When you use the word "staff", who are you talking about?
In general, the group of people who work for any company or organization can be referred to as "staff", "workforce", or "personnel". Human resource professionals sometimes use "talent" or "people". And, while technically these terms include anyone earning a wage for work, functionally, they are used to refer to those below top management. You would never hear the CEO being referred to as part of the "staff".
Countable vs. uncountable
Grammatically though, the noun "staff" is a tricky one. When we use nouns, our most important consideration is whether they are countable or uncountable.
If countable, we want to know what plural form they take—adding an "s" for regular plurals and slightly different words if irregular.
If uncountable though, nouns usually have only one form: we cannot add an "s" to the end of them and we cannot use the article "a/an" before them. By that reasoning, we might logically conclude that "staff" is just an uncountable noun like any other since it follows these rules. This means the following are incorrect:
A staff walked into the cafeteria wearing a costume yesterday!
The staffs are very unhappy about the news that they won’t be getting a bonus this year.
The word "staff" is a collective noun
"Staff" is not a regular uncountable noun; it’s what’s known in grammar terminology as a collective noun.
The main distinction is that collective nouns refer to groups of people (ie: "the team", "the family", "the elderly") or groups of living creatures (ie: "cattle", "sheep", "fish") as compared to inanimate nouns in the uncountable category (ie: "furniture", "weather", "information").
In general usage, a collective noun takes a singular verb and pronoun when it refers to a unified body ie: the group acting as a whole and doing the same thing:
The staff at this hospital is so compassionate and helpful.
The team is getting ready for its presentation.
The family was united on this decision.
It takes a plural verb and pronoun when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals, doing different things:
My family are always fighting among themselves.
The staff were showing up in groups of three or four to show their support.
A collective noun should not be treated as both singular and plural in the same construction:
The staff is all equipped to do its (not their) work.
How to pluralize "staff"
While staff cannot be pluralized with an "s" but is acceptably used in the plural form, quantifiers usually reserved for countable nouns such as "a few", "many" and numerals are also acceptable:
There are over a hundred staff in the company.
Quite a few staff have even given up their own cars and now cycle to work instead.
Furthermore, to identify or count individuals in the group, we use the expression "a member of", just as we would with "family" or "team".
Four out of five members of the staff are late for work every morning!
A member of the staff was just named employee of the month!
Time to practice!
Given how common the use of "staff" is in the context of work, we all get many opportunities to put it into sentences. Now you know the grammar rules; all you have to do is practice.
You can always book a lesson with one of our teachers to review further. Hope to see you soon!
