The importance of proper staff induction on livestock farms

The staff recruitment process does not stop the day a new employee begins work.

An induction period is essential to settle someone into their role, familiarise them with the farm, and cover health and safety essentials.

A new recruit has a lot of information to process before they can begin to do the job they were hired for, or receive training.

See also: Advice on hiring, motivating and training farm staff

They need to gain an understanding of the farming family and current workforce hierarchy.

Basic routines must be learned, whether that is milking or feeding times, the mucking-out and bedding-up schedule, or this season’s grazing plans. And they need to understand where they will fit into the business.

This is why Lantra’s head of agriculture, Andrew Palmer, thinks staff induction is the next most important step after recruitment.

“I would write the first day off as physical activity because you need to spend the morning covering the health and safety stuff,” he says.

Settling in

“You’ve worked hard to get them a new employee through the farm gate, so why ruin it by not keeping them?” he says.

“Don’t just give them to the old boy on-farm at 7am one Monday morning and leave them to it.

There has to be structure and a programme – and, as the farm owner, you need to have regular daily checks with the new person.

“You are responsible for settling them into the job.”

Andrew thinks that while some people can do this naturally (and are pretty good at it), others could use some help to be more effective.

Fortunately, there are now templates available online (see “Staff induction templates”) that can be downloaded, adapted to specific farms and printed out.

It is not a legal requirement to have an induction process, but he says it establishes a professional standard by explaining the farm setup and setting expectations of everyone involved.

Following a structured checklist ensures that all areas are covered, there is consistency between recruits, and all employees have clarity.

This is particularly important in a changing employment world where farms are no longer finding their staff among people they know locally, says Andrew.

He points out there has also been a change in job applicants: younger people wish to develop their careers and ask at interview about training and benefits.

The upshot is they may leave a farm job if it does not offer opportunities – or if they feel they have not been managed correctly.

“They want to progress, not be stuck in a dead-end job.

“There is growing confidence in the younger generation looking for training and job development at interview, which is good, but the farming industry needs to be ready for it,” he explains.

Step-by-step approach

The AHDB induction checklist, although initially developed for pig producers, can be customised to suit any livestock species, farm size and system.

Over 12 pages, it takes a step-by-step guide through basic farm contact details and stock numbers, who’s who on the farm (name, job title and what they do), key biosecurity and transport information, and general policy on pay, holidays, staff parking and smoking.

There is space for a farm buildings plan or field map, as well as useful phone numbers such as the vet and fallen stock collection.

For the employee’s first month, there is a list of activities assigned to a member of staff or family, with a date when specific tasks are to be completed, such as a farm walk, or learning about medicine storage.

There is also a section listing input costs, so that staff understand the price of equipment they use (and may break) such as the scraper tractor.

There can be many expensive mistakes made by a newcomer, which means it is the farmer’s “duty of care” to make sure accidents do not happen.

Pointing out hazardous areas (from slurry pits to chemical stores), and alerting staff to cracked areas of concrete or broken doors, are all covered.

“Make sure your farm is up to scratch with facilities such as locks on toilet doors,” Andrew points out.

Complete an induction process before training new staff © Tim Scrivener

Regular check-ins

While most probationary periods last between three and six months, he warns that it is too late to wait this long to decide that a new employee is not a good fit.

Instead, it is up to the farm owner to see whether they are struggling (and find out why) or fitting in – as soon as possible.

Continuing to check-in on a daily/weekly basis will help, however, employees should also feel able to ask questions without feeling intimidated, he says.

“People grow into roles: some click after a week, others take longer. Starting a new job is quite scary, especially if it is on a remote farm.

“You don’t want to see someone sitting in their car at break times and not with the team. Ask why. Is it the farm, or the person?”

Team dynamics

The induction process offers a chance to get to understand new people and how they fit with the farm team.

“You can do lots of training on tasks and routine, but you still need to work on team dynamics,” says Andrew. “You want to get the right person, not someone just to fill a gap.

“Have you fully explored the reasons why the last person left? Was there a cultural problem?

“If so, you need to make sure that the farm team is not a contributing factor to the last person exiting,” he says, adding that preventing a repeat of this will reduce the rate of staff turnover.

There is growing awareness in the industry of the need to understand particular characters on the farm and how they influence everyone else in their work – this includes family as well as employed labour.

“We see it in other industries – profiling people in the workplace – and we are starting to see the nuances of it in farming: how is someone going to fit into the work and team,” he explains.  

Andrew suggests that one week before a new employee is due to start work, the farm hosts a “meet the new person” day so that staff can meet them informally over coffee or a beer.

Welcoming them in this way and helping them settle in can make a difference in retaining them, he adds.

Time well spent

People management is a skill for a farm business owner to learn.

Upskilling existing teams and sorting out poor team dynamics can repay more than teaching technical skills and is worth it compared with staff having to work overtime to fill gaps, or extra hours put in by the farm boss.

“There are plenty of resources and organisations that will help you,” says Andrew.

“Speak to other farmers – neighbours or in discussion groups – who do it well. To break that loop of staff turnover, it needs a fresh set of eyes on the business.”