Senior Staff - Requirements and Duties

[Feweh]

Hello everyone,

This is a basic guide and idea on what is expected and required from the Senior Staff.

Senior Staff have been added as a more hands on approach to supervision, no longer will every department (mentor, mods & admins) have to report to 1 individual who has to manage the entire staff team. Now you'll have a direct and more personable staff member to be able to relate to. Senior Staff ONLY monitor their departments and have no say over another departments affairs. The first person you should ask or refer to is your senior in your department and voice any BASIC issues to them.

However, the basic rank system is still in-place... So Admins will still have a say over Mods when it comes to in-game decisions or rule-breaks. Logically Senior Staff should never interfere with an Admin or even Mods decision regarding bans or moderation.

To EMPHASIZE this very clearly, Seniors are there to SUPERVISE their departments activity and assist Head Staff.

Think of Seniors more as a "Supervisor" at a retail store or fast food restaurant. They aren't technically there to boss you around, but more monitor that you're doing your job and are the first people to be able to assist you when your have questions. A Supervisor would never punish or give you warnings, instead they would educate you on what you did wrong, so if they saw you make a mistake they would simply tell you what you did wrong so you wouldn't do it again. However, they would report serious issues or staff breaking conduct issues to the Management/Owner who would then follow through with further action.



Duties & Expectations of Seniors:

All Senior Staff will have a large responsibility with questions, bans and administration for their department.
This includes the following;

- Player Questions
- Staff Questions
- Bans / Ban Lengths
- Player Disputes / Staff Disputes
- Rule Disputes / Questions
- Trials
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Expectations for each Senior Position is as follows.

Senior Admin:
- Monitor Admin Activity
- Report Inactive Admins
- Basic Admin Disciplining (Watching for staff abuse & unprofessional behavior)
- Assist with Admin Complaints
- Monitor/Assign Admins to Appeals/Reports Section (Not staff complaints)
- Train & Monitor Trial Admins

Senior Moderator:
- Monitor Moderator Activity
- Report Inactive Moderators
- Basic Moderator Disciplining (Watching for staff abuse & unprofessional behavior)
- Assist with Moderator Complaints
- Train & Monitor Trial Moderators
- Maintain 10-15 ACTIVE Moderators
- Recommend Trial Admins

Senior Mentor:
- Monitor Mentor Activity
- Report Inactive Mentors
- Basic Mentor Disciplining (Watching for staff abuse & unprofessional behavior)
- Train & Monitor NEW Mentors
- Maintain 15-20 Active Mentors
- ACTIVELY find new potential Mentors. (We don't hire through the forums, this is important)


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What do I as Manager expect from each Senior Staff?

I expect weekly reports from your departments and pro-activeness without me needing to tell you to do your job.
You should be the first one to question inactive members and find out why they haven't been on slack, in-game or the forums.
You should be the first one to alert me if you your department needs to hire more people.
You should be the first one to alert me to discipline issues or problems with staff in your department.
You should be the first one to attempt solve and DEFUSE player issues/staff issues (from your department).
You should be teaching and educating other staff in your department on rules and changes to the server if needed.
You should have a established relationship and know who all your staff.
You should be speaking to your fellow Senior Staff and Head Staff regarding any issues.
You should be assisting new staff members in your department.
You should be communicating with Head Staff at all times.



Senior Staff as stated in the public post will NOT be chosen based upon "I've been here the longest so I'm the Senior".
While Senior position is by no means difficult, it will require you to be pro-active and at times potentially chase certain staff members. You'll also expected be to an active member who is trusted and dependable.
One of the most required skills for Seniors will be maturity, as you'll be viewed with higher expectations from the player-base.
Most importantly, your main expectation is competence and reliability.


SENIOR STAFF will have a few extra perks, forum badge and permissions in-game.
They will also be added to Head-chat as a means of direct communication with Head Staff.

Within the next few days we will have a Senior Mod and Mentor chosen.
If you ARE interested and think you'd be a good fit for this position.... feel free to send me a PM to alert me.

If you have any questions, ask bellow.

[Gentlefood]

It could be beneficial to have dedicated discord/slack channels for the distinct staff groups now. Not so they can discuss whatever in them, but for the purpose of the Senior staff being able to better address their individual team members without spamming the general staff chat. Could also be useful for monitoring activity. I'd also suggest a stickied post for each department that the Senior Staff can edit/wipe once a month for activity check purposes.

I've seen similar systems to this work. Although if we actually had a recorded list of who was on at what times it would be easier, but this is definitely do-able.

[Feweh]

It could be beneficial to have dedicated discord/slack channels for the distinct staff groups now. Not so they can discuss whatever in them, but for the purpose of the Senior staff being able to better address their individual team members without spamming the general staff chat. Could also be useful for monitoring activity. I'd also suggest a stickied post for each department that the Senior Staff can edit/wipe once a month for activity check purposes.

I've seen similar systems to this work. Although if we actually had a recorded list of who was on at what times it would be easier, but this is definitely do-able.

We're able to pull logged hours and time on the server if needed.
Generally you're very aware when someone hasn't been around.

All you have to do is check the staff list and you can see names of people you haven't seen in-game, on the forums or on slack and you know theres a issue.

Multiple Slack channels might be a good idea.. even if no one speaks in them, just so the Senior can send direct instant info.

[Biolock]

Since the senior of each department is charged with filling a quota of a certain number of members, ie. "- Maintain 10-15 ACTIVE Moderators"; does that mean that seniors will be charged with making decisions on who to hire for their respective department?

[Feweh]

Since the senior of each department is charged with filling a quota of a certain number of members, ie. "- Maintain 10-15 ACTIVE Moderators"; does that mean that seniors will be charged with making decisions on who to hire for their respective department?

They will have a strong say in who gets hired, while not being able to directly "hire" someone they can flag Head Staff to the attention of appeals.
So essentially yes ,if a Senior Staff thinks someone would fit in well they'll most likely be added unless there is a reason said person shouldn't make it.

[slc97]

You want senior staff to be in pretty regular contact with their staff and know them all pretty well. How would you recommend working that around staff that are in drastically different time-zones from their senior staff and are rarely to never active at the same time?

[Warnipple]

You want senior staff to be in pretty regular contact with their staff and know them all pretty well. How would you recommend working that around staff that are in drastically different time-zones from their senior staff and are rarely to never active at the same time?

This.

While I'm in no position to apply for senior staff, I feel it might be an issue.

I'm usually on early mornings and early afternoons and I rarely see any other admin other than Free and Jones later in the evening. That means I rarely see West, Whistles and Toroic, whenever they're on.

Also that being said, those applying for senior positions, please know that it seems it'll require a large time commitment.

Edit: Also I feel that giving access to a headstaff channel access given to senior staff is essentially making them headstaff and thus making admins down a rank. Not that I care about rank but thats how it feels. Perhaps a solution to this is an alternate channel that includes all headstaff but doesn't contain important headstaff information? Just food for thought.

[slc97]

Exactly. Like, I'm EST, so I'm able to communicate with most people on the moderation team, however I don't think I've ever even spoken a word to Carprillo, and STL is pretty rarely on when I am. I feel it's similar for the rest of us in the North American time zones with the separation between our North American and European team members.

Perhaps the dedicated channels to each team will keep an open line of communication between the entire team, or perhaps senior staff could keep an open line of communication through PM with some of the further removed staff members time-zone wise?

[Feweh]

It doesnt take much investigating to figure out if someone is active on different time-zones.

"Hey, I haven't seen you in awhile where have you been"
Different time-zone but I'm around.
"Ok cool, just checking in"

[slc97]

You should have a established relationship and know who all your staff.

I was speaking more about this, but I think that keeping a direct PM line would solve this problem. Open PMs between a senior staff and the staff within different time zones should be able to at least foster a basic professional relationship even if the communication will be less timely due to the time differences.

[Feweh]

I was speaking more about this, but I think that keeping a direct PM line would solve this problem. Open PMs between a senior staff and the staff within different time zones should be able to at least foster a basic professional relationship even if the communication will be less timely due to the time differences.

Established relationship doesn't mean buddy buddy.
It's the basics of knowing the persons personality, who they are, where they live etc.

[slc97]

Alright, thanks for clearing that up.

[Biolock]

Established relationship doesn't mean buddy buddy.
It's the basics of knowing the persons personality, who they are, where they live etc.

What their favorite breakfast is, what times they leave their house, where they keep their spare key, etc.

[slc97]

What their favorite breakfast is, what times they leave their house, where they keep their spare key, etc.

Protein bar, 8:18 AM, wallet.

[Feweh]

Havent had many Mentors come forward for Senior Mentor.
If you think you can fulfill the requirements and expectations above... send me a PM

[Rain7x]

Just curious, will senior mentors have mod access?

[NoahKirchner]

Question, you say that you don't hire through the forums (for the senior mentor thing), do you mean that you don't hire using applications, or you don't hire using the forums AT ALL?

[Feweh]

Question, you say that you don't hire through the forums (for the senior mentor thing), do you mean that you don't hire using applications, or you don't hire using the forums AT ALL?

Mentor is hired solely by players we see actively playing and have been around for awhile.
There is no application process or question format that would really work out well to determine this.

[Feweh]

Just curious, will senior mentors have mod access?

Yes

[Casany]

What are the requirements to make senior mentor?

[SagaSword]

I wish i could help in Senior mentoring but as you know i don't log on much, i am good at managing but i don't have the time or patience to do it, not right now at least. But i suggest Bolter to become a senior mentor if he doesn't mind.

[slc97]

Senior mentor was already chosen like a week ago, Saga. It's Xiphos.

[Boltersam]

I wish i could help in Senior mentoring but as you know i don't log on much, i am good at managing but i don't have the time or patience to do it, not right now at least. But i suggest Bolter to become a senior mentor if he doesn't mind.

Even if one wasn't already picked, I neither have the time nor experience to fill the position, and the time problem will take six years to change, and might even become worse.

[SagaSword]

Senior mentor was already chosen like a week ago, Saga. It's Xiphos.

Welp, looks like i'm late in this party.

[Biolock]

Fuxin' nerd!