Reading Time: 5 minutes “I wish they’d told me I was expected to make it a priority for my job” is a refrain Michelle Painchaud hears all too often. Employers somehow think that new employees should simply “get it,” say Painchaud, president of a Winnipeg company that specializes in helping farm businesses recruit and retain new employees. Unfortunately, it’s […] Read more
Strategies for successful onboarding
There are better ways for getting a new employee off to a great start, and they really do pay
Are you a good boss?
Of course you’re a good leader. You wouldn’t have got this far if you weren’t. But the next opportunities may only go to those with a whole new set of attitudes
Reading Time: 8 minutes Farmers today are being called to be leaders, not just managers,” says Bob Milligan, professor emeritus of applied economics and management at Cornell University. Minnesota-based Milligan is now semi-retired and consults with farmers about their human resources. He says leadership of a farm business today is much more than developing an annual strategy. Farmers today […] Read more
Eight steps for your HR strategy
The labour gap in Canadian agriculture continues to widen and is expected to double by 2025. That’s prompting more farm businesses to focus on recruiting and retaining employees. At the same time, with employment standards constantly changing, and with considerations such as health and safety and workers compensation to think about, some farms are beginning[...]
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CN apologizes as farm groups, Ottawa press on rail service
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canada’s largest railway has taken the unusual step of apologizing for its pace of grain delivery in recent weeks and pledging “immediate steps” to improve its grain handle. After parting ways with its CEO Luc Jobin on Monday, Canadian National Railway (CN), through interim CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest, said Wednesday it “apologize(s) for not meeting the[...]
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Intuition: When it’s the right time for change
A leader needs to be prepared to offer opportunities for the next generation
Reading Time: 4 minutes The best leaders today seem to have a keen sense of when to make changes. They know when to share an example of their own struggle and when to motivate the next generation. It’s their gut instinct — that feeling we all get during times of decision-making. It’s the best leaders who know when to[...]
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Getting ‘Thank you!’ right
An honest, well-timed pat on the back can be the best way to boost employee productivity
Reading Time: 5 minutes Happy employees are 12 per cent more productive than unsatisfied employees, according to at least three unrelated studies. Over an eight-hour work day, in other words, a happy employee is going to put in the equivalent of a full hour and a half more productivity than an unhappy employee. Over a month, that’s 30 hours[...]
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Farm feedback
On this savvy farm, feedback is mined for real value, producing a happier, more efficient workforce
Reading Time: 9 minutes On the farm, we’ve heard the jokes about feedback being a load of barley that gets rejected at the elevator, or maybe it’s how a cow chews her cud. In bizspeak, though, feedback gets taken a lot more seriously than that. As a human resources strategy, feedback is gaining global attention because of the power[...]
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Job descriptions: The right HR tool for our farms
“Self-efficacy” is a concept worth learning for farmers who want to manage their way to better farm productivity
Reading Time: 5 minutes “It’s different than self-esteem,” says Sara Mann, of the University of Guelph. “Self-esteem is your overall belief in yourself. Self-efficacy is task specific… it’s the belief that you can actually do your job.” Self-efficacy is an idea whose time is right, says Mann, who has trained over 120 farm owners and supervisors on how to[...]
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A farm for all
For the Burns family, the goal has always been a farm with a place for the entire family. Now it’s the reality too
Reading Time: 5 minutes John Burns had spent eight years getting a PhD in chemistry and two years working at the Department of National Defence in Kingston, Ont., but his Saskatchewan farm roots began to beckon and he jumped at the chance to get out of the lab and do some off-campus teaching, which led him to the area[...]
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Farming. It’s more than a job
Human Resources: When a young employee left their farm to look for a job that could become a career, Kris Mayerle asked, ‘Why can’t that be here?’
Reading Time: 4 minutes At the edge of the boreal forest in northeast Saskatchewan, the Mayerle family hires 13 full and seasonal employees for their 21,000-acre farm, seed processing plant and custom harvesting business. One of their employees is in his 43rd year with the company, another is going on 18 years, and many others have been there more[...]
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A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
