Employees - Articles - Page 7

How is stress management part of your 2023 business plan?

Tips for reducing stress in the new year.

December 13, 2022

Michele Payn

It’s no surprise that farmers’ behavioral health is positively correlated with crop production and healthy animals.

Large herds and robotics: How to manage your teams to support this change

An overview of the various employee roles that exist in a large robotic facility and suggested attributes to consider when hiring for these positions.

December 2, 2022

Stephanie Dillon

Are you evaluating the prospect of adopting robotic milking on a large scale? Are you curious what the team for this facility will look like?

Changing culture and retaining employees during difficult times

October 21, 2022

Christine Bender

It recently came to my attention that employee retention is an issue in most businesses today, and we are an outlier in this area. Sourcing employees and employee retention is a common question we receive during tours and community presentations.

'Preserve' your culture at your own peril: Meaningful change requires honoring the past while embracing progress

Considerations for building a good farm culture include fixed versus fluid culture, inspiration instead of prescription, cultivating both core and aspirational values, defining expectations rather than outcomes, and listening and revising.

October 21, 2022

Patrick Criteser

When the latest change knocks at our doors, we tend to dive deep into our reservoir of prior experience and accumulated insights for guidance on how to navigate.

What are you doing to find and empower the L6 on your farm?

The L6 – or Level 6 – is the person six levels down from the top who knows what you badly need to know. How could the information this person or people are collecting be beneficial to your business?

August 22, 2022

Amy Throndsen

In the “Six Levels Down” episode of the Against the Rules podcast, host Michael Lewis followed healthcare provider Athenahealth’s journey to fixing one of their biggest problems – getting insurance companies to pay their bills – and in the process, discovered the power of the L6.

If you want good employees, be a good employer: A performance improvement system

Annual reviews have been a common practice for evaluating employee performance. The performance improvement system transforms this evaluation to improve two-way communication.

August 18, 2022

Bob Milligan

We have been wondering what the “new normal” after COVID will look like, and when it comes to employment, the picture is emerging. The hiring challenges before COVID are intensifying, and workforce mobility is escalating.

Keeping your people cool and comfortable is key to good health

July 21, 2022

Jim Versweyveld and John Shutske

Each summer, dairy producers and their employees work through days of extreme heat and humidity. In recent years, the “dog days” of summer with high heat and humidity levels have started earlier, and dangerous conditions are occurring with a greater frequency in many dairy regions of the country.

Effects of state agriculture overtime laws on dairy automation

July 21, 2022

Kimmi Devaney

Labor continues to be one of the greatest challenges facing dairy producers across the nation, and recent legislation is adding more pressure.

Hiring in today’s challenging labor market

July 21, 2022

Bob Milligan

Recruitment is marketing. Today, the greatest recruitment tool you have is the job satisfaction of your workforce. You also must “get out there” by making recruitment a continuous process and using and expanding your network.