Hello WCC!

Recently, it has come to our attention that there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding how new members of staff are selected. So, to combat this confusion, we’ve decided to be more transparent with how the process works.

The first step of staff selection is, naturally, deciding who should join staff. This happens one of two ways. The first way you’re probably familiar with: the staff nominations section at the end of every staff survey. The second, though, is one not often seen: a member may be considered for staff based purely on internal recommendation. After all, a member of staff may notice someone that hasn’t been on the nominations section! We are always taking in your suggestions and also directly interacting with the community, so based on the names provided through either of those means, staff then considers whether or not they would be a “good fit.”

What makes a good fit, you may ask? There are a set of qualities that staff looks for when looking for a prospective staff member. First and foremost is activity. Understandably, you need to be active on the site! Secondly, there are skills that are taken into account. A user that has a history of leadership, whether in the community or as a high rank, or moderation history is likely to be a good fit. Those who are rather friendly and helpful are often looked at with potential, because after all, nobody wants to interact with a member of staff who is unpleasant. This is not the final list, and is just a short example of what we look for!

I know we all have seen the end of the staff survey saying “We are not looking for new members of staff at this present time.” Well, when do we look for staff? A new member of staff is considered when the current members of staff feel that they could use more assistance managing the site, or when current staff members feel like they’re being spread too thin. Most commonly, a new member of staff is considered when a previous member has stepped down.

When this happens, potential options are brought up, as well as reasons for their consideration and potential concerns. After that, the current members of staff vote on the member(s) being considered for staff. All members of staff weigh in on the prospects and their vote is held equally in the decision, where all concerns or praises are listened to.

If the votes are in favor of the member being considered for staff, then current staff will reach out to the member being considered to ask if they would like to participate in the interview process to become a moderator.

If they agree, there will be a group chat created that serves as an interview between current staff and the member in question to confirm they are a good fit for the current staff team. Should the interview go well, the member in question will be added to staff during the next major site announcement. This interview process typically consists of questions from the prospective staff member, and a series of questions from staff themselves! Questions can vary from each user, but they typically ask what the prospective member of staff would like to contribute and how they handle certain types of conflict.

Hopefully this helps clear up the process a bit more! As always, we sincerely appreciate your feedback, suggestions, comments, and concerns. While we can’t implement every single member’s suggestion, we do hope to take them into account and give it full consideration! In fact, we are hoping to immediately begin implementing feedback that we saw in this previous staff survey. We hear you when you say that Staff has not been as active as we should be. Going forward, as a team, we will be holding ourselves to a higher standard. Of course, this will be reasonable as we can’t dedicate 24/7 to the site (we are volunteers after all!), but we will be working to do better.

Don’t be afraid to ask any questions you may have, and we appreciate everybody’s feedback!

- Sincerely, Grey and the Staff Team.