QUALITY WATCH

How can you develop your farm’s human resources?

WE ASKED THE EXPERTS:

Sarah Michalek

MMPA Sustainability Supervisor

I haven’t met a farmer who has told me they got into dairy farming because they wanted to manage employees. Most farmers enter the industry as part of a family tradition and/or a love of cows. Employee management doesn’t typically make the top of the list. And yet, employees are the most important asset on the farm.

Family and non-family employees alike deserve a safe and healthy work environment. To assist farmers in mitigating risks and protecting their employees, the Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) program developed the Workforce Development silo as a voluntary evaluation to help employers identify which practices would be most bene cial to their situation.

The evaluation looks at both human resources as well as safety practices. The program recognizes what you’re doing now and helps determine if you should keep doing it and it also identi es what you’re not doing and whether it’s something you should start. What’s more is that the program provides numerous resources and templates for these practices that can be tailored to t the farm.

There is no required follow-up to the evaluation and no action plans generated. The FARM Workforce Development silo is to be used as an informational tool to help farmers with employee management. If you’re interested in the evaluation or resources, please contact Deb Gingrich at dgingrich@mimilk.com or me at smichalek@mimilk.com.

Nicole Ayache

NMPF Vice President, Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability

FARM Workforce Development (WFD) focuses on the people who work year-round to provide excellent cow care and produce wholesome milk: dairy farm families and their employees. FARM WFD equips dairy owners and managers with free, high-quality resources to support their efforts to become an employer of choice, increase employee retention, and enhance onfarm safety and culture.

The FARM Human Resources (HR) Manual addresses topics like hiring, communication, housing, training, wages/payroll, performance management and more. Self-assessment questions accompany each chapter. We also have downloadable HR templates and samples that can be tailored to t the needs of the individual farm, like a sample Employee Handbook, a New Hire Checklist, and a Job Description Worksheet. The HR Manual and templates have been translated into Spanish for ease of use. Finally, our state and federal legal fact sheets summarize laws and regulations on various labor topics, including wages, paystubs, youth employment and more. Links to more information and resources are provided throughout.

In addition to FARM resources, our website also highlights external resources available to dairy owners and managers.

Building a successful HR management program takes some time and effort. It can feel more manageable by picking one single template or topic to start with.

Dr. Michelle Borek-Stine

Green Point Dairy

Set yourself up for success. Your new employee’s rst day is the most important. Often times new dairy employees have been thrown into their role with no training or guidance at all. The gure-itout-as-you-go mentality can work, but on today’s dairy farms that is not good enough. Even if you are short-handed, within the rst two days of employment, schedule one to two hours to sit down with your employee. Ask them about whatexperiences they have, what they are interested in and what they want to learn or achieve in their role. The answers to these questions can dramatically change your training focus. They have also helped us create new employee welcome packets.

Taking this time to get to know your employee initiates building trust and a working relationship. The individual who takes time to know the employee, should also take on the role of overseeing the training for the new employee. This person doesn’t always have to be well versed at training on each area of the farm, whether it be feeding, milking or equipment operator. That being said, a designated trainer per speci c area is recommended. In each of these areas, it is critical that the speci ed trainer is the one who does the training and that new employees are not being trained second and third hand as key factors may be miscommunicated or left out.

After the lead trainer has formed the trust bond with the employee, they can serve as the go between with the farm owner or manager. Thefarm owner or manager should meet with the lead trainer on scheduled weeks to ensure that training is progressing.