Ganaz says it has developed a new web platform to improve efficiency and transparency in the recruiting of potential H-2A agricultural guest workers.
The web tool allows employers or farm labor contractors to view profiles, photos, videos and skills assessments of potential H-2A workers in Mexico to make more informed selections, said Hannah Freeman, co-founder and CEO of Ganaz.
On its website, Ganaz describes itself as “the workforce management platform built for deskless workers in agriculture and food manufacturing.” The company has tools to help employers recruit, retain, communicate, onboard, train and pay their workforce, according to its website.
“We help all the players in a supply chain win, when historically it’s been very like ‘us versus them,’” she said.
Ganaz has more than 100 customers, largely growers and agricultural employers. Customers appreciate Ganaz’s digital onboarding and payroll tools, Freeman said.
“We help employers be better, more efficient employers, which hopefully helps the grower thrive and be more profitable in a challenging environment, and [it] helps the worker be better taken care of,” she said.
The new platform from the company aims to reduce corruption, debt and anxiety for workers by providing a recruiting process free of bribes and upfront fees, Freeman says.
The new program was trialed over the summer and went well, she said, and now Ganaz is signing contracts for 2024.
“We’re working on scaling it,” said Freeman, while noting expansion in the program will be measured to keep the quality of workers selected high.
Ganaz says it has staff in Mexico to recruit and assess workers, leveraging technology to scale the process and maintain quality. The costs for growers are comparable to typical H-2A fees, with the potential for return on investment from higher worker productivity, according to the company.
The new platform is currently focused on the major produce-growing regions like Washington, Oregon and California, but there are plans for expanding to other states. The platform draws concepts from fair trade to improve transparency, training, and accountability for both growers and workers, Freeman said.
The software allows ag employers to more efficiently identify potential H-2A workers. “A lot of growers are being forced to turn to the H-2A program because they need something they can count on,” Freeman said.
On the other hand, the cost of the program is high.
“What it comes down to is how productive your H-2A crew is,” she said.
Some growers have found excellent workers through the H-2A program, but other growers are using former taxicab drivers in Mexico City who were recruited to work in agriculture but aren’t up for the task, Freeman said.
The tool from Ganaz allows employers to better evaluate potential H-2A workers, she said.
H-2A workers are not a “commodity,” but a diverse collection of people who have different skills, strengths and weaknesses. In the new program, Ganaz says it offers growers the chance to see potential workers in a more transparent way, by communicating their names, faces and videos of people doing work.
The assessment may include details of physical health, mental and emotional health, motivation and skill sets.
“A lot of people say, ‘I want I want 100 workers that have picked cherries,’” Freeman said. At the same time, if one finds 100 people who have picked cherries in Mexico, it likely means that they have already been to the U.S. on an H-2A contract and weren’t invited back.
“What you want is people that are going to learn quickly,” she said.
An assessment with more data points can help identify those people, Freeman said.
“Then the employer can choose who they want to pick versus only learning about these people when they show up on the bus,” she said.
The program Ganaz runs is a recruiting program whose aim is to be free of corruption. “That is the intention of most recruiters, but it can be hard to do,” she said.
Some potential H-2A workers in Mexico pay recruiters several thousand dollars for the opportunity for a well-paying position in the U.S.
“A lot of H-2A workers are complicit in the corruption because it’s a good deal; they see an opportunity to cross the border safely versus paying $10,000 to a [smuggler],” Freeman said. That type of arrangement is common, she said, because recruiters may have 1,000 candidates but only 900 jobs.
“What we’re working really hard to do is make sure we’re hiring the kind of people that we have worked with for many years and can trust that we’re working with grassroots organizations and community leaders who believe it is in the best interest of that community to keep corruption out,” Freeman said. “The best way to get productivity for H-2A workers is to make sure they come [to the U.S.] debt-free, and they know that that money is all going into their pocket and for the betterment of the family.”
Ganaz seeks motivated potential workers for H-2A employers because that motivation can pencil out in good ways for both employers and H-2A workers, she said.
Tiffany Davis, business manager at Oregon-based farm labor contractor K&K Land Management, said that the company used the new program over the summer.
“The way [Ganaz] has set it up, [the program] provides a lot of transparency that there would be no way to get otherwise,” Davis said.
A typical recruiter tries to match potential H-2A workers with employer needs, but the new program from Ganaz offers more background on each worker, including details on their work history and videos of the candidates at work, she said.
“Being a little bit more prepared for the workforce that you may be receiving is helpful,” Davis said.
Davis said Ganaz “hit it out of the park” with the program K&K Land Management trialed over the summer.
