There's a board on forum that is run by staff and made for staff only.
When new staff members who are going to be involved in forum moderation are selected, we pick those who we know so such procedure isn't required. Lmods are usually users who regularly make good posts in a certain board and help at keeping it in order by reporting rule-breaking posts. I don't remember any smod being accepted without previously being a msquad or GM member, same with admin - they usually spend lots of time being smods before getting promoted.