Deciding when you need more staff

[Strawberry]

As forums evolve and change over time, new staff positions usually open to help manage the community better. At what stage do you decide that the time is right to make additions to your team, any specific events or milestones that set this into motion?

• When opening a new forum, how many founding staff do you like to have on your team?
• Do you make additions to the team based on how long the forum has been open, member count, daily post count?
• What is your ideal member to staff ratio? 1 staff member for every 100, 500, 1000 users?

 

[Cory]

I have over 1300 members on my forum and I'm the only staff member, but then again, I only get about 15-20 log-ins per day. Seeing as I own a resource board where people mainly come for the resources, I also don't get many daily posts. With this being said, I think it all depends on how active your forum is and possibly what it's about. Also, if you have a lot of sections on your board, you may need help moderating specific sections.

I don't necessarily see the need to have a solid staff team when you first open. As long as you remain active and build up the content as the sole owner, I think more will follow and you may be able to find some new staff members along the way.

 

[Kale]

I technically have no need for a staff member at all but added one anyway just to keep an eye on the forum when I am asleep or so. I only would consider adding another one or so if the forum was crazy active or so.

 

[Sarah]

We started ours with staff members ready to go. Each staff member has a role to play either in Graphics support, theme support, code assistant and another to watch over the general running of the board. And we also don't have enough log ins to worry to much about extra staff.

 

[Kale]

Yep, for sure don't get enough people to warrant a big moderation team these days. If it were 20-25 years ago then yeah I'd say have a staff for moderation or whatever else your site/forum needs.

 

[Ravenfreak]

I think it depends on the niche of the forum and how active it is as well. I usually will start looking for a new staff member once I get around maybe 25 members and if the forum is active.

 

[Ken]

It doesn't really matter to me no matter the accomplishments or the amount of posts.

 

[Arantor]

I look for new staff when moderation and sundry activities take too much of my time, and I can't solve any of the problems with automation I can rig up to do things.

 

[Henrywrites]

I think it depends on the niche of the forum and how active it is as well. I usually will start looking for a new staff member once I get around maybe 25 members and if the forum is active.

How active that the forum is can be the major thing to consider. I want to make sure that the work is not becoming too much on me. Once it is much on me, hiring a new staff becomes necessary for me.

 

[Shortie]

When I start a new forum I tend to have two admins and then add moderators and any other staff members as we need them. Usually, I have two admins and one moderator per 100 - 200 members unless the forum becomes super busy in which case then I may hire someone new as staff sooner.

 

[Henrywrites]

When I start a new forum I tend to have two admins and then add moderators and any other staff members as we need them. Usually, I have two admins and one moderator per 100 - 200 members unless the forum becomes super busy in which case then I may hire someone new as staff sooner.

The foundation is good. It is going to help those that join the forum get help as the admins and moderators are enough to keep things going in the forum.