So, you've just brought your brand spanking new Minecraft server, have you? And your looking for staff to help you in your mission to create a decent Minecraft server? Well, in this tutorial, I will tell you how to hire your staff and how to keep them active and motivated. As an (former) owner of a large Minecraft server community which indeed represented some challenges in the case of staffing, this is designed to help you make the best decisions for you and your players.

Rule 1: Never hire new players!

I'm sure you've all seen this scenario. A new player joins, and asks for staff. You must say NO to them, and I will explain why. Firstly, they have only just joined your server, and may have only came on it for staff. You'll find as soon as you say no, they will go. This shows a lack of commitment for the server and just shows that they don't care for it and just want the rank. I give all my players a 'locked' period of 5 concecutive days play for 30mins per day before they can even apply to join the staff team.

Rule 2: Never ask for new staff in game!

Players in game will want it for power, where as dedicated players for the server will look around on the servers website and will know already that they can apply for staff. This will significantly raise the helpfulness of the staff team. In addition to this, do not give ANY members help with their application, as they should be able to do it themselves.

Rule 3: Always monitor your staff.

Staff, while many can be trusted, some others can try and decieve you just to get power and be able to grief or in extreme cases, completely hack the server. Therefore, always keep an eye on staff activity by looking at the logs, ask for player feedback on staff member performance, or even doing in game scenarios such as helping players or doing performance reviews.

Rule 4: Always keep in touch.

You don't want to lose your staff if your host decides to make a sudden change to your servers IP do you? This is why it is highly reccomended to keep in touch with your staff members. I prefer using Skype, however it could just be as simple as having the ability to send them a message on your servers website.

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How do you decide who should become staff?

Make sure your applicant is an active player and a well liked and trusted member of the community. This is one of the deciding factors for me. In addition, scruitinize their application properly and look at every detail. Have a set of guidelines to follow for staff applications, in order to keep the quality of accepted staff high. Before hiring staff as permanent members, it is ideal to give them a trial period of which they have no moderation commands so you can test their skills on how helpful they are to the community. You should also test them on basic moderation commands to check their knowledge on them, so they can actually do something when they are staff.

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What application format should you use?

I have attached below the format that my server uses for Staff applications. Please note that the only reason my staff should ideally have skype is in order to ensure their attendance to staff meetings. It is also a good idea to ensure they are above a certain age, in my servers case, 12.

Minecraft Username:

Type YES if you understand that asking a staff member about your application means an instant rejection of your application:

Age (you must be 12 to apply; if you are younger than 12 you will be instantly denied; if you are older than 12, erase the text within the brackets and type your age):

Timezone:

Where are you from?:

Are you multilingual (speak more than one language)?:
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How many hours per day do you play minecraft and <server name> in particular?:

Have you ever been banned on our server? (be honest):

Are you a donator? If so, when did you purchase the rank?:

What advice would you give someone who had to deal with people younger than them?:

SCENARIO: "You come home from school and have ton of homework to do, you think to yourself I'll just take a 5 minute break before I start and get on <server name>. The next thing you know 2 hours have passed and you've been on the server all that time." Does this scenario sound familiar to you?:

Do you have any experience with depression? How have you dealt with this?:

Do you have Skype and are you able to use it often? (you must have skype to apply; if you can not use skype or you don't have it you will be instantly denied; if you meet this requirement, erase the text within the brackets and type yes):

Why should we accept you into the Staff team?:

Are you currently a staff member on any other Minecraft servers?:

What are your hobbies (list any things here you're good at)?:

Are there any ways you plan on strengthening the community? If so, how?:

Anything else we should know?:

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How to keep your staff active

So, now you've hired your staff, you need to keep them active and motivated. I'd highly reccomend that you keep an active staff rotation to ensure that staff are constantly active and to make sure that every staff member are doing their jobs. Keep them active by giving them beta access to new areas of the server, promote them roughly every 3 months to make sure they keep themselves active, and last of all, but not least, keep the threat of firing there but realistic. Fear is sometimes the best tactic. Make sure your staff know that if they don't perform well, they WILL be fired.

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How to sort your staff ranks and promotions

Don't hire ANY staff member straight to Admin. This is just plain stupid. I'd reccomend having 3 staff ranks: Helper, Mod and Admin and if you own a relatively popular server have 4: Trial (no prefix), Helper, Mod and Admin. Like I said above, promote regularly so the staff know they have to work hard. Do not promote if a staff member is not working hard.

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Staff Limits

When you hire staff, you need to have some constuctive limits. I reccomend:

- Small (1-30) = 5 staff maximum
- Medium (30-50) = 8 staff maximum
- Large (50-100) = 12 staff maximum
- Network (100+) = Unlimited

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