Kelsey Owen-Cooper is one of those people.

Owen-Cooper grew up in rural Ontario, surrounded by farm influences. Her grandparents grew up on farms, her father worked on a local dairy (frequent visits to his workplace sparked the idea that she wanted to work on a farm someday) and she married into agriculture. 

It was when she was working on her husband’s farm that she realized she loved agriculture and wanted to make it part of her career. So, she headed for Ridgetown Ag College and is now the co-production manager at Cooper’s CSA* where she handles beef and pork processing, sales and marketing.

Alongside farm work she also runs a marketing, content creation and consulting business for agriculture and small businesses. As a creative person she loves using her knowledge and experience — as well as the perspective of someone who didn’t grow up on a farm — to help tell farmers’ stories and bridge the gap between producers and the public.

“It’s been a journey I never could have imagined 10 years ago — and the doors just keep opening,” she says.

As an up-and-comer in Canada’s ag industry — one who is passionate, dedicated and working to ensure the industry’s success and sustainability — I wondered what she thought about her generation’s involvement in agriculture and what they think we should do better.

Danielle Ranger for Country Guide: Today’s workforce includes the most generations ever (five) at one time with millennials in the middle. What unique advantages does that cohort have?

Kelsey Owen-Cooper: Honestly, seeing “millennials” and “unique advantages” in the same sentence is a bit of a trip. Usually, we’re getting roasted for killing industries or eating too much avocado toast. I’m right on that cusp, basically a Gen Z in a millennial’s birth year (call me a zillennial), so my jaded side wants to roll its eyes. 

But the truth is, I think we do bring a lot to the table. We’re wildly adaptable — we’ve lived through more global curveballs than we can count, so shifting gears is basically our baseline operating mode. 

We also grew up as tech was exploding, so we not only understand it, we’re eager to use it, whether that’s modernizing farm practices, improving efficiency or telling our story online. Speaking of which, our social media presence is huge. 

We care about transparency, showing consumers where their food comes from and pushing back against lazy corporate marketing that tries to pin environmental blame on farmers while they skate by. And let’s be real: we’re hilarious. Our dark sense of humor gets us through the chaos of farming and life. 

Plus, we genuinely care. About the environment, about sustainability, about doing better. And we’re not afraid to question the way things have always been done if it means building a stronger future.

DR: What’s one tradition you think needs to be brought back or embraced more than it currently is?

Owen-Cooper: I’ve always sort of linked tradition with getting stuck in the past. But after mulling it over, I realized there’s one “tradition” we could stand to revive in agriculture: the tradition of not totally walling ourselves off from the rest of the world. 

It’s so tempting, isn’t it? In rural life — especially in Canadian ag, where we’re such a tiny slice of the population pie — it’s easy to just hunker down with people who think like us, value the same things and gripe about the same issues. 

And hey, I get it. Sometimes the rest of the world is … a lot. People can suck, especially when their values clash hard with yours. 

But here’s the kicker: for all our talk about city folks being “disconnected”, sometimes we’re the ones who are out of touch. We’re such a small minority, yet we can get weirdly defensive about our way of life instead of inviting others in or learning from them. 

So, if I could champion any tradition, it would be the practice of keeping the door open — of staying curious, connecting beyond our comfort zone and letting fresh perspectives in. Not because we need to abandon our rural roots, but because engaging with the bigger world actually makes us stronger … and a lot less cranky.

DR: What’s one tradition or mindset that needs to die?

Owen-Cooper: One mindset that absolutely needs to die — or at the very least get a serious overhaul — is this idea that the farm has to keep going no matter what, even if it means destroying your family or alienating your workers in the process.

I’d rather sell the farm than sacrifice my relationships. Period. And that’s not me talking with my head stuck somewhere dark. I’ve had some tough, heartfelt conversations with my own family about this. I’ve watched the air go out of them when I say it. Because for them, who’ve poured their entire lives into the farm, the idea that the next generation might just walk away feels like all their pain and sacrifice was for nothing. 

But here’s the thing: that exact mindset is why so many family farms are simmering pots of resentment. It’s the root cause behind family members who can’t stand each other, who bring their bitterness to the dinner table — or worse, project it onto employees. 

I’ve had countless shop talks with friends in ag who all have the same stories, and it’s heartbreaking. In my eyes, if parents and owners prioritized healthy relationships over simply keeping the farm afloat “because it’s been in the family for nine generations”, so many of these problems would solve themselves. I grew up playing sports and captaining teams, and I learned early that when you lift up the people around you — when you care more about them than the scoreboard — the wins come anyway. And not just on the field, but in life. That’s a mindset agriculture desperately needs more of.

*CSA = community supported agriculture

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It’s a phrase that means just what it says. Leadership succession is real, and it’s catching on. If your succession plan only looks at how the financial picture will unfold down the road, that’s not enough. Increasingly, it’s clear that it has to deal with who can handle what responsibilities too.

Are your kids up to the job? How can you know?

And here’s a question for the kids. What are you going to do today that will prove to everyone that you’ve got the attitudes, the commitment, and the talent for developing the skills that the farm is going to need?

So much is riding on the line. That’s why the successful transfer of the farm to the next generation (read “millennials,” who are about 19 to 31 right now) also involves the dedicated and thorough transfer of leadership skills.

Yes, you need leadership in the field and the barn, but you also need it in managing the financials, HR, marketing and much more. And on top of it all, you need insight into the critical strategic decisions that will shape the farm’s future, like expansion and diversification.

But how is anyone going to assess that?

“Building leadership in the young is an important topic with the demographic changes that are happening in the farming industry,” says Portia MacDonald-Dewhirst, executive director at the Canadian Agri­cultural Human Resources Council (CAHRC). “There is going to be significant turnover in business leadership in all sectors of our economy.”

To successfully transition farm business leadership to the younger generation, the 20-somethings who want the farm must obviously be willing to take on more and more responsibility. Their parents, in turn, must provide them with the opportunity to take on increased duties and decision-making as time passes.

It’s not just about ramping up responsibility, however. The older generation must also provide assistance so the younger can properly handle those opportunities.

“Succession is a long-term journey and to do it well, you have to coach them along that journey,” says MacDonald-Dewhirst. “They need the opportunity to grow and learn and develop their leadership skills, but they need help on the way.”

Get started right

Leadership and management professor Sean Lyons at the University of Guelph has studied millennials in the workplace for some time. When asked for his best advice for farming parents to coach their millennial children, Lyons says the toughest message may be about letting go.

“Learning requires room to make mistakes,” he asserts, echoing the thoughts of MacDonald-Dewhirst. “A coaching perspective, rather than a highly directive one, means that the parent gives their child latitude to try new things and encourages them to reflect on how it has worked, rather than trying to impose a specific viewpoint.”

Lyons acknowledges that it can be incredibly difficult for parents to stand by and watch as someone makes choices that are very different from the ones they’d make, particularly when their choices are guided by a wealth of experience. “But it’s important to remember that times change — technology, customers, business models all evolve — and it’s important to be open to moving forward.”

But for millennials who want to take over the farm, Lyons reverses his advice. Yes, it can be tricky to convince parents to trust new ways of doing things, which is why millennials need to learn how to convince their parents that it can pay off.

Which takes us to a crucial point, he says. “The ability of a millennial to listen actively to members of older generations also demonstrates a concerted form of leadership.”

“My advice is that the generational tension should not be the ‘elephant in the room’ that nobody talks about,” Lyons concludes. “Both generations should engage in an open discussion about their values — what’s important to them in the way the farm is led — as well as their relevant strengths and weaknesses. When millennials approach the conversation from a focus on values and strengths, it’s a much more productive conversation than when the argument is phrased as ‘right or wrong’ or ‘my way versus your way.’”

To properly train the next generation, older farmers must be cognizant of how millennials think and what they need to be successful.

In an article called “Why Millennials Keep Dumping You: An Open Letter to Management,” author and speaker Lisa Earle McLeod and her daughter Elizabeth (a millennial) share insights about what top-performing millennials want.

Among other things, they urge us to remember that millennials were raised to believe they can change the world, and that they need “to be surrounded by people who are ‘on fire’ for the work.” Millennials also need managers who are “motivated to push boundaries and think differently.”

Coach, don’t give orders

Of course the older generation must provide tips and how-tos, but they must also serve as sounding boards, suggest strategy options and more. “Coaching has been shown in many industries to be critical in success of the young person, and also for ensuring that they stay in the position,” says MacDonald-Dewhirst. “They have to be supported to thrive and grow, or they will leave the farm.”

However, not everyone is a natural coach. “Farmers have run their farms for years and do things automatically and are not necessarily realizing all that they do and all that needs to be explained,” says MacDonald-Dewhirst. “They have to be aware of this and give the information to the young leader-in-training. It’s about giving the process of leadership building their time and energy.

“It really does sound common sensical but we have to remember, farmers are extremely focused and busy running the farm. However, they need to carve out the time for this important activity. And the young leader in training needs to realize this as well. Building their leadership skills is an ongoing task that they need to make room for, in addition to learning about production and so on.”

An understanding of how the broader business works is also critical for young leaders to succeed, notes MacDonald-Dewhirst. “This process is more formalized in other industries and in big corporations, where leadership talent is identified and those young people are moved around within the company and exposed to all aspects and gradually given the training and leadership opportunities,” she says. “Of course, not all companies do it well. It takes time and energy. It’s a strategic investment in the future, and you have to have your eye on the long-term prize.”

That’s where farmers have a kind of advantage, she notes. Farmers know they have to think about the long term. They intuitively know that the future needs thinking about.

Now, they have to convert that intuitive knowledge into a form of action plan that they will commit themselves to. It isn’t only the younger generation that needs to show commitment. Both generations do.

Still, the process of leadership transition can’t be rushed. “It’s not going to work if you overwhelm the young person,” MacDonald-Dewhirst says. “You need a training plan that’s balanced, not one that you’re trying to jam into two months. There’s a lot to successful farm business management.”

Outside training

Of course, young farmers can’t expect that all their training will be completed on-farm. “This is an industry where those opportunities (for leadership and management training) already exist and they are getting more numerous and better all the time,” says MacDonald-Dewhirst. “There are many important things that can and should be learned from outside the farm, including best HR practices.”

MacDonald-Dewhirst is among many who believe the use of online tools and technology are great assets during the process of leadership succession. She says the farming community is very fast at adopting production-related technology and that’s now being transferred to other areas of business operation such as HR management.)

CAHRC’s “AgriHR Toolkit,” first published 10 years ago and constantly being updated, is a mixture of instructions, case studies and specific tools for every situation related to recruitment, management and retention of employees.

The toolkit costs $99 per year but various ag industry associations provide membership discounts. There is also an HR Management Basics online training course.

There are also two programs currently running in Saskatchewan to help turn young farmers into leaders, one established and one brand new. The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan’s Youth Leadership and Mentorship Program was established in 2014 and “aims to help young producers gain valuable experience, take advantage of networking opportunities, and develop the skills necessary to become a future industry leader.” Participants are matched with a farm leader over the age of 40 in a mentee-mentor relationship.

Brand new is a mentorship launched by the Canadian Western Agribition in February 2019. In the Next Gen Agriculture Program, eight successful applicants have just begun an 18-month “mentorship experience that includes industry knowledge, advocacy, business education, networking, board and governance training and social connections.” It aims “to create a community of graduates with a deeper understanding of agriculture, business, community, leadership and advocacy for the industry.”

In Ontario, more than 150 farmers recently participated in a training program to develop their supervisory and management skills — the basics of hiring, developing interview questions, writing job descriptions, selecting employees and conducting performance evaluations.

Dr. Sara Mann, professor of leadership and strategic human resource management at the University of Guelph, and her colleagues helped develop the program as part of their work to help farmers get value from investing in HR, with a focus on how HR practices in the agriculture sector can be improved. Stay tuned for a close look at these programs and others across Canada in an upcoming issue of Country Guide.

– This article was previously published in the April 2019 issue of Country Guide.

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Country Guide caught up with New Brunswick farmer and consultant Cedric MacLeod as he was driving home through a snowstorm. At 40, MacLeod helps both young and old generations through farm transitions and financial management, so he has deep understanding about the mindset of younger farmers, including their expectations. He also remembers when margins were terrible, and he admires the struggles and sacrifices of older farmers.

To solve the compensation conundrum, MacLeod suggests farmers start by creating a household budget for both generations.

After farming for a lifetime, some folks don’t understand what it costs to live in town, and how many living costs are shared when you run a home-based business. And the younger generation needs to get a clear picture of what it would take to care for themselves as independent adults. “Everyone needs to understand what they all need to live reasonably,” says MacLeod. “Reality is that today people can’t live off $15 per hour.”

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015, the Millennials, the largest generation in today’s workforce, are making substantially less than the U.S. national average for workers between 35 and 65 years old. Even though they get blamed for being the “entitlement generation,” they are actually making about 20 per cent less in adjusted dollars than the Baby Boomers did at the same age. Plus they generally have more education and carry extra debt.

In Canada in 2013 young people aged 15 to 24 years old made up only seven per cent of the entire Canadian workforce, but 29 per cent of farm workers. Although this had declined by 10 per cent in 15 years, young people are proportionally more likely to work as hired labour on farms than in other sectors.

The Millennials’ impact on agriculture is remarkable, and it is growing. Statistics Canada has identified the average age of a farm operator at 55 years, but 9.1 per cent of farm operators were under 35 years of age, an increase of 3.0 per cent from 2011 to 2016. This was the first time the under-35 category increased since 1991 despite the total number of operators continuing to decrease.

According to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council’s (CAHRC) June 2017 Labour Force Survey for all occupations in production agriculture, the average wage for paid employees is $17 to $19 per hour. At a labour level, the average wage for general farm workers for all types of production agriculture was $16 to $18 per hour. However, this varied based on sectors, geographies and the jobs. For example, grain and oilseed farms paid an average of $17 to $21.50 per hour for general farm workers versus $13 to $17 per hour for harvesting labourers. “The range is wide for these seasonal jobs because the jobs vary widely in the skill level needed,” says Debra Hauer, who manages agricultural labour market information at CAHRC.

For hired managers in agriculture, the wage range is $19 to $36 per hour. “We have seen a big jump in the wages for hired managers in the past 12 months,” says Hauer.

Sometimes older farmers simply don’t grasp paying today’s competitive wages to labour, or they justify paying low wages to family with the added promise of giving them land. However, the younger generation might look at time, liquidity and land ownership quite differently than their parents. Maybe they don’t want to own land, preferring to rent instead, says MacLeod.

With land values so high, some Millennials might see only how long it would take to pay it back, or how long they have to wait to acquire it, by which time it will be almost time to turn it over to their children. “Maybe they’d rather have the cash to contribute to their personal pension? It’s more liquid,” says MacLeod.

When working with families, MacLeod often asks the next generation what additional benefits and revenues they are bringing to the farm, and he tries to get them to quantify their contributions compared to their draws.

“If your target is to earn $50,000 a year, then what are you doing to make the farm earn more?” MacLeod asks. “A good rule of thumb is the additional person should generate a 20 per cent return, so in this case the farm has to net $250,000 more a year.”

Valuing contribution can be complicated and subjective. In some sectors and areas, strong prices and good yields took financial statements to unprecedented levels for a few years, and it’s difficult to create realistically sustainable draws and contributions based on those budgets. On the positive side, those years encouraged a whole new generation of farmers to breathe life back into family farms.

It also has caused some valuation problems. MacLeod says there’s a real disconnect between actual long-term average farm budgets over the last 10 years, and how much farms can afford to pay. Also there’s a disconnect with how much the younger generation can make off the farm, especially in the trades or the oilfield.

The Millennials have a much-talked about reputation for feeling they deserve high pay, yet that’s not always the case. When Maureen Geddes, human resource management instructor at the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus, surveyed her students, mostly in their late teens, she found quite the opposite, especially if they were planning to work on their family farm, or someone else’s farm.

The majority of her 122 students expected to earn $25,000 to $50,000 a year. Those who planned to work on farms had even lower average expectations, with one in five students who were planning to work on someone else’s farm expecting to earn less than $25,000 per year.

The students not planning to farm for their own family or work on someone else’s farm on average had higher wage expectations, although only 22 per cent of the students were planning to go directly home to the family farm to work, about the same as were planning to work for another farm. One-third indicated they planned to work somewhere else and then head home, and this group had the highest expectations of wages, but fewer than 10 per cent expected to earn $50,000 to $100,000, and none higher than that.

Almost all of the students (94 per cent) either identified land ownership as a primary goal or thought it would be one in the future. Yet the group was very unstructured in their responses to valuing non-wage benefits like cellphone, vehicles, and room and board, and some didn’t respond at all.

This isn’t surprising considering the shift in how benefits are potentially perceived after a time with good cash flow. In the last decade, everyone involved in the farm has also become used to higher quality and more benefits, such as fancy three-quarter tons instead of a rusty old farm pickup, says MacLeod. He finds that it helps to have a real conversation about understanding non-salary benefits. He suggests creating a spreadsheet to add up, track and understand the extras that often come with farm jobs, such as housing, a vehicle, phone, or barn/feed for horses.

(You can see a template worksheet created by Idaho consultant and farmer Dick Wittman or buy Wittman’s guidebook for managing the human resources of family farms called Building Effective Farm Management Systems which includes this spreadsheet.)

MacLeod finds it helps to understand how different generations look at financing, benefits and cash flow. For example, he says older farmers tend to buy vehicles outright, and complain later about having a tight cash flow, whereas the younger generation is more likely to finance a new truck for three or four years with zero per cent financing.

“Generally Millennials have a hard time understanding money,” says MacLeod. “We tend to teach our kids how to grow peas and oats or how to breed a cow, not how to run multi-million dollar businesses.”

MacLeod suggests that the younger generation be given the responsibility of calculating cost of production and budget analysis as soon as possible. “They need to get used to running the numbers or find someone to help them do it,” says MacLeod.

They need to understand the numbers behind the decisions and their wages before they start making decisions. The ongoing trend is that there will be fewer farmers dealing with more and more land and livestock, and the farms will have higher risk profiles. “They’ll have to be willing and able to take over that risk and manage it accordingly,” says MacLeod.

Value

The older generation needs to understand the value of having someone who can operate new technology but who can also analyze and leverage that data. For example, with robotic milking, staff should be compensated for the skill and knowledge it takes to keep the robots operating smoothly. Then, the pay level should also recognize if the staff is also taking the data that the robot collected and spending hours in the office doing analytics to help manage the herd better.

Increasingly, farmers need operators who are comfortable operating high levels of technology, and they are only going to grow more valuable. “For example, one man could harvest 1,000 to 2,000 acres with a JD 9600 combine and now that same one person can do about six times that with a 680,” says MacLeod.

That person must operate and maintain the machine, but becomes more valuable if they also know how to use the data generated by the yield monitor. (Be aware, too, that such skills are also very valuable off the farm, and low supply/high demand for skilled labour is bumping up these wages. )

Understanding and communicating roles and responsibilities along with job descriptions can go a long way to figuring out compensation. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resources Council has a toolkit with a module and online templates for setting up compensation packages.

Included in the toolkit is a section on worker performance. MacLeod says doing performance evaluation tied to tasks and goals allows for increases according to increased values and responsibilities. It formalizes the process, which is helpful for family too. A performance evaluation is also a way to increase communication and connection, a key need of Millennials.

What millennials want

Having trouble understanding the Millennials? Read on.

Today it’s not uncommon to have three different generations working on one farm. Yet the culture in which we were raised, live and work in does have an impact on behaviour and how we view leadership and compensation.

Adjunct professor at Dalhousie University and CEO of Donohue Learning Mary Donohue has done research into understanding some generalities about the differences in perspective between the three working generations, namely Boomers before 1960, Gen X between 1960 to 1980 and Gen Y and the Millennials born between 1980 and 2000. “Understanding how generations process and use information differently can be the key to improving revenue,” says Donohue. “The more people understand, the more productive they are and the more innovative they become. Families and farms that can diffuse generational conflict with clear communication will sustain a strong and prosperous farm.”

The chart below can help you understand other age groups, and also your own generational biases.

The post Pay your Millennials right appeared first on Country Guide.

Lee’s job is to speak out on behalf of young farmers, and to ensure they grow into a positive force in these trying times for agriculture.

So what can she point to that millennial farmers are doing well at? Should we be worried about the “participation ribbon” generation that has their faces always glued to their phones?

CG: What kind of farm do you have, Danielle? Is it just you there on a daily basis?

Lee: I farm with my mom, my grandpa, and my younger brother. Mom and I primarily do all the farm work. We used to be a dairy farm but now we do beef cattle, and sheep, and we put up our own hay as well. We farm west of Calgary, in the area known as Spring Banks, so we are quite close to the city limits.

CG: What’s that like, farming so close to Calgary?

Lee: A lot of the farms around us are disappearing and a lot of the land isn’t being sold for agriculture purposes anymore. But our farm has been here for 105 years and I’m proud to be the fourth generation on this farm. I love being close to the city and having those amenities. Living close to a big urban centre, our family is also big on helping educate people about where their food comes from. I think that’s important, especially when you live this close to an urban centre.

CG: Sounds like the best of both worlds. Does it change how you farm compared to the average farm in Alberta?

Lee: In terms of farms in Alberta, we are probably pretty small. We don’t put up any grain, so all of our land is either in pasture or hay for our beef cattle and sheep. And we sell some hay to the equine market.

CG: That will keep you busy in the summers! Why did you decide to squeeze in the CYFF too?

Lee: Especially in our area, there are not very many other young farmers around. So, I started going to Alberta Young Farmers and Ranchers events, and that gave me the opportunity to go to the Canadian Young Farmer Forum conference. You were learning, but you were also building a network of young farmers across Canada. It was a different learning experience from university, but much more practical I think.

CG: Oh, so you fall right in with those statistics that say millennials are the most highly educated generation yet! With a university education, why would you or any other millennial choose a career in agriculture?

Lee: There are so many other opportunities out there, but the agriculture industry itself has so many great opportunities too. I think showcasing those opportunities is something we really have to do. We focus so much on the negatives that we sometimes forget to focus on the positives.

CG: Do you think that’s something millennial farmers in particular should be doing?

Lee: Showcasing the opportunities in agriculture is a challenge for all of us, but I think that since millennials are the future of the industry, it’s going to impact us even more.

Whether or not we can use certain products on crops, or medications for animals, and withdrawal periods, and things like that. I really think it’s going to impact our generation, and the next generation coming down more so.

CG: Do you think this is because this generation truly evaluates their own success that much differently, or is this a way out of competing with those bigger farmers? Millennials are the “participation ribbon” generation after all.

Lee: I look at a lot of young farmers out there, and they are busting their butts to get where they are. They are not the ones sitting on the couch! Even though there are challenges, those unknowns, and machinery breaks, and things happen, they still get up the next day and are working their butts off.

Young farmers are dedicated and they love what they do. They know that it’s not always easy, it’s not a 9-5 job, there are going to be long hours and frustrations, but they’re willing to take that risk and go for it.

And all farmers love to brag “I’m getting this many bushels,” or “this much for that calf,” or “this cow is producing this much milk.” With social media we can give people a virtual pat on the back, with just a “like” on a Facebook picture of their wonderful crop. I think sometimes they need to get that validation… but it’s not a ribbon. I wouldn’t say you purposely think that’s what you’re doing when you “like” somebody’s picture. It makes them feel good; it makes them want to strive to get better.

As young farmers, everybody posts all the good things that they’re doing. They’re proud of what they are doing and I think it’s important to have that pride in what you’re doing.

CG: So, is that all young farmers are really using social media for? Bragging?

Lee: Because there is less agriculture, there is maybe less community than there used to be when my mom was growing up. During all my schooling in Calgary, typically, I was the only farm kid. There were so few 4-H clubs. It’s sometimes hard to have that social life balance as a farmer and it doesn’t matter what farm they are from, young farmers are all facing the same issues. I have friends I might not see as often as I’d like in person, but I keep in touch through texting or online. So, I think we are more connected nowadays than even 20 years ago.

It’s easy to send out a message or a tweet or a text on what the weather is doing, or how crops are, and learn about all different sorts of crops and how they’re grown, by being friends with people on social media.

I think that it’s a challenge for our industry too, being so much more social. So many of our customers, being that much more removed from farming, we need to show the great things we are doing and showcase the agriculture in a positive light. I think people, in a lot of cases, maybe undervalue what farmers do. I guess that’s our culture because food is always there, we are never wanting for food, and always have that choice to go to the grocery store and have fresh food on the shelf.

So I don’t really see it as just doing it to, you know, promote myself. You’re doing it for the betterment of the agriculture industry as a whole, is how I see it.

With more social media stories on farming, hopefully people start to, maybe, give a little bit more credit to all the hard work that farmers do put in.

CG: What other differences do you see between our generation and the ones before us?

Lee: The first CYFF conference I went to was in 2010 and there weren’t many women. I mean there were, but comparatively, it was probably 25 per cent women, much less than the guys. And now at our conferences I’m going to say it’s almost 50/50. Even our board this year is half women and half men. I guess there were a few years where I was the only girl, or only female, on our board of eight. Maybe two or three of the guys that were on the board did have families with kids. But mostly, the female farmers were at home looking after the kids.

CG: That does seem to be in line with a growing female demographic among farmers in general. Are there other things you notice about this generation of farmers?

Lee: Farmers nowadays, seeing what their grandparents went through… the struggles and the sacrifices that they made… when I look at young farmers today, I think that some of them aren’t prepared to make those sacrifices. They take time to look after themselves a little better than maybe the previous generations did. Mental health is something that we’ve focused on the last couple of conferences because we’ve noticed that there are so many things young farmers have going on and, if we don’t take care of ourselves, it’s really going to affect us in the future.

I think sometimes our generation has done a bit better job of time management and realizing what they’re good at and, if they’re not good at something, hiring that out instead.

Also, I think that sometimes our younger farmers are more willing to try growing different crops that we didn’t care about 20 years ago, growing that different crop to hopefully find that niche in the market because they can’t compete with a huge grain farm. And because they can’t maybe be the biggest farmer, instead of “how many acres” you’re farming, which used to be the measure of your farm, it’s “what are you growing,” “how are you growing it” nowadays. I think that’s a big difference.

The post The millennial question appeared first on Country Guide.

Not surprisingly, dozens of articles and books have also been written on how to reduce conflict between the generations.

But are we making too much of generational differences?

Dr. Jennifer Deal, an organizational psychologist with the Centre for Creative Leadership in California, has been researching generational differences for the past 15 years and has discovered that most differences can be better explained by other variables.

An individual’s life stage and their level within the business have bigger impacts on behaviour than their “generation,” she says.

This isn’t new. Deal says if you read the research literature from the 1960s, people said the same things about the Boomers.

Everyone forgets what they were like when they were younger, Deal says. In fact, examples go back thousands of years showing older generationsmaking these same complaints about the younger generation.

Deal, who wrote the recently published book, “What Millennials Want from Work,” isn’t denying that people are influenced by the time period in which they grow up. “Those growing up at different times do have different norms,” she says. For instance, she laughs, one of the differences between Millennials (those in their 20s and 30s) and older generations is that Millennials have more tattoos.

But don’t laugh too fast. Deal also recounts the story of a recent court case in the United States about whether an employee should be forced to cover up his tattoos. The court sided with the employee, saying that there had been a cultural shift in the acceptability of tattoos.

While we are affected by the era we grow up in, our understanding of it isn’t nearly as precise as you might think. Even the names of the generations and the cut-off years for each generation are basically fabrications. If you read the literature, you’ll see different names and different years assigned to the same groups.

Deal cautions that it’s dangerous to label people according to their generation because by doing this, we stereotype people and ignore who they are as individuals. Instead, it’s more helpful to ask yourself “What does this person want?” rather than making assumptions because of their generation.

When it comes to differences that have an impact on the workplace, Deal says her research shows that the things people from different generations want really aren’t that different. People want to be paid well, be respected, and have opportunities to learn and develop.

In particular, Millennials demonstrate high levels of commitment and will work hard if a business provides the working conditions they crave, and Deal offers several strategies that farm managers can use to keep them engaged.

“Millennials want to have people they care about and people who care about them at work,” says Deal, who figures this makes sense given that people spend more waking hours at work than they do at home.

Managers can create opportunities for staff to get to know each other and to develop friendships. For example, creating sports teams or holding social events allows employees to get to know each other outside of the restrictions of their daily interactions.

Deal knows of one company that created a council, made up of younger and older employees, to plan opportunities for employees to socialize.

When it’s appropriate, and as long as employees are getting their work done, Deal also recommends managers not penalize employees for socializing at work.

Deal is also a proponent of encouraging mentoring relationships. These could be formal or informal and can be bi-directional. For example, a younger staff member could mentor an older person on using technology. “Everyone has something to learn and something to contribute,” says Deal.

In addition, while people who are similar to each other tend to form mentoring relationships, Deal encourages managers to take on mentees who are different from themselves. This is increasingly important in our diverse workplaces.

In fact, mentoring relationships may work best when you “jump a generation” so there is less competition between mentor and mentee, continues Deal. For example, Boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) and Millennials may link well together.

One of the criticisms often levelled at Millennials is that they share their opinions too freely, even about those who are above them in the hierarchy. Deal recommends embracing this trait.

After all, she points out that employees are being paid to contribute. “Provide outlets for them to be heard. Show them you are listening… this builds trust.”

The key is to coach Millennials on where and when to express feedback. They may need guidance to strike a balance in knowing when to use electronic, phone or in-person communication.

It’s said that people don’t leave organizations, they leave bosses. Deal says this is true of all generations. Millennials want to have good relationships with their managers. They want to feel appreciated and they want to be able to trust their bosses.

Deal thus urges managers to be honest and to have important conversations face-to-face.

Millennials crave feedback. Managers should provide feedback to employees as a normal part of workflow, not just during the annual performance review.

Guidance and coaching will be more effective than a command-and-control style of leadership, says Deal. Millennials value autonomy, and they resent being micromanaged.

Being able to learn and develop in their jobs is also important to Millennials, as is making use of emerging technology. Managers would be wise to give their employees opportunities to learn new skills and make use of new technologies when possible, says Deal.

Millennials also want to feel that their work is meaningful. Managers should ensure that employees are aware of how the tasks they do make a contribution.

Opportunities for company-sponsored volunteering will make employees feel they are making a difference. Working together to help a charity can also help build social bonds between team members.

Millennials have been criticized for the value they put on work-life balance. While there is a seasonality to cropping that can’t be avoided, Deal says it can help retain employees if you can smooth out the spikes in workload. Hiring more employees for the busy seasons, or pulling work forward when possible, will show you care about employee stress, says Deal.

Being flexible about time off in the less busy seasons may also appeal to employees, particularly those with young children.

To engage and retain employees of any age, farm managers would be wise to use good management practices. Happy employees will be committed to doing a good job and staying for the long-term.

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