The Dairy Worker Safety Training Using Mobile Technologies, provided by the University of Texas School of Public Health and the New Mexico State University Dairy Extension, is a new learning initiative that delivers safety training content to dairy workers using mobile devices.

During several in-depth interviews with dairy owners and managers regarding personnel management, we often heard about challenges and the difficulties associated with managing people. However, in most cases, mixed in with those challenges were bits of human resource (HR) “gold.” The purpose of this article is to highlight a few of those best practices and provide some insight into how you might incorporate something similar on your dairy.

The question of whether or not human resource (HR) management is needed is not unique to dairies; in fact, it’s not unique to any industry. It is a question which is relevant for any small business anywhere, and the answer is both yes and no. In small businesses with 10 or fewer employees, it’s unlikely you could keep an HR person busy full-time. However, regardless of how many employees you have, incorporating some HR management strategies proactively can really pay off over time.

“My wife tells me I don’t compliment [my employees] like I should, or pat guys on the back. I sit and listen and talk and joke with the guys, but I’m usually pretty serious and feel like we’re always behind. I have been trying to do more of that ‘good job’ thing, but it’s just not my nature. I should, but I don’t.”

Nearly every day, a dairy producer asks us if we know of anyone looking for work. Milkers and herdsmen are in great demand here in the Midwest, and many feeder and manager positions are open as well. As your business grows or an employee moves on, you are tasked with hiring a quality employee. While you may dread this process, employees are the lifeblood of any business.

When dairy farmers are asked how they recruit new employees, the response is usually the same: “We don’t need to recruit.” Owners report that the current economic situation has meant no shortage of people looking for work. In fact, many owners have a stack of applications, most of which will never receive a call back. This is not because there aren’t qualified applicants, and not because the owners don’t care, but simply because there aren’t enough jobs nor time to deal with each.

Recent trends across the U.S. suggest that while the number of dairies has been decreasing steadily, those remaining are increasing in size. Although this presents new challenges in relation to herd management, it also means new challenges in regards to human-resource management.

For cattle operations of any size, the “documentaries” churned out by undercover animal rights activists can be intimidating – marked often as they are by deceptive editing, scary music, jarring visual effects and anguished voiceovers rife with half-truths and outright lies.

A developmental milestone is reached when the leader is able to build trust and motivation with their employees to the degree that they are willing to openly follow their direction regardless of circumstances. This is not achieved until a leader is able to demonstrate – through personal example – that they have earned their employees’ respect and admiration.