Developing a successful employee begins with the quality of the onboarding process at your dairy. No matter the job, onboarding is critical to ensuring that the employee you are hiring understands your goals and values and how to do their job in a satisfactory manner. Recently in a Cornell Cooperative Extension Whole Farm Efficiency webinar, Mary Kate Mackenzie, a farm business management specialist with Cornell PRO-DAIRY, explained how to create and implement employee onboarding programs on dairies.

The onboarding process is the stage where new employees are integrated into a farm or business. While in this process, new hires will complete paperwork, receive safety training, form a sense of connection with other employees, and gain a better understanding of the tasks they are assigned. Although this process seems relatively easy, many farms face challenges when it comes to bringing new employees on board. Finding labor can be difficult with risks of turnover, injuries, noncompliance to regulations, and poor performance on the line. Hiring someone can be a big transition with lots of uncertainty not only for employer, but the worker, too.

There are levels of the onboarding process that ultimately build on each other in hopes of successfully adding a high-quality employee. Mackenzie listed these levels and the topics that should be addressed in each one:

• Compliance: Outline regulations and policies.
• Clarity: Provide training on safety, work procedures, and setting work expectations.
• Culture: Communicate your farm’s values, traditions, and norms.
• Connection: Help employees forge relationships at work and find a place that employees will engage and thrive.

The next step is implementing these tasks throughout the onboarding process. Develop an onboarding plan broken down into specific goals for the first day, week, and month. Be sure to include an orientation, be welcoming, connect new hires with seasoned employees, provide proper training, offer feedback, and bring proper documentation. Create checklists and form a tactical plan.

While implementing an onboarding process may seem like extra work, having one shows that you care about your employees and want them to succeed. Employees will feel valued — developing a stronger relationship between management and worker. Because of this, employers will generally notice less turnover and have better performance. Strive for continuous improvement, listen to employee feedback, and review your farm’s onboarding process annually to identify areas that may need more attention than others. “Focus on the new employee as a person, not just a worker,” declared Mackenzie.

If you are looking to better your onboarding programs on your farm, the Cornell Ag Workforce Development and New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health has resources available that can be used to streamline the process.