Hawke’s Bay rural human resources (HR) consultant and farm business owner Mary Cooper has suggested that one of the first places farmers should look when getting to the bottom of high rates of staff turnover is in the mirror.
“Managers have a really good knowledge of cows and grass because that is how they got to where they have got to – but they have often had no training on people skills.”
Mary said people coming up through the industry generally learn through experience, and in many cases people management experience was variable.
“We often expect that they are just going to be fantastic and sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.”
While remuneration plays a role in staff retention, Cooper said that in her experience it probably held less sway than many employers thought. Rather, communication, fairness and equity were three big drivers of retention.
Communication was the big ticket item. Robust systems around employment agreements and job descriptions should be considered only a starting point. Employees needed clarity in terms of what was expected of them. Cooper cited the “law of specificity” in terms of offering feedback.
“Be specific about feedback you are giving your staff. Not just a ‘thank you’ but a ‘thanks so much, the shed looks fantastic, you’ve left it exactly as we need it’ – be specific about the standard that you want.”
Well-run weekly team meetings would keep those paths of communication open and get staff more involved.
“Get your staff together, spend half an hour going over what’s been done, what there is to be done, any issues, anything that’s coming up to be done. Just half an hour over a cup of coffee is hugely beneficial.”
By fairness, Cooper means things like paying a fair wage – no seasonal averaging, fair working conditions – not two days off in every month or regularly working excessively long days, and enabling some sort of work-life balance even for those employees who say that is not important to them.
“The fact that I am still hearing about people getting two days a month off saddens me.”
By equity, Cooper is referring to trying to be just and impartial, not playing favourites amongst employees and not undermining people behind their backs to other members of staff.
Getting these three factors right would create a workplace more likely to be attractive to employees.
And managers should walk the talk, role modelling the positive behaviours that make for a better team environment, Cooper said. People looked for a sense of belonging, a good leader and manager, loyalty and trust, a sense of empowerment, and support and recognition.
Generating some a sense of “teamness” would provide employees with a sense of belonging.
“No one likes to go to a place where people don’t get on together, where there are no clear lines of responsibility, where there is not good organisation, where there’s not a real leader or someone to go to if there is an issue.
“All that cliché team-building stuff, it is actually about creating that little place for people within that team. That does not mean you have to go to go-carts or play paintball – that’s not team-building per se, that’s fun – it’s about keeping that team together and asking people’s opinion.”
Delegating an area of responsibility to staff members could also improve team dynamics. Cooper said the area of responsibility did not have to be huge. She used the example of someone being in charge of the tail-paint over mating.
“In my experience people are looking for that little bit of accountability, and there is no reason we can’t give it. You can’t just keep directing people. You have got to give them some sort of empowerment as well.”
Courses focused on staff management are available. For example, Primary ITO offers a five-day National Certificate in Business that focuses on rural staff management. Private HR firms offer coaching and can help managers identify and improve areas of weakness.
Conducting exit interviews – discussions with staff who are leaving – could also generate useful information. However, Cooper recommended the use of a third party to carry out the survey.
