Chapter 4.6 Managing a happy and efficient team
Background information
Managing people is a key skill of most businesses. The challenge for many managers and owners is that they have found themselves with a handful of employees after a few years of organic business growth, often resulting in a gap in the systems and processes to manage people and leadership skills required to foster a great culture.
These two parts can be grouped as ‘head’ and ‘heart’.
The ‘head’ areas that need to be developed are connected to operations. These include roles and responsibilities (Chapter 4.3), remuneration, induction, policies, safety, and recruitment.
The ‘heart’ areas that need to be developed are connected to culture (Chapter 4.1). These include communication, value, growth, leadership, safety, mentoring and professional development.
Taking time to develop and manage a happy and efficient team is key to business success. Without this investment in your team, future goals and strategy may be hard to implement. It is important to manage and lead your whole team in the same manner. This means family labour is treated the same way as non-family labour.
Rather than assuming what employees like about working for your business, gaining insights and feedback from employees and understanding what they value in the business is key to understan ding what you offer – this can be collated into an employee value proposition (EVP). An EVP is a succinct summary of the benefits and rewards employees receive from working with you.
At a glance
- Focus on the head (operations) and heart (culture) areas of people management.
- Business culture needs to be developed and maintained to ensure long-term operational business success.
- An employee value proposition (EVP) is a useful tool to understanding the benefits and rewards employees value in your business for use in presenting to potential employees.
Managing and leading a team
Operational (head) aspects of people management include areas such as:
- Recruitment
- Induction (Chapter 4.5)
- Job descriptions (Chapter 4.3)
- Organisation structure (Chapter 4.3)
- Performance management (Chapter 4.3)
- Communication (Chapter 4.2)
- Reporting
- Payroll and remuneration (Chapter 4.3)
- FairWork and Pastoral Award (Chapter 4.5)
- Contracts
- Safety (Chapter 4.5)
- Policies and procedures
- Record keeping
- Training (Chapter 4.4)
Cultural (heart) aspects of leading a team include areas such as:
- Mentoring (Chapter 1.7 in MMFS Module 1 Plan for Success)
- Culture (Chapter 4.1)
- Management succession (Chapter 1.7 in MMFS Module 1 Plan for Success)
- Employee value proposition (EVP)
- Communication (Chapter 4.2)
- Leadership
- Growth and career development (Chapter 4.4)
- Safety (Chapter 4.5)
All are connected by communication (Chapter 4.2) as well as the vision (Tool 1.4 in MMFS Module 1 Plan for Success) and culture of your business (Chapter 4.1). Your role is to guide them to achieve your vision in a cohesive and efficient team environment.
Policies and procedures
Policies and procedures are a very important to develop as your team grows. They are directly related to consistency, compliance, and communication.
Policy – used to communicate the business rules. Policies exist for areas such as safety, children on farm, use of vehicles, leave, firearms, code of conduct, working outdoors, animal welfare, biosecurity, etc. Each business will build their own policies that reflect the way things operate in their workplace. Policies provide a framework to assist in facilitating a compliant and consistent workplace.
Procedure – these are the steps to follow when undertaking a task. These are detailed, step-by-step documents that describe the process required to undertake a task safely, efficiently and to the required standard. Examples include loading livestock, installing a solar pump, shearing preparation, preparation for pregnancy scanning sheep, management of sheep after pregnancy scanning, lamb marking, spraying pastures, or baling hay.
Tool 4.6 provides a shearing induction checklist.
Procedures can save time on tasks you don’t do frequently. They also download the experience from older members of your business, which is great for succession planning.
Neither policy nor procedure needs to be lengthy, they can usually be quite adequate with a few dot points. Some businesses are using technology to capture their procedures by videoing them or using QR codes.
When employees know the standard that is expected, they will either lift to that standard, or it provides you an opportunity to work with them to identify how you can assist them to improve to meet the standard.
SIGNPOSTS
The art of excellent farming starts with making first-rate choices about yourself so that you can make the best decisions about crops, people and money.
A compelling science-based case about how rural leaders can support themselves and their people to do well and be well at work. Sustainable high performance can be achieved by leading with a human-centric approach, that puts wellbeing at the centre.
As part of risk management, it's important to have clear policies, procedures and processes in place – these create standards and help everyone to know how to operate. Here are some tips on getting your policies, procedures and processes right.
Developing operational documents is particularly important in the initial stages of establishing your business, but you may need to update them when changes occur – for example, hiring staff, moving locations or entering a growth phase.
Work Health & Safety (WHS) standards, codes of practice and related guidelines and resources.
A workplace policy consists of a statement of purpose and one or more broad guidelines on action to be taken to achieve that purpose. The statement of purpose should be written in simple terms, free of jargon.
Tools, templates and resources to assist in complying with workplace laws by providing education, advice and guidance to employers, employees, and organisations.
Provides information about shed design so sheep producers and shed builders can make informed decisions about building or renovating a shed. The guidelines include information about design elements, dimensions, technology and key issues such as productivity and occupational health and safety.
AWI and WA Shearing Industry Association (WASIA) have partnered with iAuditor to provide the SafeSheds checklists in a mobile, digital, interactive format.
This guide and assessment is not a compulsory standard, it has been developed to provide an understanding of shearing shed risks and options to control risks wherever possible. By planning and noting the improvements and steps to control risk, you will be able to provide direct evidence of your efforts in managing safety as required by Workplace Health & Safety Legislation in your state.
A range of videos, factsheets and customisable templates to assist you in getting started or finetuning WHS management in your business.
Provides tools, templates, induction training and information specific to agriculture.
Tools, templates and resources to assist in complying with workplace laws by providing education, advice and guidance to employers, employees, and organisations.
For most people working on the land, your workplace is also your home, and sometimes the lines can blur. However, you are running a business and as such you have a key responsibility to ensure that your own and nobody else’s safety is put at risk by what you do, what your workers do or the work done at your workplace.
As your farm grows, it can become impossible to personally oversee every task that is completed. Policies, procedures and systems provide an invisible ‘structure’ to the business that helps everyone understand how and why things should be done.
Handy templates such as career plans and training records. Developed by Dairy Australia but easily modified for the livestock industry.
Connecting producers to agricultural businesses and services across Australia.
A national program for young people in all facets of the wool industry which develops their leadership and professional skills.
Participants develop a better understanding of themselves and their teams, while learning more effective ways of creating a positive team culture through planning, goal setting and communication.
