Valuing employees

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Ensuring employees feel valued and understand the significance of their work was an employee retention tip shared during a panel-style seminar entitled “Keys to Building and Retaining Your Team of Successful Employees.”

The seminar was held during the Form-A-Feed Dairy Conference Jan. 16-17 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

“If you care about people, they’ll care a lot more about what they’re doing,” said Andrew LeClair, one of the panelists. “Everybody’s the same, whether you’re the owner or whether you’re a milker. Whatever you’re doing, we’re all people.”

LeClair is a manager at Enchanted Dairy near Little Falls. There, they milk 2,000 cows in a rotary parlor with 20 employees. Another panelist was Hans Breitenmoser, who owns Breitenmoser Family Farm near Merrill, Wisconsin, where they milk 500 cows and have 16 employees. The final panelist was Abe Sanchez, a manager at D&D Dairy near Rushford where they milk 1,000 cows and have 10 employees. The panel was moderated by Mario Solis Flores of Form-A-Feed Inc.

Good employees worthy of promotion are teachable, the panelists said. Breitenmoser said much on his farm is learnable, but employees must understand that their new role may mean a greater amount of responsibility.

“You never know who your rock star is going to be,” Breitenmoser said. “People have shown up and innocently wanted a milking job, and then 15 years later, they’re running day-to-day operations.”

LeClair agreed.

“It’s people that have a desire to learn, people that have a desire to do a good job and that want to know more,” he said. “Some people are that way, and some people are not.”

Sanchez said employees are expected to be on time, respect the animals, do their best for the cows, and to be capable of learning and especially listening.

“Every farm, it’s different,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you know a lot or how you used to do the work. You have to listen to your new boss … and respect the rules.”

When it comes to promoting, Sanchez said he works alongside his employees every day and sees those who have potential. When an opening for advancement comes, he offers it to them first.

LeClair said he has seen that employees who appreciate step-by-step structure are those who transition into management roles better. He said this mindset helps them present and justify their decisions to those they work with.

Breitenmoser said it can be a juggling act to make sure employees are encouraged to broaden their horizons through advancement while simultaneously finding a place for them to be able to grow.

“Looking back over the past 25 years … it was really just a matter of identifying people who wanted more responsibility, and then who were actually able to take more responsibility,” he said. “There’s people who want more responsibility, sometimes because they understand that it comes with a bigger paycheck, but are incapable of handling any more responsibility.”

Breitenmoser’s farm has a raise schedule tied to quarterly reviews. Employees are evaluated on areas such as following protocols and getting along with coworkers. A manager communicates expectations with employees beforehand so they know what they need to work on to earn their raise.

“It formalizes things and gives people a path forward,” Breitenmoser said. “They can look at their situation and say, ‘OK I know that at minimum, I’ll be making $1 more in a year from now, assuming I do all these things.’”

Though employees must meet the requirements across the categories, Breitenmoser said there is flexibility. Breitenmoser uses a 3-strike system for firing so employees know where they stand.

LeClair said they use a flat pay scale for positions. Cross training is how employees can make more money.

“Pay is something that will draw people in to a point,” LeClair said. “People lose motivation very quickly if their only motivation is pay. … A person that’s driven, a person that wants to be successful, a person that wants to do a good job, will do it for $13 or they’ll do it for $12 or they’ll do it for $15.”

Part of LeClair’s retention strategy is to become connected with his employees and make sure they feel valued.

“The people that I deal with and I talk to every single day are the people that I want to know everything about,” he said. “I want to know how your family is doing. I want to know if you’re struggling. I want to know if you’re happy, if you’re sad. … It takes a lot of time and effort, but if that person ever decides to leave, I want that to be the hardest decision that person makes.”

Breitenmoser utilizes monthly meetings with Mario Solis Flores on his farm to train his employees, raffle free swag from ag companies and give employees a place to voice frustrations.

“It allows people to vent,” Breitenmoser said. “It’s that safe space to get input from employees. … It’s a very formal thing that they know that once a month we’re going to have this meeting.”

These trainings are also an added value for employees.

“They understand that whatever they learn is theirs,” he said. “Nobody can take that away from them. So, if they decide to move on and go to work for somebody else, that’s information and education that they have.”

Breitenmoser said his favorite part of managing is watching his employees grow into a role and excel.

Sanchez said his advice to leaders is to keep working hard.

“Do your best and never give up,” he said. “Success doesn’t come alone. It is built step by step.”

LeClair agreed.

“It’s not all up to you to do everything,” he said. “Surrounding yourself with people that you can trust, that you can bounce ideas off of, that you can talk to about everything is extremely important. The more you isolate yourself, the more weight goes on your shoulders.”