Moorepark: becoming an employer of choice

Managing the cows is something every farmer is familiar with but Nollaig Heffernan, Marion Beecher and Abigail Ryan today looked at managing the people. This is an area a lot of farmers need to get more familiar with as employers.

One of the most interesting boards and presentations at Moorepark today was "the employing game". The game looked at employment through the game snakes and ladders, highlighting where employers need to focus to finish the game and become an "employer of choice".

The concept was simple; the further you move up the board, the more suited and likely you are to attract and keep employees on your farm.

The board was divided up into three parts starting with before employing and the employment basics that are needed.

As participants move up the board they are into initial employment and fulfilling role expectation.

The final third of the board is to maintain employment and have a good continuous working relationship with employees. These three steps are essential to go through in any business when employing staff.

However, as with the game there are things we can do to get closer to the finish – or being an employer of choice in this case. These were cleverly broken down as the ladders on the board and ranged from having progression opportunities to providing a protected break time. These steps were all traits that any employee would be looking for and are well worth going through and implementing them in the workplace.

But as you may remember; the game also has snakes which would set you back when trying to get to the finish line. These "snakes" represented things that turned employees away from working for particular employers such as inconsistent finishing times, abusing an employee’s trust and good will as well as not paying on time.

It was a simple and playful way to breakdown what is need to be an employer of choice. The messages are very clear and for anyone asking themselves what they need to do on their farm to become an employer of choice and maintain working staff relationships, this is definitely a worthwhile excises.

Read more

Moorepark Open Day: grazing management village

Moorepark: sustainable milk production slurry spreading

Moorepark 2019: the blueprint for future expansion