Latest announcements on Jobs Central:
- Manager of the Australia Monogastric Business Unit – via agricultural appointments
- Livestock Manager, Opal Creek – Australian Country Choice
- Territory Sales Manager, Valmont Irrigation – via Rimfire Resources
- Stationmaster, Brickhouse Station – Harvest Road
- Property Manager, Western Downs Qld – Butler Grazing
- Business Development Manager, WA – via Rimfire Resources
- Post Main, New England NSW – via Drover Ag
- Experienced Farm Worker, NSW – via Drover Ag
- Livestock Manager, Vic – via Drover Ag
- Senior Post Hand, NSW – via Drover Ag
- Senior Farm Worker, Riverina NSW – via Drover Ag
- Deputy Farm Manager, NSW – via Drover Ag
- Breed society manager – ABRI
- Pastoral Station Supervisor, WA – Rio Tinto
- Operations Coordinator, Brisbane – AAM
- General Manager Crops and Forage, Hancock Ag – via Rimfire Resources
- Human Resources Manager, Hancock Ag – via Rimfire Resources
Click here to access these and other exciting jobs in the meat and livestock supply chain currently listed on Jobs Central.
Large companies operating in agriculture should have a comparative advantage over smaller ones in finding talent, with their considerable resources and strong brands.
But in today’s market, many companies are finding that they too are struggling to attract qualified staff.
Some organizations are used to mapping their future staffing needs, based on expected growth and expected attrition due to retirements and resignations.
These forecasts can be refined by taking into account the evolution of the skills required within the company following technological innovations, etc. There is nothing stopping small agricultural employers from adopting a similar strategy, especially with regard to known upcoming retirements, etc.
Once the future skills gap has been identified, an employer then has a choice as to how they will fill the projected gap. Traditionally, many companies filled the gap by hiring new graduates, apprentices or interns and designing training and development programs to hone them to the point of replacing retiring or departing skilled workers.
Erosion
This traditional approach to workforce planning and developing an appropriate training program has eroded over the past 20-30 years, especially in industries where margins are thin and continue to shrink. ‘erode.
When developing annual budgets, training programs often fall victim to cost-cutting programs, rather than choosing the much more difficult option of raising prices. In addition, the roles of assistant principal, for example – traditionally a means of developing students – have become another victim of cost-cutting measures. This further limits the number of internal candidates for future vacancies.
Instead, an assumption has been made that qualified staff will be easily recruited from the external talent pool when needed.
Such an assumption is however wrong if the whole industry has adopted this strategy.
A good example is provided by the milling and animal feed industries, which have reduced training over the past decades and are now paying the price with a desperate shortage of millers, mill managers and other personnel. production nationwide.
In such a market, employers have no choice but to pay higher salaries to attract scarce employees or to consider other options such as sponsoring qualified candidates from abroad.
In agricultural industries, labor shortages are more common than you might think. With the rising cost of inputs such as fertilizers and pest control products, as well as advances in precision farming technology, it can be expected that demand will only increase for technical specialists such as agronomists, animal nutritionists, etc.
Companies facing a shortage of qualified personnel should consider whether a longer-term view of their talent pool could alleviate the problem.
Where there is an industry-wide shortage of specific skills, an alternative strategy of hiring workers with potential and developing in-house training programs may add short-term costs but pay dividends to long term.
Source: Agricultural appointments.
