Embedded Files
This website is intended to help you improve your farm's onboarding process. Onboarding a term used by Human Resource Managers to describe the process of moving a new employee from the point where they are hired to the point where they reach full job competency.
We are focusing on the needs of farms that hire seasonal workers in New York State in this website because they often are faced with a group of new employees each year who arrive just as things are starting to get busy and leave when the work is done. This pattern leaves little time, on many farms, for developing processes that streamline the paperwork and let the manager focus on quality training and integration of the seasonal workers into the farm's workforce.
Before we launch into onboarding, let me start with a story.
Before we launch into onboarding, let me start with a story.
A couple of summers ago my daughter, who was a high school student, started 2 summer jobs within a week of each other. Here is a summary of her first day at work at each business...
Day 1, Company 1
Day 1, Company 1
A busy "fast casual" takeout restaurant
A busy "fast casual" takeout restaurant
Lead manager welcomed my daughter. Introduced her to other staff.
Started the training with a video about company history and its values.
Assigned my daughter to a manager for training. Training new staff was that manager’s job.
Manager trained my daughter in key skills, gave her a non-customer facing job for the first week (food prep and filling on-line orders).
My daughter left feeling like she knew what her job was and that she could be successful there.
Day 1 Company 2
Day 1 Company 2
A popular local ice-cream store and market
A popular local ice-cream store and market
Lead manager had little communication with my daughter, seemed disorganized and very busy.
A random worker on shift was assigned to train her. The worker doing the training was inexperienced and had never trained anyone.
Her “trainer” put my daughter on a cash register when they had a rush of customers and told her to figure it out.
My daughter came home in tears after many frustrated customers yelled at her. She thought about quitting.
Question - Was Company 2 a worse place to work than Company 1?
Question - Was Company 2 a worse place to work than Company 1?
No actually Company 2 was a good place to work. My daughter eventually had a great experience with them and she ultimately preferred working there than working for Company 1. BUT, her first-day experience at Company 2 was so bad that she nearly didn't go back to work there.
This is the difference between an effective onboarding system and no onboarding system.
The first days and weeks on the job set the course for a new farm employee. The Onboarding Seasonal Farm Employees Project, funded by The Northeast Risk Management Agency, focuses on helping managers who are responsible for bringing on new employees navigate employment requirements and improve human resource management practices.
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. This website will walk you through resources that you can use to develop a robust on-boarding program for your seasonal employees. The materials are intended to be adapted for your farm.
We have also provided support for you to use Google Classroom as a way to organize your farm's HR and training resources.
Page updated
Report abuse