Canterbury dairy farmers Leo and Kathryn van den Beuken place such importance on it that it’s woven into the fabric of their business right from the very first personal connection they have with any prospective new team member.
They’ve developed a powerful tool dubbed ‘the impact map’ that’s first shown to prospective employees during the interview.
There’s a separate impact map for every position on the farm. Each one documents the skills and knowledge required for the position and then details how the skills will be used on the job.
It then defines the key results of those actions.
Alongside each outcome is an agreed goal for the employee which is then connected to the farm’s goals.
It’s a clear and powerful way of showing why a skill is important and how it fits into the big picture.
“Staff really feel valued when they can see that,” Kathryn said.
An intermediate farm assistant for example is expected to have knowledge of the farm’s calving recording plan.
Applying that knowledge means they’ll be expected to monitor calving cows, mother up newborns and accurately match calves to cows as well as carry out post calving care.
The key result of that action is that that the farm rears the highest breeding worth (BW) calves through correct identification.
The employee’s goal, correlating with their actions, is that they maintain a high genetic merit herd.
Their goal then goes on to align with one of four farm goals Leo and Kathryn have set as part of the impact map.
One is an annual production goal, another is to keep farm working expenses as low as possible with the other two are about their people – developing employees to take ownership and leadership for the benefit of themselves and the farm and for everyone to return home safe to family each day.
Kathryn points out that while the structure of the map is relevant to all farms the details within it need to be personalised.
The impact map.
At the interview stage the impact map is a great way to structure a discussion on the skills the prospective staff member already has but also opens the way to talk about what they think they need to work on, Leo said.
It’s a non-threatening way to approach the subject because the couple make it clear they’re keen to help them build and develop any of the required skills they don’t yet have through training.
If they’re successful and land the job, the document and a record of where they’re starting out from makes a great platform from which to build a training plan that can then be reviewed during the six monthly performance review throughout their careers.
All the impact maps for each position are kept in a folder in the farm dairy office so staff members can refer back to them.
But just as importantly they can take a look at the skills and knowledge they’ll need for the job on the next rung up the ladder.
That’s motivation for further training but for Leo and Kathryn also helps clearly map out a career pathway for their team – something that’s very dear their hearts.
It’s why they include an impact map for a sharemilker/manager in the folder showing what skills and knowledge they’d be expected to have, even though going to that level would mean leaving the farm.
While they have great retention on the 1100-cow operation nothing delights them more than seeing senior staff move on and progress in the industry.
They’ve had a raft of young people go on to sharemilking or large scale management as well as take out industry awards – Phillip Colombus, this year’s Canterbury farm manager of the year, is one of them.
“Some farmers complain they don’t want to spend money on training because people will just up and leave them for a better job. We don’t see it that way; training isn’t a cost it’s an investment,” Kathryn said.
It’s an investment not just into their own business but also into the industry. They feel strongly about giving back.
They were NZ Sharemilkers of the Year in 2005 and have worked their way up the progression ranks through the traditional pathway starting out as lower order sharemilkers before moving to 50-50 sharemilking to help them buy their own 170ha, 580-cow farm at Winchmore in Mid-Canterbury.
It’s run by lower-order sharemilkers while Kathryn and Leo have maintained their sharemilking relationship with Max and Adrienne Duncan and continue to 50-50 sharemilk the 311ha farm near Dunsandel.
Structure
Another document used right from interview stage at Silverdale Farm is the ‘training structure’.
It lists out junior, intermediate, senior and manager level positions showing what training is compulsory at each level.
Junior staff members for instance must complete the milk quality stage one course while intermediate, senior or manager levels must also complete stage two.
Farm safety courses and the dealing with effluent course are also listed as compulsory.
Added to these are courses that Leo and Kathryn highly recommend such as the national certificate in feeding and pastures level three for staff who are at an intermediate level.
Kathryn is a former Primary ITO key account manager and the couple ensure all their staff are actively in training no matter what position they hold on the farm.
By bringing out the training structure document at the interview stage the couple get an early indication of whether the prospective employee is the type of person they’re looking for.
If they turn their nose up at the document they’re probably not going to be a good fit with the van den Beuken’s business given their desire to have motivated people, keen to learn and progress in the industry.
Support
Getting the most out of your investment in staff training means putting a bit of effort in at the management level yourself, Leo van den Beuken says.
He and Kathryn employ five staff and all undergo Primary ITO and other industry training which the couple pay for.
They make it clear though that they expect staff to complete each course if they’re going to make the investment.
“We’ll make every effort to help them if they’re struggling with something,” Leo said.
He makes a point of discussing course content and assignments with each staff member when they get back from a course, showing them how it fits in with their particular farm business.
It could mean talking about something practical they learned in a milk quality course or something associated with financial management.
“Talking it over, reinforcing it and showing its relevance really helps them learn and retain the information,” he said.
That not only helps the staff member it helps the whole farm business because the farm then gets the full benefit of that training.
