How do you make your farm an irresistible place to work? Experts say it’s quite easy if you keep a few basics in mind.
“You just have to take care of people. It’s really not hard,” says Jonathon Hoek, president of Summit SmartFarms.
People want purpose. They no longer want to work for just a paycheck, adds Valerie Duttlinger, chief analytics officer at Summit SmartFarms.
“They want their job to help fulfill that. They’re no longer just seeking satisfaction from the job. They want to be developed both personally and professionally,” she says.
Here are five components Hoek and Duttlinger say make an irresistible place to work.
1. Culture: If you don’t have a collaborative and engaging culture, the other components don’t work. Start with rebuilding trust. Take time to truly listen to team members and learn from them. Communicate with them transparently and admit when you’ve made mistakes.
2. Teamwork: Provide leadership skill training and use human intelligence to determine career and organizational fit of your employees. Consider implementing personality assessments like DISC, Myers-Briggs and Strength Finders. Summit SmartFarms utilizes Cloverleaf, a program that combines the results of nine assessments and coalesces that data into nine insight areas from communication styles to conflict triggers to motivation.
3. Team goals and objectives: Develop daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals to motivate employees and guide their performance. Clearly define tasks, provide improvement goals and offer a clear line of sight with improvement and rewards. Measure success with a “scorecard” of metrics that evaluate an employee’s role on the farm.
4. Job satisfaction: Provide a clean environment. Align roles with the talent each employee offers. Take time to recognize milestones and great performance. Appreciate team members for their unique contributions.
“Work to improve the emotional intelligence not just of yourself, but of the entire team,” Duttlinger says. “Help them to understand their co-workers’ perspectives. Give it time to take root and continue to build on it.”
When it comes down to it, most people don’t leave a job because of pay, Hoek says.
“Most people leave a job either because they don’t feel like they are recognized, don’t feel like they are measured or don’t feel like they are given the opportunity to advance,” he says. “They want to know that what they are doing has meaning and they want to see it measured.”
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
Stop Treating Employees Like Commodities
Don’t Complicate the Labor Crisis: Take Care of People
Swine Farm Employees Say Job Satisfaction Means More than Money
