Using employee feedback as a means to improve employee management

Employee management

• Increased importance of employees in larger dairies

• Daily care of animals is performed by employees.

• The degree of success of the business depends on the management of employees.

• “Engaged” employees perform better.

Engaged: a connection between an employee and employer which results in that employee giving Voluntary effort.

Charles ContrerasZoetisPeopleFirst

• Employees that work to get the desired results, not just to do the job;

• Employees that take initiative or ownership;• Employees that are trustworthy;• Employees that have a positive impact on the team as

well as on the business;

Employee management

• But if there is an area of management that dairy producers, in general, like least, it is employee management.

• There is little training available to producers in this area.

Managing Dairy Employees More Effectively

• Project designed to improve employee management through employee feedback

• Phil Durst, Stan Moore, MSU Extension Dairy Educators, & Felix Soriano, APN Consulting, LLC

• Grant from USDA NIFA, North Central Risk Management Education Center

• Contract with farms after explaining program

• Have owner(s) &manager(s) complete survey of what they expect employees will say

• Employees provided with a copy of the questions (English or Spanish) and interviewed via phone when they called

• One bi-lingual interviewer• We look for common themes from

employees

Project goals:• Help dairy owners & managers understand

employee’s perspectives• Help owners & managers on these farms

change their management to increase employee engagement

• Help other producers through educational programs based on what we learn.

• We hope to follow-up and see what changes they have made and see if there is a change in one of several measures:- employee turnover rate- labor cost/cwt of milk- number of cows/employee

Areas employees are asked about:

• What they like most/least• Teamwork with co-workers• Knowledge of farm goals• Equipped to do the job• View of supervisor• Their commitment to learning and the

business• Whether they get performance feedback• If they think of ways to improve the

business

Results:

• To date: 9 farms (MI, PA, NY, CT)• Total cows: 8079

Range: 589 – 1225 cows• Total employees: 176

Range: 12 - 28• 139 interviews (79% response rate)

71 English, 63 Latino, 5 Portuguese

Results:

Employee turnover rates: (# new hires/ # employees)

2011 range: 8% - 100%, Average: 46%

2012 range: 3% - 111%, Average: 46%

Employed < 1 yr. 18%1 – 3 yrs. 31%

> 3 yrs. 51%

How long would you like to remain employed at this farm?

< 1 year Ave: 13%

2-3 years Ave: 22%

Farm Combined:High: 66% Low: 22%

Results:

Labor cost per hundredweight of milk sold:

2011Range: $1.29 - $3.54, Average: $2.48

2012 Range: $1.27 - $3.05, Average: $2.14

Main problems identified to date:

• Underestimating employees’ desire to learn

• Failure to provide training• Failure to specify goals• Failure to provide specific positive

feedback• Employee-to-employee problems and lack

of communication• Perception of unequal treatment of

employees

1. Underestimating employees desire to learn

Q: How would you rate your interest in learning?

(scale of 1 – 5)

1 = I already know enough to do my job

5 = I am interested in dairy and want to keep learning.

Q: How would you rate your interest in learning?

4.72 (across 139 employees)

Q: How would you rate your employees’ interest in learning?

3.35 (16 owners/managers)

When we underestimate the interest of employees in learning, not only do we provide less training, but maybe we think they are less capable of learning.

2. Failure to provide training

Q: How often do you receive training to improve your skills?

1 = Never2 = Only when I started3 = Once a year4 = Every 3 months5 = Once a month

Q: How often do you receive training to improve your skills?

12% Never36% Only when I started22% Once a year17% Every 3 months13% Every month

3. Failure to specify goals (or KPI’s)

Q: How well are the company goals communicated to you? (scale of 1-5)

One farm to illustrate: Average rating: 3.553 replied “1”: I have heard nothing about

farm goals5 replied “5”: I know very well what the farm goals are1 replied “4”

Q: What are some of the farm goals that you remember? (of those who relied “4” or “5”)

• “Never heard about that”• “Keep clean the machines and milking

room”• To do what the owner teaches us and not

to change it”• “Follow the owner’s rules”• “Better milk production. Cleanliness”• Milk the cows and keep everything clean.

They told me what I should do and what I shouldn’t”

Employees want to know where the business is heading:• “They just tell me what I have to do, not

farm goals”• “Each day they just tell us what we have

to do and that’s it. We don’t have any kind of information.”

• “All the companies usually put (up) charts (with the company goals), but here there is nothing. We come here like donkeys to do what we are told to do.”

Making employee full team members

We believe that in order for employees to be full team members that they need to know both the goal (or KPI) and the performance.

4. Failure to provide specific positive feedback

Q: How often do you receive feedback (good or bad) about your work from your supervisor?

1 = Never2 = Maybe a few times a year3 = Every 3 months4 = Once a month5 = At least once a week

Q: How often do you receive feedback (good or bad) about your work from your supervisor?

8% Never31% Few times per year

12% Every 3 months25% Once a month24% Every week

Comments:• “Negative = 5, Positive = 1”• Feedback is always negative, our job is

(always) wrong.• “Positive – never; Negative – every week”• “It seems that we never do a good job”• “We normally don’t get stuff like that”

Q: In the last 15 days how often have you received recognition and praise for good work?

1 = Not once did he/she recognize what I did well5 = He/she praised and thanked me at least several times in the last 15 days

Q: In the last 15 days how often have you received recognition and praise for good work?

37% Rated it 1: Not once in the last 15 days 5% Rated it 213% Rated it 319% Rated it 427% Rated it 5

5. Problems between employees

• Rate your Relationship with supervisor: 4.40

• Rate the Teamwork within the dairy:3.74

• Communication problems between shifts• Good employees want others to work hard• Employees see it as the manager’s role to

hold employees accountable.

• “There are some co-workers that don't do much hard work. They are always waiting for somebody else to do it. There is no communication.”

• “Certain people that are not working with each other. You can feel the tension.”

• Q: What would you change? “Be more serious on who they hire, check their background.”

Rate the Teamwork within the dairy

Farms (n=9)• Average farm rating: 3.74

• Farm range: 2.71 - 4.50

Employee to employee relations

• Employer can’t force people to like each other, but they do have a role:- Involve employees in the interview process- Facilitate communication between shifts- Emphasize teamwork and helping each other, even at the end of a shift.- Hold employees accountable for results and methods.

6. Perception of equality in treatment

• Family members vs. nonfamily• Latino vs. non-Latino• Employees that had been there awhile vs.

new employees• Crops crew vs. cattle crew

It is the responsibility of the manager to hold all employees to the same standard.

Perception of equality in treatment

Farms (n=9)• Average farm rating: 3.89

• Farm range: 3.37 – 4.44

Areas for management improvement

• Establish Key Performance Indicators in every area of the operation.

• Communicate KPI’s• Tie training to KPI’s• Training needs to be frequent• Training needs to be progressive• Employee feedback needs to be relative to

KPI’s

Informing the Mastitis & Antibiotic Reduction grant

• An engaged stable workforce is a better partner in achieving milk quality goals.

• An engaged stable workforce needs to have their desire to learn stoked.

• An engaged stable workforce work together to achieve goals they help set.

• An engaged stable workforce doesn’t look for shortcuts because they understand the impact.

Therefore, we need to talk with dairy owners about considering their employees as:

• Partners and not as adversaries• Thinkers and not as “donkeys”• Individuals and not as anonymous

workers.

What we’ve learned from farm employees:

• Employees can reveal the strengths and weaknesses of management

• Employees can help us understand how to increase their engagement

• Employees show us the roots of turnover and lower productivity

Dairy owners and managers can profit by listening to their employees:

• Managers need to be humble enough to listen

• Managers need to be wise enough to take it into account and act on it.

Questions?Thank you!

Phil DurstMSU Extensiondurstp@msu.edu

Stan MooreMSU Extensionmoorest@msu.edu

Funding provided by the North Central Center for Risk Management Education and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture under Award number 2010-49200-06200.