Effective Management of Farm Employees program helps producers improve farm operations
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EmailDeveloping your skills in employee management is the key to taking your farm business to the next level of performance.
Employees enable farm owners to do much more than they could ever achieve on their own, and to add skills and perspectives that owners don’t possess. Employees on the farm can 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. To help farm owners and managers develop their skills and perspective for better management of employees, the Michigan State University Extension dairy team is hosting a two-day Effective Management of Farm Employees program at two separate locations in January.
The events will take place Jan. 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 the agriculture industry and MSU is designed to provide farm owners and managers a solid basis for building their business with employees.
The meetings begin with dinner at 5:30 p.m. on the first day in order to provide an early opportunity to develop a peer network of like-minded people and to begin to share the issues you face and better understand how others handle them.The first session, “Attracting Good Applicants in Today’s Job Environment” takes place after dinner.
On day two, 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”.
Online registration is open for both Effective Management of Farm Employees locations. Space is limited, so participants are encouraged to register early.
The cost to attend is $160 for the first participant from a farm and $140 for each additional participant from the same farm.
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 senior educators who have led a project involving 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.
