Consistency is Critical When Training New Boar Stud Employees
High turnover in the swine industry is challenging in all areas of the business, but there’s no doubt boar studs may have some of the most challenges when it comes to training staff, Megan Hood, DVM, of Reicks Veterinary Research and Consulting, said during the 2022 Allen D. Leman Swine Conference. In addition to presenting her research during the Research Highlights session, she also presented a poster.
Hood said boar stud staff are expected to not only master basic care and biosecurity competencies, but they are also expected to master a specialized series of technical competencies.
“Boar stud employees have to learn a lot compared to some of our other swine farm staff,” Hood explained. “They have to learn some pretty difficult topics like how to collect a boar and how to train a boar to jump on a dummy, for example. These are unique tasks that we asked these folks to do.”
This can be further complicated by language barriers, Hood said.
After seeing the success of other training programs using the “See it. Do it. Teach it.” model, Hood and her colleague Darwin Reicks, DVM, a global boar stud expert, worked to create a series of boar stud learning experiences and delivered them on the Pork Avenue Training Portal. Along with Sarah Probst Miller, DVM, and her team, they developed a boar stud curriculum.
Then, Hood put it to the test within a group of boar studs with entirely Spanish-speaking staff who had mostly worked at the stud for less than six months.
“I speak a little bit of Spanish, but sometimes I had to have some translation tools to help me out along the way. Between my little knowledge of Spanish and the employees’ little knowledge English, at the end of the day, we could understand each other relatively well,” Hood said.
A Look at the Study Method
Before the program was implemented, Hood chose 30 competencies to evaluate the staff on – 18 on collection technique, six on boar safety and six on boar training. Baseline competency measurements were taken using the “Teach it.” method with the use of additional prompting questions if needed.
The staff were then asked to teach the evaluator how to perform tasks ranging from how to put on gloves for collection and moving boars around the barn to collecting a boar and training boars. Competencies were marked as yes/no present. Employees were given a percent expressed competency at the end of this session, Hood explained.
Post baseline, employees were enrolled in the Pork Avenue Boar Stud Curriculum, including three learning experiences on collection technique with Spanish subtitles, plus one learning experience on boar behavior and safety and one on boar training, both with Spanish voiceover. All training videos ended with a testing simulation of desired end skills. After seeing the videos, mentors took employees to the barn to perform the task together. Finally, staff were reevaluated by repeating the “Teach it.” phase with the same evaluator marking the competencies chosen as yes/no present.
Boar Training and Safety Top List of Challenges
The results were impressive, she said. The employees had an average baseline expressed competency rate of 70.5% (stud 1) and 73.6% (Stud 2). Hood explained the areas were staff struggled the most were boar training and boar safety. After verification of training, the employees averaged 94.5% (Stud 1) and 95.5% (Stud 2) competency expression rate. The average employee improved by 31.1% and the overall improvement ranged from 10% to 66% between employees.
The area of greatest improvement was in boar training – the average employee improved by 88%. As a whole, the training program was successful at increasing staff competency expression rates for boar stud specific topics.
“No matter where employee started, I can still get them to where I want to be with this training program,” Hood said.
She emphasized the importance of consistency in training.
“No matter what subject you're training people on, it’s important staff are trained the same way each time,” Hood said. “Then, make sure training materials are available in that person’s original language. Finally, give the training materials in a way that can keep that employees’ attention and not overwhelm them.”
Learn more about this boar stud curriculum at Pork Avenue Training Portal.
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