The 2013 Dairy Woman of the Year spoke about the importance of staff retention at the Dairy Women’s Network conference in April.
Retention was a big issue in the dairy industry because even when farmers had excellent staff management, people would still want to move on to grow their own career, Kidd said.
“It’s the nature of the industry.”
Farmers shouldn’t aim for 100% retention because of the risk of stagnation, but they should understand the true cost of recruiting and training a new staff member, she said.
As a rule, it was three times that employee’s salary, which included the cost of retraining and the loss of productivity, she said.
Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory offered a good guide for farmers to ensure they were providing an attractive work place, she said.
Herzberg’s theory states the six factors that make a person stay in their job are recognition, achievement, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth.
Many of those factors didn’t cost money, they just cost farm employers their time, Kidd said.
It was important to offer staff a clear pathway to promotion or more responsibility, ensure staff had a clear job description and set performance targets to work towards, she said.
Once performance targets had been set, it was important to monitor them throughout the season to recognise success and effort through having regular performance reviews, she said.
Farm employers should offer training on the job by giving staff new challenges and involving them in new tasks or offering formal training opportunities through organisations such as Primary ITO, she said.
It was important to make sure staff recognised when they were gaining more skills, by giving them certificates or reminding them at performance reviews what they’ve been taught, she said.
The Herzberg theory states the factors that cause a person to leave a job include salary, work conditions, relationship with the boss and peers, supervision, company policy and security.
For work conditions, the first place for farm employers to start was to ensure they were taking care of the basics such as organised rosters, Kidd said.
Farm policies should be in place so staff knew onfarm protocol and what was expected of them, and setting performance targets and putting training in place would avoid the problem of unwanted supervision.
To build a good relationship with staff, farm employers should communicate and be open about the business and their future plans, which would also help provide more job security, she said.
Be an approachable boss, be calm and consistent when communicating with staff and make time to get to know staff and their family socially as a team, she said.
Addressing these factors could improve staff retention and build a good working team that could improve farm productivity and ultimately profit, she said.
Having a happy team of staff would also reduce stress onfarm and create a happier life for employers and employees, she said.
