Labor Advice on Tap: Women Farmers Offer Insider Tips to Successfully Hire & Manage Farm Staff
This interview is part of the Farm Labor Dashboard's "Labor on Tap" series of conversations with five women farmers who have been successfully leading staff for a number of years. Topics covered in the interviews range from tangible, practical employee recruitment and management strategies to bigger picture philosophical advice, insights and inspiration.
Name: Rebecca Rudebusch
Farm Name: Seeds Farm
Website: www.seedsfarm.org/
City/State: Northfield, MN
Years farming: 14
Years managing staff: 14
About:
Seeds Farm is owned and managed by Rebecca Rudebusch and has been growing organic produce in Northfield, Minnesota since 2010. Seeds Farm grows over 25 different crops for wholesale accounts in MN and surrounding areas with a team of 5 season employees.
FLD: What advice would you give a fellow woman farmer about the decision to become an employer and take on staff? What did you wish you knew when you started?
RR: Taking on employees is exciting because tasks can get accomplished on your farm-and it’s no longer only you! It can also be scary because payroll is expensive. Payroll on our farm is ⅓ of our yearly expenses. And because payroll is expensive, it is easy to start to quantify each farm task as ‘x’ hours and therefore ‘y’ dollars.
For me, that started taking some of the fun out of tasks. For example, when it was just me on the farm, sometimes I would choose to do my early morning chores slowly and not rush, because I enjoyed listening to the birds in the trees, or sampling the arugula on my walk out to the field. I budgeted extra time for it, because it was not just my work, but my personal morning routine. When I had employees, I was very aware that every minute and hour on the farm impacted my bottom line. I wanted to lead by example and be efficient with my time.
I wish I knew that both can be true. Employees clock in and clock out, and the expectation for their time can be different than the expectation for your time on the farm. They are not doing irrigation switches at 2 am, or staying late after the work day to finish seeding the cover crops, or coming in on the weekend to water the greenhouse. (They can, if that’s the schedule you both agree upon and they are compensated for it). Communicate clearly with your crew. Sunday nights I would load our delivery truck and 3 am and sleep in on Monday morning. They knew they would start the day without me Monday. And I wouldn’t feel bad for taking time to smell the flowers and ease into the day Monday.
There is a lot of “behind the scenes” work associated with having employees.
Rebecca Rudebusch
FLD: What advice would you give someone hiring their first employee?
RR: There is a lot of “behind the scenes” work associated with having employees, such as payroll, payroll taxes/paperwork, establishing a system to train new people in, and deciding what your expectations are for your employees- and what to do if they are not meeting your expectations, to name a few. It’s not necessarily hard work or difficult work, but work nonetheless that you should budget time to manage.
How did you find your employees? Where did you recruit from/look? Did you develop a job description and any advice on that?
RR: There are many farm positions open, and it’s important that you put thought into what you have to offer. Compensate them as best as you can-with a living wage for your area. A higher wage will attract better applicants. When we started prioritizing paying a living wage, we increased our contracts to account for the added expense.
Like many farmers, my biggest struggle related to having employees on my farm is employee turnover. As we all know, farming is hard work! Because it is a large investment of time and energy to train new employees in, I am always eager to hear if someone is interested in staying for multiple seasons- especially for a management level position or crew lead. For just a peak summer harvest position, it is not as important, but always desirable.
This will be my third season having a crew on my farm from Mexico through the H2A visa program. It has been a game changer on my farm. We’ve had the same five individuals come back every year, and they want to continue returning. Our crew all had previous agricultural experience. We’ve learned a bunch from them!
Before H2A, I posted on listserv such as good food jobs, ATTRA, Sustainable Farming Association, on our website, facebook, and through word of mouth. I have them answer questions like, why do you want to work on a farm, and why our farm specifically. What do you hope to get out of a farming job/career, what agricultural/physical labor experience do you have, and what your goals are. Then I follow up with an interview to get to know them. Afterall, you’re going to be spending your entire growing season with them, you want to do your due diligence!
FLD: How do you keep momentum and energy going amongst your staff during the busiest peak of summer?
RR: Chances are they are not working on your farm to get rich, they’re doing it because they want to learn, want to do something aligned with their values, like to be outside, and perhaps enjoy spending time with like minded individuals. Learn what their goals are and make sure you carve out time to help them meet their goals. Do they want to learn? Make sure you still are sharing why you are trellising your tomatoes this way (even in August).
Bring popsicles to share with the crew after lunch and enjoy them in the shade without rushing. 15 minutes won’t make too big of a difference in harvest, but will make a big difference in the crew morale for the day.
Learn what their goals are and make sure you carve out time to help them meet their goals.
FLD: What have been your biggest challenges as a woman farmer managing employees and how did you manage?
RR: I set the expectations on my farm that I am the owner and decision maker from the very beginning through my actions and words. By leading with confidence, acting like it is completely normal to be a woman farmer, and hiring a team that respects working for a woman farmer, I have not had challenges managing employees on my farm related to being a woman owner, just the normal challenges of managing employees :)
FLD: When an employee isn’t performing well, how do you address that?
RR: It starts even before an employee has a performance problem. When I train an employee at the beginning of the season, I share with them what my expectations are and what happens if the expectations are not met, including a timeline. Depending on the situation, most times it starts with a warming. If the behavior does not change by a certain timeline, then we start taking action. It is helpful to lean on the handbook you create before the season starts so you can address it timely and with less drama during the height of the season. It also feels good to be transparent with your expectations.
FLD: Advice on working through conflict?
RR: Be transparent and have a system in place you can lean on, see above.
FLD: Advice on navigating cell phone use? Do you have a cell phone policy with employees?
RR: We use cell phones on the farm for communication and I am totally fine if they listen to music/podcast while doing a mundane harvest/cultivation task. Our employee handbook clearly states it is not to be used for texting/calling or searching the internet during the work day.