The Cutting Edge - Article 28 - Improving the employee situation on dairies

Operators To OWNERS

Effects of employer management on employee recruitment, satisfaction, engagement, and retention on large US dairy farms

Big 3 Infographic at otovets.com/cuttingedge

Link: https://www.journalofdairyscience.org/article/S0022-0302(20)30499-9/fulltext

Big Take Away #1: Durst in 2018 identified 6 common management failure areas on a dairy; specified goals, employee input, inter-employee problems, communication, training and positive feedback.

This is unsurprising as the majority of owners, much less mid-managers, on a dairy have had little to no management or HR training.

Big Take Away #2: The relationship between an employee and their immediate supervisor was the strongest indicator of job satisfaction.

Even on farms with low scores in other management areas if the relationship was strong between employee and supervisor they outscored other farms with better management scores.

Big Take Away #3: “Good” current employees were only likely to recommend other good employees who were hard workers, had experience and would do the job right aka “The right fit.”

Ultimately, they would only recommend the farm to others who they believed would be committed to is success as well.

Ultimate Message: As we already know management is key to employee success and satisfaction. Improving engagement can be multifactorial but if a client is struggling with retention, engagement or satisfaction often they need to look no further than their mid-level managers to find the problem.

Objective: The objective of this study was to understand employee perceptions of HRM strengths and weaknesses and their influence on (1) employee satisfaction, (2) employee retention, (3) willingness of employees to recommend the farm as a place to work, and (4) level of employee engagement on the farm.