Farmscape for November 6, 2017

A retired extension educator in workforce management says, the successful orientation of new workers into livestock operations needs to begin during the recruiting process.
"Giving New Employees a Successful Start" will be discussed as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2017 next week in Saskatoon.
Chuck Schwartau, a retired Extension Educator with the University of Minnesota in the area of workforce development and management for agriculture, says it's orientation that gets the worker into the culture of the farm.

Clip-Chuck Schwartau-University of Minnesota:
We have to imbed into them, why are they important to the farm?
What is their role in the farm, and that's not just a job but what is their place in the order of getting things done and the success of this business?
Everybody has a point in that.
It's not just a case where you do the single job that you're appointed to but your job impacts other people as well.
So new employees need to have a good understanding of how does their job fit into the whole scheme of what's happening on the farm.
It starts well before they even start.
When we are doing recruiting we want to make sure we do a good job of helping them understand what is the farm operation, what are the things we're looking for, what kind of skills and attitudes are we looking for as we recruit new people?
That's the first point.
Then, as you get through the hiring process, you've decided here is a candidate we want to bring onto this farm, you go into the next steps.
You help them better understand what's their role, what are some of the simple things they need to know just as they start working on the farm?
Where do they park the car, who do they report to when they come to work the first day, where do they go, who do they see and where do they put things?
Is their lunch supplied, did they bring lunch, where is there a locker room or showers and bathrooms, all simple thing that we don't think of but they are the kinds of things that help a person better feel like they belong on that farm and that there's a place for them and that they have some importance on that farm.

Schwartau says, just like it's important to give the animals a good start, it's important to give new works a good start.
For Far,mscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork