When it comes to motivating animal caretakers to consistently comply with biosecurity practices, a new study says you can’t stop at the training step alone.
Although consistent training is crucial, research shows that training must be followed up to ensure animal caretakers are performing the biosecurity practices accurately and consistently. And when they do, it’s important to reward their efforts, explains Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Megan Niederwerder, DVM.
“It’s important to provide positive reinforcement to employees so they know that the efforts that they’re putting in for biosecurity practices matter to the producers, to the veterinarians and ultimately that their efforts make a big impact on pig health,” Niederwerder says.
This recently completed project led by Michael Chetta of Talent Metrics Consulting, is one of 18 Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Program research projects funded by SHIC, along with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and the Pork Checkoff. The exploratory study was conducted to establish a baseline for worker motivation and identify the primary factors within the industry that could be impacting biosecurity compliance.
“We don’t have a lot of knowledge and understanding about what motivates animal caretakers to continue to consistently perform biosecurity protocols after they’re trained,” Niederwerder says. “This project really looked at how we can encourage compliance and get more consistent compliance with biosecurity protocols after training animal caretakers.”
To conduct this study, an online survey was developed and 139 animal caretakers from five pork production companies participated in the survey and formed the study’s sample population. Questions measured quantitative responses to different factors which may impact compliance such as attitude, social norm, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intent, job demands, job resources, level of exhaustion, and disengagement from work.
“The results of the survey discovered that motivation is likely not the only component to consistently performing biosecurity practices. And in fact, we likely have an opportunity in the swine industry to look at supervisor feedback and supervisory support, and rewarding those individuals who are completing biosecurity practices consistently,” she explains. “It seems that rewarding people after accurate and consistent compliance is an opportunity to enhance those consistent behaviors.”
Biosecurity requires an environment where dialogue can be open about what’s truly important on the farm.
“We need to be able to talk about why biosecurity is important,” Niederwerder says. “If things are never opened up for a dialogue, it’s hard to mitigate any of the risks that may have mistakenly been brought in.”
Read the study’s industry summary here. Continuing this research across the U.S. swine industry will help to better understand the interactions and motivations behind worker attitudes and perceptions towards biosecurity adherence and to enhance positive outcomes for employees, farms, and consumers.
