Employees on the farm either drive the operation forward or
they hold it back. The difference is often in the way that farm owners and
managers work with their employees. Michigan State University Extension Dairy
Team has put together a meeting on Effective
Management of Farm Employees to help farm owners and managers develop their
skills and perspective for better management of employees.
That meeting will be offered January 27 & 28, 2015 at
the Doubletree Hotel, Bay City, MI and January 29 & 30 at the Hilton Hotel,
Grand Rapids Airport. This interactive meeting with specialists from industry
and MSU is designed to provide farm owners and managers a solid basis for
building their business with employees.
The meetings begin at 5:30 pm with dinner on day 1 in order
to provide an early opportunity for developing a peer network of like-minded
people and to begin to share the issues you face and better understand how
others handle them. Session 1, “Attracting Good Applicants in Today’s Job
Environment” is after dinner.
On day 2, there are three sessions starting with “Building
Teamwork on the Farm” and then “Capitalizing on Your Employee’s Desire to
Learn”. After lunch the program finishes with a session on “Achieving High
Quality Performance”.
Complete information and on-line registration is available
at http://events.anr.msu.edu/ManagingEmployees/
The cost to attend is $160 for the first participant from a
farm and $140 for each additional participant from the same farm. Space is
limited and early registration is encouraged.
Speakers for this dynamic program include:
·
Lori Culler, CEO of AgHires, an online
job board and recruiting firm. She has over 13 years of talent management
experience providing management consulting services in the ag industry.
·
Phil Durst and Stan Moore, MSU Extension Sr.
Educators who have led a project that involved 174 farm employee interviews
from which recommendations have been developed to improve employee management.
·
Felix Soriano, CEO of APN Consulting, a dairy
consulting business where they believe that the large herd manager’s
success depends on getting things done through others, and therefore, works to
help producers become excellent communicators and leaders of well-trained,
talented, and skilled employees.
·
Corey Risch, MSU Assistant Professor whose
experience includes working
as a Farm Business Consultant for Clemson University, where she provided
financial and management consulting services to farmers and agribusinesses in
South Carolina.
·
Matt
Wood, Regional Sales Manager
with Vita Plus Corporation. Wood has worked as a full time Dairy Specialist for
Vita Plus in the thumb area for 10 years, consulting with dairy clients on
their farm management and nutrition for that time period.
For more information or questions, contact Phil Durst at
989-387-5346 or durstp@msu.edu or Stan
Moore at 231-533-8818 or moorest@msu.edu.
Developing your skills in employee management is the key to
taking your farm business to the next level of performance.
