Employing & Managing People

Dairy is a dynamic industry requiring a highly skilled and capable workforce to support business profitability and sustainability in an increasingly complex operating environment. The increasing use of technology, the need to efficiently monitor farm inputs, animal care, milk quality and managing environmental credentials provides a unique opportunity for those seeking a diverse and professionally rewarding career.

As farms grow in size and complexity, understanding how to manage and lead people becomes even more important.

Farm owners and managers will not only need the skills for daily technical aspects of the business, but financial, risk and people/employment skills will be an even higher priority.

In addition to knowledge and capabilities, the behaviour and mindset of farm owners managers are crucial to thrive in a dynamic environment. Resilience, adaptability, data analysis, problem solving, innovative and strategic thinking are just a few of capabilities leaders on dairy farms require now and in the future.

Employing people

Dairy Australia provides support to farmers employing people in their business by developing and enabling access to resources for recruitment, managing staff and creating awareness of legal requirements through tools such as The People in Dairy website.

Managing people during challenging times

Managing a farm team effectively is critical to the success of a farm business and is particularly important during challenging seasons or circumstances.

Employment Policy

Dairy Australia provides insights and support to Australian Dairy Farmers and the Australian Dairy Products Federation to engage government in key policy areas that assist with attracting and retaining people to the industry and building skills.

Policy support includes the Dairy Industry Labour Agreement, changes to skilled migration occupation visa lists, and Designated Area Migration Agreements.

Case study: Employment and training resources crucial to building a team

Since making the leap into dairy farming, Luke Randle has not looked back.

The 24 year-old, who came into the industry via a high school work experience opportunity, says he is enjoying the challenge of managing a young team and was accessing Dairy Australia resources to build his operational and management skills.

“I lived in town growing up and was always interested in farming, but I didn’t think I would get to a position like I’m in now,” Luke says.

“I started working on a farm as part of work experience in year 12 and really enjoyed it. I was offered a job at the end of it and it’s all gone from there.”

Luke manages a team of six people, four full-time and two part-time, on the irrigated 650-cow dairy farm.

Over the past few years he has focused on building his skills through learning opportunities with GippsDairy.

“I hadn’t gone to university for formal education, so I looked for opportunities and I owe a lot to GippsDairy," Luke says.

"I’ve done just about every course they’ve run, and I encourage my team to as well.”

As a manager, Luke says Dairy Australia’s People in Dairy website was particularly useful to access employment resources like the Employment Starter Kit (ESKi) — a program he had also completed training in.

The ESKi contains the documents and information farmers need to start employing and managing people, such as a written position description, induction checklist, and employment contract that sets out employee duties, responsibilities and tasks.

“I’m on the People in Dairy website just about every week," Luke says.

"It’s a great resource – whether you are looking at keeping up with pay rates or employment regulations, it’s very useful."

Luke says everyone in his team is given the opportunity to take on additional training, with a Cups On Cups Off course being the one pre-requisite for prospective employees.

“The way we look at it is that we want to build people up," he says.

"We may lose some of these people from our business, but it’s about helping them become better people with more skills and go on to bigger things.”

Luke says he runs a roster where people have every second weekend off, creating flexibility for employees.

Daily communication and staff contact are important, with more formal meetings kept to a minimum and a Facebook Messenger group chat used for keeping the team up-to-date with daily operations.

Luke says his unique start in the dairy industry has made him open-minded about who is employed on the farm. All of the current employees do not come from dairy backgrounds and only one is older than him.

“For me, it’s all about how someone will fit into the team, not their age or if they’ve grown up in the industry. It’s about getting on and working as a team to get the job done.”

Templates to assist in managing staff