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A How-Do on Hiring Staff It can be tough knowing where to begin when it comes to hiring staff. A lot of people start off thinking that they need them simply because that seems like the normal thing to do. It might seem “normal” to have [insert number here] staffers when you first start out. Well friends- it’s silly to do things just because everyone else is doing them that way, and this article is here to help you out with the process of hiring on new staff members. First thing’s first. . . Know How Much Work You Can Handle It’s unwise to hire more staffers than you need. “How do I know how many I’ll need?” you might be asking. Simple! Make up a list of all the jobs that need to be done to keep your site running. Here’s a practice list: applications character maintenance (updating profiles, archiving applications, fixing usernames, etc.) updating forum ratios advertising forum maintenance (archiving threads, moving threads, etc.) awards (adding awards to character profiles) activity checks Once you’ve got that done, set aside all of the jobs that you would like to do yourself (or that you might have to do yourself, if you are the only one capable for whatever reason). Do not overload yourself, and make sure that you can keep up with whatever standards you have for those tasks. If you expect them to be done daily but know you will not have the time to handle these things on a daily basis, then don’t bite off more than you can chew! You’ll get behind, which will put stress on you- and defeats the purpose of hiring more staff in the first place! Now, separate the remaining jobs into workable chunks based on the amount of time necessary in completing them and how related they are to one another. For this example, we’ll decide to do handle applications and updating the forum ratios. That leaves character maintenance, forum maintenance, advertising, awards, and activity checks. In this instance, awards, activity checks, and character maintenance are closely tied together, so we’ll put them in a chunk with each other. Forum maintenance and advertising are the only jobs left, so they get paired up. Your list now looks something like this: Me: applications updating ratios Chunk 1: awards character maintenance activity checks Chunk 2: advertising forum maintenance To make things easier on yourself down the road, it would be a good idea to detail out exactly how you want these tasks to be handled- even the jobs that you yourself plan on handling. The more descriptive you are, the better. This will prevent confusion later down the line and staff will know exactly what standards they need to adhere to. With that finished, you now know how much work you can handle and how many staffers you’ll need. Going by our example, you’ll need 2 other staffers. No more than that are necessary. Finding Staff How you choose to do this next part is up to you. There are differing opinions on if it is better to approach members you trust and ask for their help, or to allow members to send in applications for the job. Each method has its merits and you should go with whatever works best for you. In the end, you will still need to communicate to your candidates the exact nature of the job you are looking to fill in no matter the method you use. You will also need to consider the following and base your hiring decisions on that: Is this person presently active enough to meet my requirements? Does this person share and promote the ideals I have for my forum? Do I trust this person? Do I find it easy to communicate with this person? Does this person handle conflict well? Does this person have the experience necessary in doing the job I need staff for? Has this person shown that they can be reliable? You may also want to consider a few other things, such as: Have other members made complaints about this person? Has this person asked to be staff before, or repeatedly brought up their “availability” for the position? If the answers to the first set of questions are “yes” and the answers to second set “no,” then you probably have a good candidate for staff on your hands. Remember: if you have any doubts about a person, then don’t hire them on no matter how desperate for help you might be. If things go poorly, it’ll end up causing more work for you than if you’d just waited for someone you were satisfied with to come along. Acclimating Your Staffers This is where it will come in handy to have had the exact way you want your jobs done to be written down. If you haven’t done that yet- do it, and then show your new staffers that list. Before anyone gets a move on with their work, make 100% certain that everyone knows what it is they are supposed to be doing. Be sure to encourage communication between yourself and your staffers, and make it as easy for them to contact you as possible. If they ever need help with completing their jobs, can’t keep up with them, wish to quit, etc., you want them to feel safe coming to you with this information. The sooner issues like this are brought up to you, the quicker they can be handled. There will also be much less cleanup for you to worry about. A Note on Friends as Staffers When hiring staff, remember that good friends does not mean they will be good staffers. In fact, friends can sometimes make the worst staffers. If they slack off, they will expect leniency because you’re buddies. If they do something to upset a member, they expect you to side with them even if they might be at fault. If you have a friend wanting a staff position, you need to separate your friendly feelings for them and evaluate them the same way you would any other potential candidates. If they do not meet your every need, then do not hire them regardless of how much you like them. It will do more harm than good. Is there something you would like to see a guide for? Reply to this topic with your request! Have something you need advice on? Contact me privately and I'll respond to it in my blog!