When it comes to running any kind of website, in most cases you may need staff members who help out with the day-to-day running of the site.
When hiring staff and looking to keep things running, it is easy to hire too many meaning that not every staff member has work they can complete leaving them on the sidelines, failing that, too many staff members can also feel like overkill too.
When running a website, how many staff members would you say is too many?
I don’t think there’s such a thing as having too many staff members, especially when each has their own responsibilities and roles. The main question is, what requires your website to have a large number of staff members in the first place?
I'm nearing 2000 members and I've been flying solo for years, but my board has minimal activity compared to many boards with that many members. I think size/activity is a good indicator of how many staff members you need, and the amount of expertise you need on your board. Some boards almost run themselves, but some boards need a heavy staff team to keep it going, so it also depends on the niche.
The number of staff needed for a forum community is dependent on the activity level of the forum. As a rule of thumb, I would say that any forum averaging up to 100 posts in a day should have optimally two moderators and one community manager. That is a total of three staff members. Anything above that is too much. A forum averaging up to 300 posts in a day should have 3 moderators and two community managers. That is a total of four staff. If a site at that level has more staff, it is overstaffing. J
