I
n the January issue of The Cattleman, we discussed hiring the right people and presented ideas on how this can be accomplished. Hiring the right people is very important, but it is only half of
the human resource management process. Effective personnel management must be practiced to keep the right people after they are hired. “Finding and keeping quality ranch employees is
absolutely necessary if profi tability, growth and excel- lence goals are to be reached by any ranch,” says Barry Dunn, formerly with the King Ranch®
Institute and
now dean of the College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences at South Dakota State University. “Finding, hiring, motivating and keeping good
employees is often neglected by small businesses and ranches alike, because these skills seem irrelevant amongst such a small payroll. However, the fewer employees an organization has, the more dependent it is on the employees it has, arguably making human resource management even more important.” “Research shows that replacing an employee costs
about 50 to 150 percent of the annual salary of the position,” says Ryan Rhoades, assistant professor at the King Ranch®
Institute. “It becomes really expen-
sive to keep replacing people when there is constant employee turnover.”
Integrate the new hire into the organization “Research shows that most fi rms do not take the
appropriate steps to ensure that new employees are properly integrated into the company culture. In fact, these studies suggest that one-third of employers lose between 10 and 25 percent of their new employees within the fi rst year on the job. There are a number of factors that can contribute to this lack of success be- tween the new employee and the fi rm,” says Rhoades. Integration should begin with the interview. Ensure that potential new employees are fully indoctrinated
104 The Cattleman March 2015
during the interview process, both on what the job is and what is required of the person doing it. Provide a ranch tour and, if possible, ask people currently doing the job to explain it to candidates. Discuss the written job description with candidates and ask if they under- stand what will be required of them. A new employee’s integration into the operation
occurs more smoothly if they can be paired with a veteran top performer for training and mentoring. If such a person does not exist, the ranch manager will need to perform this function. Job descriptions continue to be important docu-
ments after the hiring process is complete because they are, in effect, contracts between employees and ranch management. The documents are the guidelines by which employees are trained, evaluated, rewarded and disciplined. That is why it is important to write job descriptions for all employees, including those in management. Integration means involving employees in the plan-
ning processes. Ask them to be present and participate during annual meetings to update the ranch business plan and to evaluate last year’s production performance. Ask for their opinions and listen to their suggestions. Making employees a part of the planning and evaluation processes can improve job performance and incentiv- izes their assumption of responsibility.
Write job performance plans After the new hire has been on the job for a few
weeks, the supervisor should help the employee de- velop a job performance plan. The plan should contain goals for successfully completing various job tasks plus personal development objectives. Aid the employee in developing S.M.A.R.T. goals — Specifi c, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. The human resources department at University of Virginia defi nes each of the S.M.A.R.T. goal criteria:
thecattlemanmagazine.com
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