Prevent Quitting: Keep Employees Top of Mind in 2024

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:57:13 GMT

As the calendar page flips to a new year, farmers are focusing on ways they can improve their operation in 2024. For many, labor – or lack thereof - sorted its way to the top of the ‘biggest headaches’ list. To help prevent this issue from reoccurring, Jorge Delgado, a training and talent development specialist at Alltech, says now is the perfect time to give your employee management plan a brief overhaul.

Before your best employee walks out the door, consider implementing the following steps to give retention and performance a needed boost.

Conduct Annual Reviews: “This is a concept many have of heard of but few people are using,” Delgado shares. However, he recommends treating annual reviews as a chance to sit down with each individual in your team to review expectations, goals, what needs to be improved and what needs to change.

“This is a good opportunity to hear feedback from your employees and share with them your appreciation in a very formal way,” he adds.

Go Over Mission Statement: Another important aspect to look over going into the new year is your farm’s mission statement. Delgado says if your operation doesn’t currently have a mission statement, this is the time to start creating one with your employees in mind.

“Let them be part of this process and include them in your mission statement,” he says.

Review and Update Protocols: Similar to looking over your farm’s mission statement, reviewing protocols is another important area to analyze.

“This is an area that often gets lost in time,” Delgado says. “People start deferring from original protocols and make decisions that may not be the best for your operation and/or animals. Get together with employees and/or your veterinarian to update information and procedures.”

Perform an Anonymous Survey: “An anonymous survey can help you find information to improve your internal culture and to discover areas of improvement,” Delgado says. “You will be surprised with the information generated from this kind of survey.”

Delgado suggests creating a questionnaire with simple questions that can help you finding opportunities about your organization.

Adjust Payroll: When was the last time you reviewed your employees’ salaries? According to Delgado, many workers might be due for a raise that was forgotten during the year.

“This is also a good time to adjust those numbers based on inflation and other costs,” he adds.

Terminate Bad Apples: While labor shortages continue to be one of the biggest issues facing agriculture, not every employee is cut out to work on our operations. Delgado agrees, adding, “There are some employees who just don’t fit in our culture or business mode. The new year can be a good time to start thinking about how to replace those individuals in our business.”

Calculate Annual Turnover Rate: Chances are you may have had a few employees leave your farm in 2023. Was this number higher than previous years? Lower? According to Delgado, it’s important to keep a pulse on your farm’s turnover rate.

“Find areas to improve on if this number is too high for your operation,” he adds.

Start Planning an Educational Calendar: As the chapter closes on 2023, Delgado says now is a good time to ask your employees what they would like to learn in 2024 and set up dates in your new calendar.

“Consider also reaching out to external resources to get them on your calendar” Delgado “They can offer free, professional training.”

Plan Social and Cultural Events for the Coming Year: Farming is a stressful occupation for both farm owners and employees. Therefore, it’s important to keep fun activities on the calendar to increase morale and engagement. Consider hosting a team dinner or

“Employees value the social aspect of any organization,” Delgado says. “This also helps with retention and motivation.”

Review Safety Guidelines: No matter the time of year, keeping employees safe should always be top of mind. Going into 2024, set intentions to review and update safety guidelines to ensure every position in your operation has a plan.

“If you don’t have a safety plan, you need one,” Delgado shares. “Review what went well and what went wrong this year. Use this information to increase safety around the farm.”

For more on labor, read:

How to handle workplace burnout, mental health issues

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:29:42 GMT

Call it pandemic fatigue or just burnout: You could be losing motivation, experiencing emotional numbness, feel that almost all people drain your energy. Your productivity may drop even if your hours haven’t. You’re self-medicating more with alcohol, drugs, Netflix, gambling, porn or shopping.

These are signs that you may be close to burnout at work and in your personal life, said Mary Ann Baynton, a workplace mental health consultant and author of several books, including The Evolution of Workplace Mental Health in Canada and Mindful Manager. She was the speaker at the April 13 Learning Lounge event during Canadian Produce Marketing Association’s virtual Fresh Week conference April 13-16.

The session was fueled by anonymous responses to a survey about dealing with employee work stress, and Baynton also had a roundtable of about 30 workers sharing their stories of burnout.

More symptoms of burnout include becoming disproportionately irritable about little things like noise and light, you’re more cynical, untrusting and never feel rested no matter how much sleep you get.

“Burnout is mental, physical exhaustion, and it’s more likely when employees expect too much of themselves, never feel good enough, have that good girl or boy complex, feel inadequate or incompetent, feel unappreciated for their work efforts, have unreasonable demands at work or home, or are in roles that are not a good job fit,” Baynton said.

She shared some of the tips that company leaders have employed to combat pandemic fatigue, which may or may not work at everyone’s work situation.

Use all your vacation days, even if you can’t go anywhere;
Instead of meetings via the computer screen, encourage walking meetings so employees can get outside and moving;
Use the first 10 minutes of a meeting for casual conversation, like watercooler chat;
Suggest everyone take at least an hour during the day to get outside and enjoy the daylight;
Suggest to those who can that they work their 37.5 or 40 hours a week around parenting, homeschooling, caregiving and other duties;
Recognize employees for everyday successes; provide positive reinforcement; and
Have leadership talk more about what they do on their down time, so employees stop believing that working nonstop is the expectation.

“By you, as the leader, sharing ‘I’m taking some time off to do this,’ you’re saying, ‘I have balance, and I have those expectations for you too,’” Baynton said.

Leaders need to be clear about their expectations and priorities.

“It’s amazing how often an employee works really, really hard on something and then their boss says, ‘That’s not what I wanted; that wasn’t important,’ and the employee is really, really crushed,” she said.

Employees can also “coach up,” Baynton said, to help their managers realize what they’re going through. This is not complaining and venting all your personal life stress. Keep it to how you can best serve the company while maintaining your energy.

“As a boss myself, sometimes I’m surprised by everything my employees are doing. I don’t know what they need unless they tell me,” she said.

Employees can share what work projects are on their plate and how long different projects take, so the boss can help prioritize.

Sometimes a manager will reveal he or she doesn’t need you to do a particular project at all, and other times it can be delegated to a more suitable person.

Share with your manager what you need to do your job, what you can do, and the best way to give you feedback.

Set boundaries, she said, and if you work from home, clear away or shut the door on your work to have completely work-free off hours. And while working, understand the value of frequent short breaks.

“Focus on one thing at a time. Stop pretending you can multitask. You can’t. We actually lose our ability to be focused back and forth as we get older, and when dealing with grief or burnout, that’s also impaired,” Baynton said.

“Of all of these suggestions, what’s important is not to keep doing what you were doing.”

More tips are available at https://www.workplacestrategiesformentalhealth.com/ .

Personnel

Prevent Quitting: Keep Employees Top of Mind in 2024

For more on labor, read:

How to handle workplace burnout, mental health issues