Employee retention is of top importance in pork operations. As the challenge to find qualified labor continues, employers want to make sure they keep the employees they invest time and energy into finding and training to take over important roles on the farm.
During the latest Q2 State of the Pork Industry Report, the experts discussed a couple ways they are investing in employees.
1. Reward overtime.
Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, works in a coop where the team consists of people representing many areas from agronomy and energy to accounting and pork production.
“We instituted a policy when we were having a hard time getting employees around COVID,” Kuker explains. “We’ve always had an overtime policy, but we actually added to it, and we added double time for Sundays. It’s been a useful tool for us.”
Not only has it helped The Equity attract more candidates, he believes it has also helped them retain employees.
For Kuker, working through the TN process with employees has allowed him to receive feedback from lawyers and recruiters who say the ability to pay overtime and actually offer overtime hours is attractive to many candidates.
“I wouldn’t say we’re at the highest level for initial starting offers,” he says. “But when we put down that we average 45 to 50 hours a week, and we pay overtime, that’s been very helpful for us to get good candidates.”
Of course, he says the flip side of it is they have to manage hours carefully so they aren’t paying too much overtime.
“We have certain budgets and certain thresholds we need to be under,” Kuker adds. “We still make sure we’re productive, but a happy worker that’s getting overtime has been really beneficial for us.”
2. Let people know you care.
When it’s blazing hot out and temperatures are wearing down pigs and people, there’s something to be said for giving employees a little boost. One of the ways that Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, shows his team that he cares is by providing Gatorade packets, oranges or popsicles throughout the day.
“We make sure we take time during our morning meetings to talk through things like the weather that may impact their well-being, too,” Annegers says. “It can be as simple as, ‘Hey, it’s going to be hot today. You guys watch out for each other and take care of each other.’ Providing those constant reminders that they are very important to us as well as the animals.”
Everyone has a job to do, he says. But there’s always time to make sure employees know that they are valued and that their care is a priority.
“I really think that goes a long way with them,” he says.
Watch or listen to their entire discussion with Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare at Pipestone; Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems, and Jennifer Shike, brand leader for Farm Journal’s PORK, that delves into the impact of hog prices on management decisions, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) woes and more in the Farm Journal’s PORK State of the Pork Industry Report.
