8 Tips for Finding Work-Life Balance in Agribusiness
April 11, 2023 We live in a world with the potential to be connected to work 24/7. Aside from the extended hours and seasonal demands of the ag industry, our email inbox and messaging apps receive messages 24 hours a day.
When I started my career in retail agronomy, the lines between work life and the rest of life were pretty clearly defined. Except for evenings and weekends during the peak of spring, the only time I was expected to take care of work was when I was there. My cell phone was in my truck, with no way for me to answer it if I wasn’t sitting there.
Things are quite different now. Aside from the technology that enables us to be located wherever we are, and whenever we’re needed, advancements in crop production practices, crop protection products, and fertility strategies have significantly extended what used to be a six-week peak season into the entire growing season. As a result, the distinction between work time and non-work time has become blurred as every day presents the opportunity to work more and more.
A Lingering Issue
This is not a new dilemma. The ag retail sector has faced the challenge of balancing work and personal life for decades, but its impact has grown to epic levels due to low unemployment and the ease of disgruntled employees finding work elsewhere. Panicked organizations have tried to “buy loyalty” by improving base compensation, increasing bonuses, and providing new incentives. While that may have bought some time, all it did was increase costs and reduce margins. In a recent Gallup Survey, they found that only 41% of workers considered a significant increase in income to be “very important” in a new job. That’s not to say you can take compensation out of the equation. In fact, you need to pay your employees enough to be considered, but an employee’s salary is not the only (or even the most common) reason employees stay or leave.
Numerous surveys over the past 20 years by Gallop, Harvard, and Google have shown the same results: Employees quit their boss and their company culture. In other words, increased compensation doesn’t compensate for a lack of work-life balance. When you offer to pay a disengaged employee more for them to stay, you may have retained the person, but it’s unlikely that you have improved their engagement.
Gartner recently surveyed employees of Fortune 500 companies and found that employees who are happy with their work-life balance are 21% more productive than those who don’t. They are better team players, they are more innovative, and they strive to exceed expectations. They just get more done in less time than their disengaged co-workers.
Although there is no silver bullet, there are several things you can try in your business to find the right balance. Most of these initiatives start at the top, so it’s important that you’ve bought into the idea from the start and maybe even practice some of these things yourself.
- Ask questions. If you want to create an environment that enables a better work-life balance, start by asking your current employees how you measure up and suggestions for improvements. This step won’t create the ultimate solution. However, asking for input goes a long way to creating the right culture.
- Put your employees first, and customer satisfaction will follow. Employees first means that your organization’s ownership, customers, and bottom line come after your employees. Although this appears to go against what we have learned to focus on as a business, you need to remember that happy, engaged, and healthy employees will serve your clients with a higher level of success and satisfaction, and your bottom line will benefit!
- Support your employees. Treat your employees how you would want to be treated. Provide them opportunities to grow, so they recognize the extra effort is taking them somewhere. Provide honest feedback throughout the year, not just during evaluations. And help them develop the skills and experiences they want to earn the next level of responsibility. Above all, the key to a strong team is knowing that their manager will have their back when they need you.
- Restrict hours rather than demand hours. The key to productivity is rarely based on working more hours. Encourage employees to get their work done efficiently and provide them with the flexibility to manage their personal life. Reward them based on efficiency and effectiveness, and not by the hours of overtime they have clocked.
- Lead by example. The best thing you can do to get your team to improve their work-life balance is for management to improve theirs first. If you are currently leading a team, you will be surprised at how your work ethic influences your direct reports. Many managers are shocked when they discover that their idea to lead by example, where they choose to be the first one in and the last to leave, may have a negative impact on your team and the image of your expectations. Don’t lead by showing that you’re willing to work as hard as your team, lead by respecting your own balance.
- Trust your employees. Give them the space they need to provide value and be productive. As long as they are adhering to milestones and timelines, enable them to use some flexibility to promote an improved work-life balance.
- Respect the boundaries of your team. Allow their personal time to be their time. Only contact them if it’s an emergency when you truly need to ask them something. When managers respect the boundaries of their team, the team will learn to respect the manager’s boundaries as well.
- Encourage breaks. Players are more productive, safe, and efficient when they are able to take regular breaks. encourage breaks on a daily or even weekly basis. A few hours or even a partial day may seem like the end of the world and the peak of your busy season, but it isn’t that critical in the scope of the entire season and its positive impact on your team.
A Win for Your Customers
Glassdoor recently completed a survey with organizations across the U.S. and leveraged its database of millions of insights into employees to focus on one question: Can companies achieve higher customer satisfaction by investing more in employee satisfaction?
The answer was a definite YES! There is a high correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction in the organizations surveyed. A happier workforce is clearly associated with an organization’s ability to earn a higher level of customer satisfaction — especially in companies with close contact between employees and customers.
Many organizations recognize the need to improve employee engagement and see the benefits of investing in customer satisfaction, but few recognize how those two issues are really two sides of the same coin. Use some of these tips to improve the health of your team, and you may be just as happy to see the impact this will have on the health of your customer base.
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