Lifting a Farm's Performance Continuing education is a life long experience for Bay of Plenty farmer Beth Leeder. After 32 years in farming with husband Doug, Beth still attends training courses to improve her performance on the farm. Beth recently completed the Rural Staff Management course, four interactive one-day workshops that draws on real-life examples relevant to farming. The course covers human resources topics such as employer responsibilities, performance management, recruitment and selection and developing high-performing teams. Beth and Doug are not from farming stock. Doug started out as a policeman and Beth was a schoolteacher. They started their career in farming share milking in Ngaruawahia and that was the catalyst for Beth to embrace adult education in farming. "In 1978 we started the farming course at Waikato Polytech and completed it while we were share milking. That was the first time we experienced education in farming. We learned such a lot. We've always looked at education as a really positive thing and encouraged our staff to pursue learning opportunities," says Beth. Located in Waiotahi, half way between Whakatane and Opotiki on the coast, Beth and Doug own 200 hectares and, this season, have leased another 100 hectares. With a herd of 580, the Leeders expect that number to increase to 650 due to the extra land. Beth and Doug employ four staff - a Farm Manager, a second-in-charge, and two farm assistants, one of whom is their son. Beth started the Rural Staff Management course in Spring 2008. "The largest issue today for dairying is retaining labour and getting the most from your staff and that's exactly why we were there. To learn to be a better employers," says Beth. "As an industry, we have to attract good people at both the school leaving level and as a change in employment for mature people. I think they both have a huge role to play in farming". "One of the spin-offs of the course is the incidental discussions that occur. You get to talk to other participants about common issues that you wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to explore". The course caters for those who manage or plan to manage staff. Each workshop is run by an experienced trainer with a rural background who knows the challenges of farming. Beth's says tutor Cath Blake was "amazing, she taught us so many things drawing from her own experiences in a really user-friendly way.   "Measuring staff performance gave us some good practical ideas about how to conduct performance reviews. The workshop that covered motivation was really interesting. Finding out about how people learn differently - that was quite an illuminating part of the course. It's a very practical course. It also covers recruitment processes such as how to advertise jobs and select staff." "Our new manager also attended the course with me. He has come back to the farming industry after a 20-year break. I felt it would be good for him to start off understanding all the new legal responsibilities of managing staff so we were on the same page. The course was designed to complement Dairy NZ's HR Toolkit - a compendium of materials including job descriptions, templates, resources and advice available free to levy-paying dairy farmers. "I have set up property inspections as a result of the knowledge I gained from the course. We have five houses on our farm and now I have some good ideas about how to manage them more effectively while making it a non-threatening experience for our staff. "If you're looking to employ new staff, need to upskill in the area of legal responsibilities and want to get better performance out of your people, this course is enormously useful. "In any job people need to know that they are valued and they are making a contribution. Part of the course explores new ways of giving positive feedback to staff. "Anyone who is in the position of employing staff, does the course and applies what they've learned, will definitely find improvement in productivity and profitability". "We've always had a policy of encouraging off-farm learning because we have a strong desire to keep young people coming into the industry. If they're upskilling themselves, and they are getting the same message from their employer, then that's got to be good." For more information about the Rural Staff Management course contact your local Training Adviser on 0800 691 111. Back to Press Releases