Do you have something to add to this?
Have you had an experience with managing your staff members? Perhaps you'd like to share it with us and how you handeled the situation? Well, make a post here, and I will put your little story into this article, right above this section.
Or maybe you have more advice for somebody? Just let us know it here, and I'll add a little section above this article.