Employees are the greatest assets an organization has; thus, knowing them and caring is top priority. The foundation of employee engagement during the summer months is no different than at any other time of the year.

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Research shows that employee engagement is impacted by several elements. Factors that positively impact engagement are an empowering culture, avenues for career development and where employees feel their voices are heard and acted upon.

Research has shown that engaged employees outperform their disengaged counterparts. Disengaged employees are those who put time but not passion into their jobs. Engaged employees buy in to a vision for the operations, are team players to drive collectively toward that vision and challenge status quo while doing so.

A third group of employees, considered “toxic” or “zombies” by different authors, are those who have totally checked out and are unhappy with every aspect of the organization. Both the disengaged and the toxic have negative impact on the organization’s productivity, performance and competitiveness.

According to a Gallup ongoing study from the American workplace, from 2010-2012, 70 percent of American workers were disengaged, costing an estimated $550 billion dollars in lost productivity. To this figure, you add the fact that the average worker stays in his or her job for 4.4 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As a side note, 91 percent of millennials expect to stay in the job for less than three years, according to the Future Workplace.

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It is no secret that happy employees increase productivity, work harder and also tend to stay longer with the organization. It is difficult to locate comprehensively specific numbers about employee engagement specifically for farms on a national scale, but we can glean from other business entities and apply them to farms and ranches.

So what can you do?

Have a clear mission, vision, values and goals. Mission is the reason for the existence of a farm (current state). Vision is a future state where the manager would like to take the farm. Employers need to make sure employees understand what the organization’s guiding principles are; this will help with engagement and workforce culture.

Culture is the ecosystem or environment that surrounds employees. It’s formed of attitudes, group behavior, beliefs and all the life experiences each employee brings to the farm.

Employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and profitability all are tied together. The workplace flourishes when its people flourish. Farms are no different than other entities in that the diversity of the workforce (especially with the increase in Hispanic workforce) brings with it a diversity of values. In order for all the employees to feel part of a bigger entity pulling together in one direction, the manager needs to define that direction toward an aligned vision.

Know your people

Are your employees engaged? Leaders need to spend time with their employees in the trenches. It is critical that leaders spend time across the shifts getting to know the workforce. Given that the needs of a culturally diverse workforce working across different times of the day will have different needs, the operations manager needs to be in tune with the workforce.

So managers need to honestly ask themselves, “Do I really know my people?” “Am I engaged?” If the managers are not engaged, there is a high probability the employees are not either. Cultivating good people and keeping them is key. When you get to know your team personally, then your team will become engaged professionally. Knowing them at a personal level will help you discern between your real motivated people and their unengaged counterparts.

Managers have a great effect in the engagement level of each person in the organization. Good leaders understand that the farm’s success relies on the employees’ achievements. The old saying, “It takes one bad apple” holds true. A negative attitude can have a ripple effect, affecting your bottom line. These people can cause tension and create conflict in the organization, even causing your best workers to quit.

Be sure to articulate what behaviors need to stop and your expectations toward the future. Set a timeline and keep track of progress. It can be done in a simple weekly one-on-one with people. It is also OK to send a public message on what behaviors are unacceptable in the culture that the farm needs to promote.

Another option is hiring the right people. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to hire self-motivated people from the get-go? This is easier said than done. When hiring, look for people with passion and commitment.

Finally, an important part of the performance management of the farm is to know why employees are leaving. A quick and easy way to do it is via a simple exit interview that can be documented on a simple form. The categories of “satisfaction” should be defined and standardized, so the data can be tracked over time and acted upon to improve retention and, hence, engagement.

Communication and feedback

Providing feedback is very key; when workers don’t feel heard and the farm is not willing to implement any of the suggested practices based on feedback, then employees don’t feel respected and start dreaming of greener pastures or will just put no effort into the job they are doing.

Setting up meetings where the team can talk through suggestions and feedback is very important. Employees will feel their voices are being heard. It’s important that there exist open lines of communication and that it’s done in an effective and clear manner. Empower your employees, recognizing their contributions and seeking their ideas and opinions.

The most important part farm managers ignore is: Do not close the feedback loop when an employee suggestion is rejected. It is critical to go back to the employee to explain why their idea was not accepted and whether it is being rejected or just put on the back burner due to other urgent priorities for the organization.

I believe the operations should have transparency (as much as possible) between employees and management and, hence, improvement suggestions should not be anonymous.

Help them grow or watch them leave

Try to offer employees educational opportunities; this will allow them to stay up-to-date on their field and give them more tools to do a better job. As they grow, so will your organization. These will obviously need to be balanced against the financial imperatives for the farm. A simple way is to reach out to the local agricultural extension office. These offices probably offer several classes that are free to farms.

Perks and activities

Employees place a high value on benefits. Giving your workforce a comprehensive set of benefits is an important part of employee engagement, talent acquisition and retention. There is a strong relationship between satisfaction with benefits and job satisfaction.

Forward-thinking farms are constantly making strides toward engaging employees. The sky is the limit in developing engagement activities. Paying attention to what your staff has interests in can help you develop a comprehensive list. For example, several farms plan events like soccer matches for their employees, taking into consideration the workers’ cultural background and feedback.

During the summer months, they schedule activities and take their staff to a local baseball game, and celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Increasing Hispanic employee engagement by becoming more culturally adaptive will help you gain long-lasting employee loyalty. There are certain traits and values that transcend boundaries, even if you have people from different cultures.

Engaged employees are committed to their job and work above and beyond what is required. Gaining employee engagement does not have to be a complicated process. Simple, good-faith efforts will go far toward gaining their commitment and increase productivity with it.  PD

References omitted but are available upon request. Click here to email an editor.

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