Chapter 4.3 Clear roles and responsibilities sustained by appropriate remuneration
Background information
Chapter 4.2 outlined the importance of communication within your business. An area that is important within communication is for team members to understand their role within the business and how their responsibilities contribute to the wider business goals. This applies to all business employees – whether they are family or not.
Understanding their role in the business and connection to the overall game plan provides employees with clarity and a sense of purpose. Both are keys in motivation.
There are a few documents that can be developed to aid this communication and clarity. They are:
- An organisation structure that illustrates the roles in the business and their relationship together.
- Job descriptions for all roles, summarising their main duties and responsibilities.
The key with these documents is the process to develop them. Sitting down with your family and team and developing these collaboratively is the preferred process. Ask them what the most important aspects of their job are.
The organisation structure and job descriptions are then connected to remuneration, as what people are paid should be directly connected to the role they perform and the value they add to the business and team. All efforts are recognised with appropriate remuneration that meets minimum legal standards and motivates individuals. The other benefit of having clearly defined roles is allowing employees to understand what they need to achieve to earn a promotion or salary increase.
At a glance
- Organisation structure illustrates the roles in the business and their relationship to each other.
- Job descriptions are essential for all roles. They summarise the main duties and responsibilities.
- Remuneration is connected to employee experience and contribution in their role and the value it creates for the business.
- Connect the work expectations (job description) to the remuneration via key performance indicators.
Create an organisation structure
The aim of this process is to map out how your team work together and if there are any reporting relationships, such as a farm assistant reporting to a manager.
This process may feel odd if you have small business with only family labour, but it is still worthwhile to do as it provides clarity on how the team works together. As you start to employ people, you will find it necessary to develop an organisation structure.
List the people that work for or are connected to your business:
- Include operational roles such as owners, managers and farm assistants.
- Business roles such as finance, bookkeeping and payroll (these may be all done by one person or multiple if the business is larger).
- Then list all the roles that are provided by people external to the business, such as pregnancy scanner, nutritionist, shearers, wool classer, agronomist, accountant, etc.
Once you have a list, draw a diagram that reflects how they all work together.
There are some articles you can read in the signposts below.
Develop job descriptions
It is beneficial to develop job descriptions (sometimes called a position description) as a team, particularly if you don’t currently have any and want to introduce them.
The easiest process to use is to grab a whiteboard or large piece of paper or use Word or Excel. You want to create a table where across the top, you list all of the team members’ names, and down the side, you list all the key operations of the business. You can then set about populating the boxes with who does what for each operation. See Tool 4.3 for a job roles template with some examples.
The table format instantly gives you a job description for the individual (vertical column) and an overview of the operation (horizontal row). For example, you have a column for Joe’s role as Manager and a row that outlines the tasks for shearing by team member.
You can then cut this information out into separate job description for each role or leave in the table. Sometimes a spreadsheet also works well for a larger team.
Develop remuneration offers
Once the roles and responsibilities are defined via an organisation structure and job descriptions, remuneration packages can be reviewed and finalised.
The keys to developing a remuneration package are:
- Know the Pastoral Award and FairWork requirements.
- Know the local market for your industry and district.
- Consider benefits that promote employee retention.
- Communicate in person and follow up in writing.
- Review annually.
It is important that remuneration reflects the role undertaken. This can be useful for family labour to have an annual wage or drawing connected to the role they’re performing, helping to reduce possible conflict areas and recognise individuals for their contribution.
SIGNPOSTS
Create better workplaces and attract and retain skilled employees to the industry.
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.
Small businesses (less than 20 or so employees) can hold a few competitive advantages over their larger counterparts. However, if there is no clearly defined organisational structure, small businesses can also be inefficient and confusing places for employees.
Good people are the heart of every successful agribusiness. Managing the components of human resources (attraction, retention, remuneration, safety, compliance and training) are therefore core functions of any business employing staff.
The National Employment Standards (NES) are 11 minimum employment entitlements that have to be provided to all employees.
Seven types of organisational chart structures which can be used in different scenarios.
Staffing issues are a constraint for many growers and human resource management is an essential component of any business but is often undervalued.
Full copy of the Pastoral Award.
Tools, templates and resources to assist in complying with workplace laws by providing education, advice and guidance to employers, employees, and organisations.
