We are all well aware of the affect the shortage people – especially skilled ones – is having on dairy farms in south-west Victoria. Of course, this is not limited to our region or to our industry. So, in a world where everyone is after the best people, how do you win the war for talent?

In order to help answer this, and with support from the DemoDAIRY Foundation, in late June WestVic Dairy brought in one of the best in the ‘people’ business, Mandy Johnson. Mandy is a QLD based best-selling author, keynote speaker and all-round expert on attracting and retaining great employees.

Mandy presented a condensed version of her critically acclaimed Winning the war for talent workshop in Cobden. Forty farmers attended the event, with the buzz around the room and the accompanying feedback all extremely positive. It is impossible to condense all that was discussed and the great tips that were learned on the day, however, some key takeaways are as follows.

Getting your ad right

Whether you advertise on Facebook, Seek, Gumtree or anywhere else, writing an ad that stands out and sells your business is essential. Writing an ad that gets the most applications isn’t what you need, you want to attract the best person for the job. Good people will know what’s required to work on a farm, instead, they will be looking at what makes you stand out as the best farm for them to work on.

All too often you see ad’s that effectively list what the employer wants, whether that’s experience, work ethic, motivation, flexibility, attention to detail etc. Of course, you may well want those traits, but it isn’t necessary to list them right at the start. 

So, what should you include? Well, we all know that a house is often the biggest carrot. One thing that isn’t often seen in farm job ad’s is the pay rate, but it is one of the main items applicants look for. It is hard when it depends on the person, but could you include a range? It’s generally understood that money alone isn’t going to cut it. Studies have shown that as soon as a person commences a job, money drops to fourth or fifth on their list of considerations for staying in the role.

You need to highlight what stands you out from the crowd, how close to beaches or other points of interest are you; have you won industry awards; do you have new infrastructure and technologies; do you offer industry training or participation in farm groups; are there opportunities to develop and/or grow wealth; do you offer a good work life balance; and, do you offer diversity of work? This list isn’t exhaustive, get creative about the genuine benefits you can offer.

Don’t muck around in the hiring process was also Mandy’s message. Advertising for longer and waiting until the end to arrange interviews and offer the job might get more resumes in your inbox, but by the time you circle back to arranging an interview with the early applicants, they might have already been hired elsewhere.

Effective one-on-ones

Nobody likes the old ‘performance review’ once or twice a year style. It’s generally uncomfortable for all concerned, and realistically any performance issues should have been dealt with as they arose and not saved up for a ‘telling off’ that will destroy morale.

Mandy suggests a monthly one-on-one system, where the farm owner or manager takes time out to have a productive discussion with each employee. Its quite surprising how many farmers have little or no idea what motivates their employees and what aspirations they have. Do you know what your employees’ favourite and least preferred jobs are on farm? Not that you can necessarily avoid giving them those jobs all together, but you can factor it in when setting tasks and rosters.  

Unless you take the time to find out you will never know, therefore you won’t be able to use that information to help retain good staff. We are all motivated by different things and that’s fine – you need to find out what motivates your team members and one-to-ones provide the perfect opportunity.

Mandy has a five-step guide for effective one-to-ones, which includes; get the employee’s perspective on their month; give your perspective of the month; explain the impact of good or poor performance; if poor performance, explore ideas for solutions; and finally make an action plan.