Staff - How you choose them

[Sk8]

I tried searching for a similar topic for what I want to discuss, but I found nothing. If this happens to be a duplicate, I apologized in advance.

I have been running and operating forums since 2011 and I have yet to find the secret to getting upbeat, interactive, go-get-em staff. Do not get me wrong, I love all my staff (the ones I hired at any rate- there's been some issues in past), but I have always failed to find the right formula to stimulate staff interaction with staff - my staff forum is totally dead. Dead dead - so dead you think it's downtown Atlanta from The Walking Dead sort of dead: it's frightening and depressing.

Since the reopening of another forum we share members with happened, all my happy, frequent, dedicated members have jumped ship - and so has my longstanding rock of a GloMo today, which was quite upsetting.

So the point of this is, how do you all find "that right staffer" who stays active and involved not only on the forum, but with the rest of the staff?

I'm currently looking to hire new staff and seek out content writers, and I need someone to talk to about this - or at least get some advice from.

How do you choose staff? And, as a side, how do you keep them active and involved?

 

[Jazzy]

How do you choose staff?
I think the best staff members come from the community. Members who have proved themselves to be reliable, friendly and contribute to the growth of the community. Any Admin that watches the interaction between members, knows which members get along with pretty much everyone. Those are the members that you want on your staff team.

And, as a side, how do you keep them active and involved?
As an Admin, you should take the time to thank your staff and let them know how much you appreciate them. You'd be surprised how much a 'thank you' means to people who are doing a job and not getting paid for it. Also as an Admin, you should be as active and involved as the rest of your staff team. This makes them feel they are not the only ones under pressure to keep the forum 'fresh' and alive. An inactive Admin (in my opinion) who basically puts all the pressure on the staff to come up with new topics and ideas, is an Admin with a very unhappy staff. If an Admin doesn't care, then why should the rest of the staff?

Hopes this helps you even if just a little bit....

 

[Sk8]

It does, but I have tried, =/

I once upon a time was criticized for being too involved with my community, so I don't know how to find that happy medium.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

I agree with what Jazzy said.

I once upon a time was criticized for being too involved with my community,

How can one be "too involved?"

 

[Sk8]

I was accused of micromanaging my staff and everything done within the forum, so I took a different approach with the staff for my own forum. As I said, don't get me wrong, they have done their job (are doing their job), but I have had the most difficult time cultivating a line of communication and ... I suppose comradery among the staff?

They're good people, for certain, and I have given credit where credit is do and I have given thanks to them, but I am looking to rebuild my current staff team and turn about the decline of activity.

 

[DrLeftover]

"That government is best which governs least."

Henry David Thoreau

Often mis-attributed to Thomas Jefferson

 

[Sk8]

And when the community begins failing - what then? I have always maintained activity comes from the masses and the staff helps it along, but in cases where activity needs to be mounted .. staff is vital.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

And when the community begins failing - what then?

Doc has the right idea, I think micromanaging your staff and being a control freak (not saying you are one, just referencing what you said earlier) could contribute to failure instead of success.

 

[Sk8]

Hm, in reality I was not micromanaging my staff - it was a criticism from an opposing side - it's a long story, but the point was I took a radically different approach. That was three years ago. The problem I have is cultivating an atmosphere for cultivating staff interactions and involvement.

I feel like I'm burying myself here,

Ah well.

 

[DrLeftover]

It takes time to find a staff that works well together, and a core membership group that does the same.

The one thing that needs to be avoided is an atmosphere of "We" vs "Them" cliques.

 

[Sk8]

I can thankfully say I have not had that problem with staff under my administration - at least staff who separate themselves from members.

 

[LegendHidden]

How do you choose staff?
I think the best staff members come from the community. Members who have proved themselves to be reliable, friendly and contribute to the growth of the community. Any Admin that watches the interaction between members, knows which members get along with pretty much everyone. Those are the members that you want on your staff team.

And, as a side, how do you keep them active and involved?
As an Admin, you should take the time to thank your staff and let them know how much you appreciate them. You'd be surprised how much a 'thank you' means to people who are doing a job and not getting paid for it. Also as an Admin, you should be as active and involved as the rest of your staff team. This makes them feel they are not the only ones under pressure to keep the forum 'fresh' and alive. An inactive Admin (in my opinion) who basically puts all the pressure on the staff to come up with new topics and ideas, is an Admin with a very unhappy staff. If an Admin doesn't care, then why should the rest of the staff?

Hopes this helps you even if just a little bit....

I like the way you put that Jazzy

 

[Bluezone777]

When I first started running a forum, I never thought of even having a staff room and these days I grown to see the staff room as not really all that necessary.

If you want to run an idea for the forum then you put it in feedback and let the community mull it over. They do decide how well any idea is going to work on your forum so who better to ask then the community on such matters. Moderating issues can be handled via PM as the best person to turn to as a mod is to the admin who can offer advice and show his perception of the suspected offense. If you give a good idea of what you do or don't want going on and leave enough room to where it can fit almost all situations you might come across then you really don't have much to talk about in a staff room about such issues. Mods I worked with would pretty much go with whatever I said in regards to how to handle a situation. Most times however I stressed talking it out and discussion rather then mod tools. As long as the person causing the offense was willing to discuss and in time come to terms with what they did as being wrong and asking for forgiveness then i was willing to forgive and let things go. If however they refused to acknowledge wrongdoing then that is when I kicked people out bu that was extremely rare.

The important thing is how well respected the member is with the community at large and how well they get along with their future coworkers if they were hired as a staff member. You can't teach good character so you got to have that from the beginning. Anything else you can teach along the way. I never had a problem with any staff member who worked for me on a forum I was in control of but I can't say the same for forums where I was a co admin or staff member of as those forums oftentimes did things I disagreed with and of course everyone paid the price for it when things blew up in their face for it.

The best thing to do is to show that you notice them and what they are doing and that you appreciate it. Ask for input on various matters if they seem unwilling to speak up(shyness can play a part in keeping someone uninvolved in such matters especially if they are new to the job). If they feel they matter and are cared for then they are going to want to be active and involved because of it.

A good admin establishes a presence amongst the community. He speaks and acts like a leader and imposes the presence of leadership in the way he carries himself. This shows the community that this is a man who has rules for you to follow and punishment you are sure to get if you disobey them. He doesn't need to say or do anything because he showed himself to be a man of promises that are always kept. He also has to be a man of compassion and fairness in the way he conducts himself when managing issues as his goal is always to settle differences and bring the community together when trouble arises within and to flush out any outsiders who intend to do harm to it. In time, they begin to respect and trust their leader so much so that the mere thought much less act of disobeying the rules he sets out become unimaginable because they know to disobey his rules is to disrespect the leader and when you respect someone then you go out of your way to not show any disrespect.