HR Management

Human Resource Management (HRM or HR) is the strategic approach to the effective management of people in a company or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. The overall purpose of human resources (HR) is to ensure that the organization is able to achieve success through people.

Onboarding Farm Employees

The first days and weeks on the job set the course for a new farm employee. The Onboarding Project, funded by The New York Farm Viability Institute, focuses on navigating employment requirements and improving human resource management practices, including training. A successful onboarding process begins with a well-planned orientation, training and compliance, and leads to improvements that benefit both the manager and employees throughout the relationship.

Employee Handbooks

As businesses grow, employers often find that they need to write down employment policies and procedures to encourage better workplace communications and consistency. When you commit to preparing and distributing a written employee handbook it’s important to follow through and implement policies consistently. You must also plan to update the handbook on a regular basis, at least annually, to make sure it is accurate and compliant with law.

Performance Management

Successful businesses must find ways to get consistent, strong performance from every employee in the team.  Three essential practices for managing performance are Standard Operating Procedures, training, and feedback.

Worker Housing

Farmers are frequently involved in providing housing for farm employees and sometimes for their families as well. Various agencies from federal, state, and local governments may be involved in regulating farm worker housing, depending on the type provided. Farmworker housing regulations vary significantly depending on the number of workers housed and on the type of worker, permanent or migrant and seasonal. In any case, farm managers who provide housing have legal and ethical responsibilities to make sure the housing begins, and remains, a safe and healthy place for people to live.

Resources to help farm businesses accomplish three goals:

  1. Provide safe, healthy, and comfortable housing for workers to rest, eat, relax and meet their living needs
  2. Maintain housing in a good state of repair for the health and enjoyment of current and future occupants
  3. Minimize property damage in order to decrease operational costs and maintain the value of the housing investment

Job Descriptions

The first step in great leadership is communicating expectations clearly. Job descriptions are a powerful tool to help employees understand exactly what they are supposed to be doing at work. Although communicating expectations may seem obvious it’s actually difficult to do, but job descriptions can help tremendously.

Leadership and Culture

Building a committed and high-performing workforce takes vision, dedication, patience, knowledge, skill, and quality tools. Consider a crafts person: quality tools in skilled hands can produce beautiful and serviceable results. When developing a workforce, effective human resource management practices are the tools, management and leadership represent the skilled crafts person.

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