“Human resource management has to be recognized as a very important part of what we do,” said Rick Zimmerman, executive director of the Northeast Agribusiness and Feed Alliance.

Employees are “not only assets to our business: They are assets, and they are colleagues.”

Zimmerman’s remarks opened the panel discussion, “The Changing Labor Environment: Implications for Day-to-Day Management,” during the 2017 Operations Managers Conference, presented by Cornell University’s PRO-DAIRY Program and the Northeast Dairy Producers Association (NEDPA).

Panel presenters were Kendra Lamb of Lamb Farms in Oakfield, New York; Jon Greenwood of Greenwood Dairy in Canton, New York; and Brian Reeves of Reeves Farm in Baldwinsville, New York. They shared their experiences managing the human side of their farm operations.

Lamb Farms

Lamb Farms may have started with a mere 110 cows back in 1966. Today, however, it is home to 6,000 cows spread over three dairy farms. With more than 10,000 combined crop acres, the operation is a large one and requires an impressive labor force.

Kendra Lamb manages community relations and is the public face of the dairy. The farm takes pride in offering educational tours for school groups as well as an open-door policy at milking time. An observation area allows visitors to see the dairy’s rotary parlor in action, three times per day, at the home farm.

Not only do visitors like to see where their milk comes from, they also are interested in welfare – both animal and human.

“Our consumers care about how we treat our workers,” Lamb said. While that customer perception is important, treating workers with dignity and respect is something they do “because we should,” she said.

The farm currently has one full-time human resources person to handle all three dairies, but “there are some things we need to be doing more of,” that would require more staffing, she said.

The biggest challenge on the farm has been employee housing. Regulations are confusing. The New York Department of Labor does not allow farms to take any housing deductions from employee paychecks, Lamb said.

“Dealing with housing is tricky. We never really wanted to be landlords,” Lamb said. “For the majority of our employees, we just want to provide housing for free.”

Creating a housing agreement that “isn’t considered a lease” by the New York Department of Labor has proven to be complicated. The employee work agreement at Lamb Farms now clearly reflects housing that has been provided to the employee, free of charge. If the farm does charge the employees for housing, this has to clearly be a separate transaction not related to their paychecks.

Employee neglect has also caused problems with housing upkeep and has proven to be costly to the farm. A signed housing agreement, which outlines the rules for those living in one of the 25 trailers and farmhouses that make up the farm’s worker housing, is a “condition of their employment,” she said.

Lamb Farms has confronted issues revolving around sexual harassment among employees. They’ve had to take disciplinary action against male employees who harassed a female co-worker in the milking parlor. It is crucial to be able to provide proof the employee has been warned and is aware that such incidents can lead to termination of employment.

“Documentation is so important. If it’s not written, it didn’t happen,” Lamb said.

Lamb recommends a background check on all employees. They use publicly available records, including police blotters from the local area as well as social media, to perform due diligence on potential employees.

Greenwood Dairy

Jon Greenwood serves as a NEDPA representative on Cornell’s Agriculture Workforce Development Council, and he understands the importance that written information and documentation play in employee management. There are 1,300-plus cows and 3,400 crop acres at Greenwood Dairy, which relies on a workforce split evenly between Hispanic workers and local residents.

“Hiring and managing employees is a lot harder than managing cows,” Greenwood said. “We probably don’t spend enough time on it.”

While the farm does not have a person dedicated to human resources, it is imperative the farm has written policies and procedures.

“You need to have policies,” such as for safety and disciplinary standards, Greenwood said. With labor advocates becoming more active in recent years, farmers are “opening your business to potential liability” if they don’t have good human resource practices in place.

Greenwood has a written employee handbook that covers farm rules, clearly outlines policies on things such as workplace harassment and animal welfare, and includes protocols for disciplinary action and termination. Greenwood recommends documenting all issues, and if an employee refuses to sign something, document that too.

“So far, it’s stood up” to several challenges, Greenwood said of the handbook. An attorney did review the farm’s handbook, and Greenwood learned word choices are very significant. Word choices need to “allow flexibility but still drive home the message.”

“We’re all at-will employers,” but there are legal reasons why employees cannot be fired, such as pregnancy or whistle-blower protection. And “if you fire an employee for cause, and you have the right documentation, you don’t have to pay” unemployment benefits. Disregarding written policies, which have been read and acknowledged by every employee upon hiring, are “the key for when we terminate an employee,” he said.

Reeves Farm

Brian Reeves isn’t a dairy farmer. He currently serves as the president of the New York Vegetable Growers Association and sits on the New York Agriculture Labor Advisory Group. He was invited to the panel to discuss his experiences with the H-2A program and share his insights on best labor management practices.

“It’s important for you to know about H-2A,” Zimmerman said, as the program could potentially be expanded to the dairy industry – although it is presently a seasonal program – as farmers are losing Hispanic workers due to immigration status concerns.

The H-2A program is a federal temporary agricultural worker program. It mandates the farmer pay transportation expenses for workers to enter the country and travel to the farm, and provide free housing, including utilities. The program sets an hourly wage, which varies from region to region.

The program involves inspections, plus “a ton of paperwork. A ton of red tape,” Reeves said.

The wage set for H-2A workers is typically higher than otherwise required for farm workers, and non-H-2A workers doing the same job must be paid the same H-2A wages. Reeves employs 52 H-2A workers from April to October and hires an additional 20 local workers during peak season.

While H-2A workers have to be recruited every year, a farmer typically has the same core crew return each year. Some of his crew has returned to the farm for over 20 seasons.

“You pay for a higher wage, and the guys respect that, and they’re glad for it,” so their work output as well as their morale increases, he said. “They know how we do things. They are valued employees; that’s what they are.”

His niece has a degree in human resources, so the farm is able to keep current on issues.

“New things come up all the time,” he said. Their employee handbook is “a very live document,” routinely updated to reflect new concerns.

Reeves Farms has a zero-tolerance policy for any type of situation when an employee is taking advantage of another worker, whether through bullying, criticizing, harassing or slacking off on the job. It is made clear these actions will result in termination.

Communication and appreciation

Open communication and fostering an environment where all employees feel empowered to discuss their concerns, without fear of retribution, is a practice all of the farms try to cultivate.

“We want to make them feel comfortable in bringing up any concerns,” Greenwood said. His farm practices ensure “there’s no hierarchy in the employees. It’s up to us to make sure they can bring something valuable to the business,” whether they are Hispanic workers or from the local community.

Greenwood takes care not to favor the best English-speaking employee when managing Latino employees. He looks for leaders based on their work performance, avoiding tension between local and Hispanic workers by treating everyone equally. While there are no formal performance reviews on the farm, Greenwood makes it a practice to sit down routinely with every employee to discuss their job performance and satisfaction.

By maintaining open lines of communication and cultivating a workplace where everyone is treated with respect, Reeves Farms has had good experiences with employee performance and retention.

“I am amazed at the amount of employee loyalty we’ve had at the farm,” Reeves said.

At Lamb Farms, the size of the farm adds some level of complexity to employee management. As the operation grows, they’ve implemented formal work reviews for the milking crews, who receive bonuses based on milk quality of up to $2 per hour.

“The milk quality bonus has been very effective,” and is based on the somatic cell count, Lamb said. “It’s pretty effective in getting them to follow their routines. Communicating clearly what our expectations are helps the employees to feel more engaged,” Lamb said.  

PHOTO 1: Attendees at the 2017 Operations Managers Conference listen to a panel discussion.

PHOTO 2: Kendra Lamb of Lamb Farms (standing) addresses the crowd during the panel discussion. Moderator Rick Zimmerman is on the podium while other panelists Jon Greenwood (middle) of Greenwood Dairy and Brian Reeve, a vegetable farmer, answer questions from the audience. Photos provided by Tamara Scully.

Tamara Scully, a freelance writer based in northwestern New Jersey, specializes in agricultural and food system topics.