Murray is involved in a family farm near Wainwright, Alta., and is chair of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council’s board of directors.
Recent news coverage about the H1N1 flu and migrant farm workers from Mexico exposed more than just the labour shortage that primary agriculture sector is facing.
It also revealed the hard sad truth about how Canadians perceive our sector and our workforce, as well as our inability to attract young Canadians to the sector.
Reader comments like “no Canadian would want to do that job” abounded on the websites of major news outlets, portraying agriculture as an industry that does not necessarily offer great potential as a viable career choice.
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Kochia has become a significant problem for Prairie farmers
As you travel through southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, particularly in areas challenged by dry growing conditions, the magnitude of the kochia problem is easy to see.
Not surprisingly, the image of toiling away for low wages, no benefits, no pension and no prospects for advancements doesn’t appeal to today’s youth. As an industry veteran, I know that image isn’t accurate.
I’ve had a wonderful career and would choose it again, even though agriculture has changed drastically since I started. And for the better.
Thanks to new technologies, changing consumer demands, an aging workforce, urbanization as well as environmental and health and safety regulations, today’s farmers face very different employment issues than they did in the past.
Yet, for the most part, our approach to human resource management has not kept pace.
Until now, our approach has been largely reactive. When there is work to be done, hires are made, and once the harvest is over, everyone says goodbye and goes home.
This leaves little room for developing the skills and increasing the productivity of our workforce. And, it isn’t exactly conducive to employee loyalty.
It can’t be denied that seasonal and temporary workers are an integral part of our industry. But, to address modern day issues, we need more skilled and educated workers with a broad understanding of the industry and the challenges it faces.
To attract and keep the right people, we need to focus on changing our image and take a leadership approach to human resource management.
People are the key to any successful farming operation, and many have already implemented fresh strategies to attract, keep and develop their workforce.
What we need now is to step up the dialogue on human resource management issues in primary agriculture, share best practices and develop tools that will help make this industry grow beyond the status quo.
The first step will be to put an end to the “pity us, we’re farmers” campaign.
Farm life should not be viewed as a hardship. Yes, it’s hard work, but primary agriculture is also a multibillion-dollar industry that offers endless possibilities.
We need to focus on the positive and communicate our many successes.
We’ll know we’ve succeeded when media coverage no longer focuses solely on how farmers are affected by world events and natural disasters, but rather on how skillfully they dealt with them.
