In a column earlier this year, I labeled people issues as the “elephant in the room” that everyone acknowledges as a major factor limiting growth. We stayed on that theme last month in identifying it as one of the Front Line 5 issues in the cover story. This month, we hit the topic yet again, but from the perspective of two experts on ag employment.
I think they did an exceptional job of dissecting the issues and providing a number of good ideas for your consideration. I’m guessing that you’ve thought about a lot of these already, but I hope there are some new ideas for you to consider — or perhaps there is some affirmation here that confirms what you’re doing or planning to do in the future.
One thing is for sure though — it’s a lot easier to talk about what should be done than to actually make the commitment and do it. I was successful, after a bit of prodding, in striking up some conversations about the topic with retailers. Most conversations began with the caveat, “Well, I’m not sure how much I can help with that …” But once we got to talking, some interesting points came the fore.
One Midwest retailer I talked to — we’ll call him “Jack” — says his big challenge right now is in finding experienced management and sales agronomists in a region where cushy desk jobs in a relatively urban setting are available. The recent economic turmoil has served to relieve some of the pressure, but as he said, “It won’t last forever.”
Jack and I then got into a discussion about “what employees value most” when it comes to compensation and benefits. “When it comes to what’s valued most among employees,” Jack explained, “we in management tend to put salary as a higher issue than do our people. All of us have seen surveys that put money well down on the list — you can’t take it for granted, but there are more important issues.
“Being part of a winning team, being part of a group of people that like working with each other, is really important,” he says. “Let’s face it — they are going to spend more waking hours with the people they work with than their own families.”
Other aspects of that winning team include open communication across the entire company, as well as having clear goals and expectations set. “These are definitely motivating factors,” says Jack.
Another critical factor is having an understanding of what different employees want. “I sound like an old guy talking about ‘that younger generation,’ but really, they’re not interested in the kind non-cash benefits that our people with families are.”
But what about the seasonality issue that is so intimidating to those uninitiated potential employees? It is a difficult factor to overcome, if not insurmountable in trying to attract some folks. “We offer generous off-time during our slower periods, but for some, no amount of off-time compensates for the times we work six or seven days a week during the busy season,” Jack laments.
One possible solution? Split shifts. The problem is that it requires hiring even more people … a real Catch-22.
You can certainly take comfort in the fact that virtually no one has all the answers. But at the same time, we need to keep working at it if we’re going to keep our best people happy and on our team.
