Staff Appraisals – Worth the Time?

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Andy Dodd (FCG WhiteAvon)

Farm staff appraisals provide a structured way to evaluate employee performance, improve productivity, support overall farm management and most importantly, provide a clear line of communication. Appraisals encourage open discussion between farm owners, managers and employees, allowing performance, expectations, concerns, and goals to be clearly discussed. This helps build trust and strengthens working relationships, especially if an annual appraisal is carried out by an external person as this often allows employees to raise issues more openly than with farm owners or managers.

Appraisals also identifying training and development needs. When carrying out reviews, a self-assessment sheet is key to allow employees to think about the process several weeks in advance to allow them to note down points to raise, questions to ask and training they feel would help them in their role. By providing employees with training they have identified, a culture of being valued and listened to can soon be established. 

In a series of recent appraisals that I carried out on a large dairy farm, training identified by the team included:

  • Heat detection techniques to help everyone identify bulling animals (how many owners/managers just think everyone knows how to spot a bulling cow and how many employees would feel confident in saying they don’t?).
  • Training with the farms independent nutritionist to understand why and when diets change, feed presentation and what feedback he needs from the team to maximise feed efficiency and cow health.
  • Staff management training for team leaders to help communication within teams.

By the team identifying these training requirements, the farm manager can put a plan in place. If bulling animals can be identified more consistently and the whole team can feed back regarding diets and feeding, this will inevitably improve overall farm performance and profit.

The appraisal is also an opportunity to identify compliance issues, health and safety concerns (staff wearing two ear pods in this case and not necessarily being fully aware of their surroundings) but also any welfare concerns – work life balance etc.

For this farm in question, almost all training identified in the last round of appraisals had been completed, this proved to the team that the feedback they had given had been valued so they came with new and varied ideas this time. The main benefit to this team being valued by their employer is that they have had no staff leave in the last 12 months! How many farms can say the same?

Do you know what your team really think or what their training needs are?

Contact Andy at Andydodd@fcgagric.com or your local FCG office, if you’d like to discuss independent staff appraisals for your team.

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