Effective employee management provides many benefits for your agricultural team. Among them are increased employee engagement, productivity, and quality of work.

However, understanding how to manage your team isn’t always easy. There are many approaches you can take.

The key is to find what works for both you and your team. You may need to experiment to find the right fit.

These four methods can help you more effectively manage your agricultural team.

1. Clarify Your Expectations

Let your employees know exactly what is expected of them. This includes your goals and standards for quality work.

Ensure your expectations are both written and verbal. This reinforces your goals and standards for your team. Your employees can refer back to them as needed.

Involve your employees in setting the time it should take to complete tasks. Provide flexibility for newer team members who still are learning. However, reinforce the fact that shortcuts cannot be taken to complete a task in less time.

2. Provide Training and Coaching

Training teaches your employees why and how to perform a task and evaluate the work as they go. It also involves considering what may happen in different situations.

Coaching helps your team stay engaged and improve their performance. Both training and coaching need to be performed on an ongoing basis for continued success.

Training may involve educating your employees on the animals they work with. Coaching may involve showing your team members how to more effectively interact with the animals and finish the work.

Combining training and coaching helps your team make better decisions. This elevates engagement and productivity.

3. Promote Autonomy

Let your employees have a say in decisions as much as possible. Also, provide your team with a significant amount of independence to accomplish their goals. This shows you trust your team and respect their abilities.

Teach your team members to think about alternatives and consequences when making decisions. Engage your employees in conversations about problem discovery and identification of waste.

Encourage your employees to bring concrete examples of problems and waste to your attention. Work with your team to brainstorm solutions. Use their ideas as teaching opportunities.

Hold your team accountable for their decisions and results. If things don’t turn out as expected, encourage your employees to find out why. Ask them how they can perform differently next time and attain the desired results.

4. Provide Feedback

Regularly share with each employee specific feedback on their performance. This may be positive, corrective, or re-directive. You may want to observe each team member’s routines and work practices. Focus on finding efficiency, waste, and flow of work. Talk with each team member about their own thoughts on their performance. Address any questions or concerns they may have. Work together to create an action plan to improve in the necessary areas. Set a time to follow up on the employee’s progress.

Need to Hire Agricultural Employees?

If you need more agricultural employees to help close out the year, get in touch with the Morris Bixby Group. Learn more today.