What do you tell your staff before recruiting them?

So you've found a moderator, and they are fit for the job; what do you tell them next? Do you put them in the moderator usergroup and let them figure the rest out, or do you give them some instructions? Perhaps a briefing?

How do you ease them into the position of being a moderator?

 

I usually tell them why I picked them and what I expect from them. Just like a real job and such. I'd like to get to know my moderators on a personal level, all the moderators on Pisoga are people that I talk to daily. I also help them around and let them kow that I am available for them when ever they want. They can leave me a PM, MSN, or even text me, and I'll be available and such.I ask them if they want to know about their moderator tools and if they want to test them, I gladly help them out.

Today on Pisoga I had my moderators access the admin CP with some restrictions. The only access they have is to Forum management and user management, I guided my mods through the process of creting a forum and activating a user. It's good, it makes them trust you, which is ultimately one of the most important things, for your staff to trust you.

 

I give them some guidelines on how I want the board moderated (this is ok, let this slide, come down hard on them if they do this), but then tell them I chose them because I thought they had good sense. In terms of showing them the tools, the other mods have been handling that.

 

I tell them the guidelines and basically answer any how-to questions they may have. Then they're on their own.