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Dairy farmer discovers the secret of a happy workforce


Faced with a line-up of ‘zombies’ of his own making, dairy farmer Stuart Taylor knew something had to change.

“I looked at these beautiful young people who I’d promised a life and a career and I’d turned them into zombies,” he said.

“I’d made them work from 3am to 6pm and they were broken, the way we were doing things was broken.”

Speaking at DairyNZ’s Taranaki Rural Professional’s Conference in Inglewood, Taylor said the realisation that things weren’t working was the start of a culture change on his Rangitikei farm.

“When I realised it was broken and I started to ask my staff what they wanted, surprisingly it wasn’t what I wanted.

“They didn’t want to own a farm or go sharemilking, they wanted to put their kids through school or buy a house.”

Taylor, a fifth generation farmer, said the industry and the expectations of people working in it were changing, but being a good employer was as simple as putting people first.

“First we look after the people, then they’ll look after the animals and everything else will follow,” he said.

“It creates a win-win – the people support the business and the business supports the people.”

In Taylor’s case, looking after his people had included creating job-share roles for couples, a move that had paid off with increased productivity and happier workers.

“Their wives were having a hard time – they’d got married to a farmer and now they were stuck at home with the kids while their husband worked,” he said.

“Job sharing gave them a good income – as a couple, they were working up to 16 hours a day without one person being really tired – and meant someone could be home with the kids in the morning and someone else could be home with them after school.”

A five on, two off roster meant families were able to spend weekends together and as well as offering job-share roles, Taylor had several part-time employees, including a mother who worked only during school hours.

Creating flexibility for staff had also made it easier to find the motivated, productive workers he had previously struggled to employ, Taylor said.

“I used to think I couldn’t find anyone but when you start listening to people and giving them what they want, you find people.”

Taylor said all farmers wanted to recruit the best people and he was trying to convince other farmers to take on the dairy team approach.

“The All Blacks have a saying, ‘Sweep the sheds’, which is about not being too big to do the small things that need to be done, not losing touch with people who do those things everyday,” he said.

“I want to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off it, and if you treat people with respect, help them to get what they want out of life, you will attract good people.”  

Recruiting the right people, understanding their needs and adapting the job accordingly had increased profitability enough to cover increased wage costs, and all of his staff were now paid at least $20 an hour, Taylor said.

“But it starts with you. I had to change to fit into my changing world but once you make that mental shift, the culture change starts happening.”

 

Source: Stuff


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