The Rural Voice, 2001-10, Page 16Hiring and keeping
employees
Larger farming °o,+eh"nns9mt
relations are a new skill farmers must
r t A recent seminar gay
"P.' • 41,
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As farms get larger and
employees become part of the
operation, farmers and farm
managers must develop management
skills they've never had to use in the
past.
With that in mind a conference
was held tn Shakespeare September
12 to help owners and managers of
larger pork farms to hone their skills
in personnel management.
There's a shortage of people
willing to work on pork farms these
days but Dr. Catherine Templeton of
Synergy Services Inc. in Listowel
predicts that new opportunities in the
swine industry for people to move up
the career ladder within larger farm
organizations will eventually attract
more people to the workforce.
Though aimed at pork producers,
most of the messages from the six
speakers (keynote speaker Dr.
Bernard Ervin of Ohio State
University was unable to attend
because of the World Trade Centre
disaster but his written presentation
was included), could apply to large
farms of any type, or even to many
non-farm businesses.
Chris Cockle of Heronbrook
Farms Inc. at Embro illustrated how
12 THE RURAL VOICE
the dynamics of an organization
change as it grows, something that
many farm operations like his have
done over the years. In days when
farms which had employees at all
generally had one employee, there
was a simple one-on-one relationship
between the employer and employee.
Add a second employee, however,
and you suddenly have a triangle,
and a much more complicated
dynamic in the team. Add a third
employee and the dynamics become
more difficult again as more
complicated relationships between
the employees develop.
On top of that you have the
complications of people having bad
moods or bad days which change the
normal relationships that already
existed. Then there are problems
such as people with addictions. Even
those addicted to tobacco can become
a problem if they can't work all day
in a barn without needing a cigarette,
he said.
Dr. Templeton emphasized the
value of properly judging both skills
and personalities in the hiring of new
employees. The key work is done
long before a job interview begins,
she said.
"Seventy-five per cent of the work
of hiring takes place before you
interview a single person," she said.
The work starts by setting the
overall objectives of the position
you're trying to fill, Templeton said.
What qualifications are required to
reach that objective?
Set the duties and responsibilities
of the employee, something
Templeton said is one of the easier
parts of developing a job description.
Set out what the working
conditions will be so potential
candidates know what they're getting
into. If they know they won't be able
to smoke, for instance, some people
may decide the job's not for them.
Others may not realize they're
expected to work statutory holidays
and later discover they don't like
that.
/t's not a bad thing to lose people
at the interview stage, Templeton
says because it's better than
hiring someone who quits soon after
taking the job. "If people know
(working conditions) ahead of time it
may save you money from having to
interview and retrain."
Put down on paper who the person
reports to. If there's a site manager,