Staffing shortages | Flexible arrangements will help attract workers
Agricultural workplaces need to be flexible and inclusive if they want to attract today’s Canadian worker, says a human resources expert.
This includes offering part-time work and work from home.
If they don’t, said Leslie Stanier of Cargill AgHorizons, they will have trouble attracting and keeping workers.
As well, if they don’t seem welcoming and accepting to non-white and minority people, they will be cutting themselves off from a larger part of the Canadian workforce.
Stanier said being short-staffed can become a chronic problem with the present labour shortage in Western Canada.
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“Are we taking advantage of … the change in the demographics?” she told the Canada Grains Council annual meeting.
“Are we thinking beyond the traditional white male aggie?”
Stanier, who worked in the health-care industry before joining the grain business, said companies need to appear attractive to today’s workers, who are different from their counterparts of just a couple decades ago.
Flexible work arrangements are a key concern for potential workers, particularly with the increasing number of women in the workforce.
“Is the agriculture industry willing to accept a mother coming back from maternity leave on a part-time basis?” said Stanier.
Older workers also have needs that must be addressed.
“Are we willing to accept an individual who is maybe approaching retirement who maybe wants to go south for two or three months in the winter?” Stanier said.
As well, many workers are less keen about making the daily commute to an outside office than they were in the past.
“Are we willing to let people work from home? Having those flexible arrangements is critical,” she said.
Agricultural workplaces also need to make themselves attractive to Canada’s growing minority populations, which Stanier said means more than just not being nasty to them.
“Do we respect people for what they bring to the table? Do we respect them for the differences they bring?” she said.
“You’ve got to create that inclusive environment.”
She said workers won’t stay if they find the workplace uncomfortable.
“We can recruit a diverse workforce all we want,” she said.
“There’s people out there, but if you don’t create that inclusive environment, you’re going to get the revolving door.”
She said many people have biases, either consciously and unconsciously, and employers need to think about the nature of their workplace to see if it would seem OK through the eyes of new workers.
Preparing the workplace, and everyone who comes into contact with it, to be inclusive helps avoid unpleasant situations developing. Sometimes it can be customers who bring in unfriendly attitudes.
She said one Cargill employee, an Ecuadorean working at a grain elevator, found that a customer wouldn’t deal with them.
“One of our farm customers commented that they didn’t want a Mexican grading their grain,” said Stanier.
“That’s the kind of thing that adds a lot of stress and unpleasantness to the day of a minority worker and makes them less likely to want to stick with the job. What can we do to educate everybody in our industry on the importance of an inclusive environment and how everybody should be respected for who they are?”
