An hour east of Saskatoon, Brad Wildeman has a clear preference for employees who were born and raised in the area.
“Over the years we’ve learned that the best employees come from the surrounding area,” says Wildeman, president of Pound-Maker Agventures, a progressive value-added feedlot and ethanol operation in Lanigan that he operates on behalf of 200 shareholders, mostly local farmers.
The challenge is that even though most of Pound-Maker’s 50 employees come from the local community and are either from an agricultural background or have an interest in agriculture, they don’t always bring the specific skills that Wildeman needs.
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Pound-Maker has been offering educational opportunities to all their employees for more than five years. The program is outlined in the employee handbook, offering employees a cash bonus to offset the cost upon completion of their training.
The uptake for the program isn’t huge, but there is potential for those employees willing to invest their time in further education. In the past employees have pursued apprenticed trades, driver’s license upgrades, computer skills and even engineering.
Pound-Maker also offers a job shadow program that lets employees take a week with pay to learn about another area of the company or to check out what it would be like to work in a different job. This is especially popular with individuals who are curious about the ethanol operation and it provides an opportunity for staff to move around inside the company.
In fact, each of Pound-Maker’s four managers has worked their way up through the company, acquiring along the way the skills needed to take on their management responsibilities.
Wildeman ensures that the managers maintain their education and necessary training by involving them in trade associations such as the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association or the Saskatchewan Cattle Feeders Association.
Pound-Maker managers are also supported with structured management training, although the remote, rural location of the operation can make this difficult.
“Our investment in our employees cannot be measured in dollars and cents,” says Wildeman. Instead, Pound-Maker sees its employee educational strategy as just one leg of a human resources program that has enabled the company to attract good employees with a positive attitude.
It’s true that sometimes employees will use their education to further their careers, sometimes with other employers.
But Wildeman is proud of their success. Building the company’s success by making its employees successful is part of their philosophy.
Besides, he says, for every employee who leaves Pound-Maker, there are many others who stay because of the company’s commitment to human resources.
At just below 10 per cent, Pound-Maker has one of the lowest employee turnover rates in the industry.
