Labor management

J.E. Umphrey, Udder Care Product Manager, ABS Global; and D.R. Bray, Dairy Extension Agent, University of Florida; D.W. Webb, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida

Management is defined as the use of people and other resources to accomplish objectives. Management by necessity involves the creation of an environment in which people can use other resources to reach stated goals of the organization.

It also involves the implementation of the functions of management:

•planning

•organizing

•leading

•controlling

Management is a pervasive aspect of the operation of all organizations. Labor management can be specifically defined as the planning, organizing and directing of the operative functions of personnel.

The purpose of the labor management program on a dairy farm, or in any business, is to get jobs done right and on time. When most dairy farms were one-person or small, family operations, and for those that still are, labor management problems are usually minimal because management and labor responsibilities are performed by the same person or within the same family.

As herd size increases, more time is needed for management and less time is available to milk, feed, haul manure and perform other routine tasks. Increasing amounts of the daily work are performed by hired personnel, and the importance of a labor management program increases. The continued success of the operation depends not only on the dairy manager’s ability to manage land, capital and cows but also on the ability to get the job done well through others. Many dairy managers who, through hard work and good cowmanship, have developed successful family-size dairy operations, failed when they expanded to larger operations. For many, a major reason for failure was inability to get the job done as well through others as they could do themselves.

Labor management increases in importance as herd size, level of production and degree of mechanization increases. More cows will mean an increased number of hired personnel. This creates more opportunity for disagreement or friction between employees. Higher production will increase the susceptibility of cows to a variety of problems and requires more precise feeding and milking to avoid a high incidence of problems. Increased mechanization increases the number of cows per person and tends to decrease individual cow observation and care.

To be a successful manager of any dairy operation large enough to require labor in addition to his or her own, a dairy owner must learn how to get the job done right and on time through others, to manage people as well as cows, land, capital, etc. This involves proper planning of labor needs, hiring the needed personnel and training them to do their jobs correctly and efficiently. In addition, a good manager will concentrate on motivating employees, providing them with relatively safe and healthy working conditions and maintaining good employer-employee relations. Many of the principles involved in these functions of personnel management apply to family as well as nonfamily labor, and many dairy farmers would do well to heed them in regard to their children who help on the dairy farm.

Wage incentive plans
There is an increased interest in implementing wage incentive plans, but because each dairy has its own set of conditions, it is difficult to make blanket recommendations for designing a plan. Incentive plans should be designed to enhance or improve productivity. Many plans get started because there is a big problem area on the dairy, and a bonus is one way to correct this area. Once the problem is corrected, the plan has to be modified.

Incentive plans can be designed for problem areas, to increase production or for a variety of reasons. Payments may be received weekly, monthly or in some cases annually. If employees know that if the job is done correctly they will get a bonus, they are likely to police themselves because a few bad oranges can spoil the plan for everyone.

Ideas for designing an incentive plan

•Incentives should be above and beyond a good salary, not a substitute for wages. They should range from 5 to 100 percent of base salary.

•The bonus should be large enough to make it worthwhile for the employee to want to participate.

•The plan should be based on performance in the control of the employee and attainable in a definite time period.

•Means for determining the bonus should be simple and understood by both the employee and employer.

•One-time bonus plans such as year-end bonuses usually don’t work. Employees may change jobs after the bonus payment.

•Method of payment and how often payment is to be made should be stated in advance.

•The measurement of performance should be made by objective criteria.

•The plan should be stated in writing to avoid any misunderstanding. It should include the purpose of the plan, what the employee’s responsibility is, methods used to calculate the bonus, how and when payments are to be made, duration of the agreement and provisions for arbitration.

•Each area should have a separate plan. Milkers who are doing an excellent job may feel slighted if they have no bonus plan when the heat detectors and breeders are doing a poor job and they get what is perceived as more money due to a bonus plan.

•The plan should not encourage practices unprofitable to the dairy. You should have control over practices that could increase costs over returns. Breeding every nonpregnant cow every day of the month may get more cows bred but won’t increase your profits. Major management decisions must remain in your hands.

•Incentive plans should be designed for a specific period of time and contain provisions for annual revision or update.

•Incentive plans can include either supervisors or workers or both.

•A safety bonus for injury-free quarters or periods of time is a good idea even on dairies with no other plans.

Example of a bonus for milk quality

•$50 bonus per month if bacteria counts are below a 10,000 average

•$25-per-week bonus for keeping somatic cell count below 250,000

•$20-per-week bonus for keeping somatic cell count below 300,000

•$15-per-week bonus for keeping somatic cell count below 350,000

•All above bonuses are paid only if less than 3 percent of the herd is in the sick cow string

Example of bonus for increased reproductive performance

•$0.50 for every cow or heifer detected in heat and properly recorded, whether or not the animal is eligible for breeding

•$0.50 bonus for each cow bred

•$10 for every cow confirmed pregnant at 100 days post-calving

•$5 bonus for every cow confirmed pregnant 100 to 120 days post-calving

•Depending on when you wish your heifers to calve (24 months, for example), a $10 bonus for each heifer pregnant in time to calve at 24 months and a sliding scale for every month past this

•To change the calving interval, you can pay a bonus of $500 per year for every 0.1 point reduction in calving interval between where you are and where you wish to be.

Steps to implement a bonus plan
To be effective, you must make sure your employees are properly trained and know what is expected of them. This type of program won’t work with untrainable or incompetent help.

•Determine your problem areas.

•Set realistic goals for each and discuss these goals with your employees. Both parties should agree on the goals and that they can be attained.

•Make sure a bonus plan is the best way to solve your problem or reach your goals. Employees should be well trained before you start a bonus plan. Every employee should have realistic goals for his job description and should be evaluated on reaching his goals at his annual review. The problem could be that the employee doesn’t know what is expected of him and could accomplish what you want by knowing goals.

•Give increased pay for increased performance. Make sure the employee can see the link that what they are doing will increase their pay.

•Make sure the problem can be solved by that employee. If the cause of reproductive problems is poor nutrition or some employee is pulling every calf at 8 p.m. so he can sleep all night, thus tearing up the cows, the man doing the breeding doesn’t stand a chance of getting a bonus and you can’t improve what you hope to.

•Anticipate loopholes. Breeding every cow every day may get more cows bred, but it won’t solve your problem.

•Determine if you want an individual or group plan. Group plans work best if it is difficult to separate contributions of individuals or if you want to foster group cohesiveness.

•Anticipate changes in the dairy and technology. Changes in herd size may affect performance; the use of drugs to synchronize heats could change reproductive performance; bST will change milk production, as will changing to 3X milking. Take these changes into consideration.

•Give employees feedback and review the program often. This keeps up the interest and should build confidence in attaining your joint goals.

•You may wish to try an experimental program first. If things don’t work out as expected, both parties know they can cancel the agreement.

Employee retention
Why is it important to keep good employees? The obvious answers are:

1. reduced problems on the farm, therefore, a smoother running operation

2. reduction in the amount of time and money spent training new employees

3. good employees lead to a more profitable operation

Instead of constantly looking for that perfect employee, why not work a little harder to make good employees? Why not work a little harder to maintain and nurture the employees you have? Many personnel managers would do well to treat people as if they were what they ought to be and help them to become what they are capable of being. The following is a list of problem areas commonly found on operations experiencing labor problems.

Respect
You as the employer must develop and maintain a mutual respect with employees. Simply follow the Golden Rule [treat others as you would like to be treated]. Most employees start on a job with respect for their employer, but it’s what happens after hiring that can cause severe problems. The role and importance of both good management and good employees must be realized by all. You can maintain the respect of an employee by being honest and fair with them. Good employers will work hard to develop a team spirit among employees.

Some employers have indicated group meetings to discuss plans, goals and objectives with employees are a big part of keeping good employees. Business meetings are good for making employees feel like part of the team. Social activities such as a Fourth of July picnic also are helpful in making employees feel good about their work.

Written job descriptions
Many problems that occur between employer and employee are simply caused by a misunderstanding of expected performance. A valuable tool to solve this problem is the written job description.

The job description is a written statement describing the objectives of the position, the work to be performed, the skills needed, the responsibilities involved, the relationship of the job to other positions and its working conditions (hours of work). A good job description will also include the job title, salary and who the immediate supervisor is. The job description should be utilized in hiring a new employee, in orientation and training and in the appraisal process.

Job training
It would be rare to find a person who does not want to do a good job. The lack of proper training is often a problem on dairy operations. Some job training programs may only need to be four to six weeks long while others may need to be a year in length. The extra time spent with a new employee at the beginning of a relationship will usually pay off in the long run. A periodic update or training program also can be of tremendous value.

Employee suggestions
You as a manager should encourage suggestions from your employees. Who is better able to evaluate problems and see a solution than the one who works with it closely every day? While not every suggestion will be valid, many of them will be. If a suggestion is made that is not a true solution or would decrease the profitability of the operation, a proper explanation should be given to the employee. Also, if a good suggestion is made, give proper credit to the employee.

Compliment your employee
This can be a short road to success and failure. A hard, fast rule for dealing with employees is “praise in public and criticize in private.” Everyone likes to be told they are doing a good job, especially when their peers are present. Equally important is to constructively criticize in private by offering suggestions for improving performance. Constructive criticism also should be a part of the annual performance evaluation meeting.

Advancement
For employees to remain happy, there must be some opportunity for advancement. Advancement in position may be difficult on small operations, but there are other ways to allow for employee growth. Such things as training in A.I., herd health and mastitis or attendance at herdsman shortcourses or part-time college classes are ways an employee can grow and contribute to the success of the overall operation.

Communication
Good employee relations, as well as any relationship, are dependent on the ability and willingness of people to communicate. Good people managers have an “open-door policy” that will allow an employee to discuss problems and suggestions at any time.

There is more to good effective communication than having an open-door policy. Major roadblocks to effective communication include poor timing, inadequate information, inappropriate channel, noise, selective perception, premature evaluation, emotions and beliefs.

The manager must know when to communicate. If an employee fails to take action, it may be because the manager assumed the employee knew when or how to do a job. A milking crew supervisor, for instance, might assume a milker would know how to treat a mastitic cow. Yet a milker might not do this without specific instructions if, for instance, the cow was a chronic case.

This case may be reversed. An employee may find a mastitic cow and proceed to treat her even though management has decided to cull her tomorrow. The selection of an appropriate channel or method of communication is very important.

In general, written communication is better for details and when accuracy is needed. For example, a parts number and model of the broken equipment you need from town should be written down, while the name of the parts store that has the part could be effectively communicated orally.

Another problem with the communication channel is noise. Noise refers to any situation that interferes with or distorts the message being communicated. This could be physical noise, as when a roaring tractor engine drowns out the supervisor’s oral instructions, or it could be noise in a more general sense, as when a manager tries to communicate with two people with different problems while on the phone with a third. This is called communication channel overload. In such a case, the manager is lucky if one person of the three understood adequately what he wanted done.

Selective perception deals with how people respond to a message. It is based on past experience, emotion and belief. This can also lead to premature evaluation. Suppose the manager said something like this to a milking supervisor: “John, you are the hardest working and most conscientious supervisor I have. I need you to take over the hospital group.” Do you think John had already decided to perform the task to the best of his ability before he knew what it was? What do you suppose John would have thought if he was told, “John, we are having a major problem with the people working in the hospital group. Would you take over supervision of that group?” John might have said, “Yes,” but he would probably feel somewhat uncomfortable about it.

Be selective in hiring
When hiring new personnel, try to hire the person who will fit into the group of employees you have. Try to find someone with skills that will complement those of current employees and fill any void you may have in your operation. Current valued employees might suggest potential employees. Other dairymen in your area may be a valuable source of information.

Benefits
There are numerous ways employers can provide benefits that will mean extra available income for an employee. Benefits and bonuses should be just that and not something given to make up for poor salaries. Make sure these benefits are truly benefits and not burdens or sources of potential problems.

If housing is provided, make sure it is decent housing. Poor housing can cause problems within a family and will translate into problems for you as employees become dissatisfied. If a bull calf is provided as beef, provide feed and common medical supplies as well. Raising a calf can be more costly than people realize.

In closing, remember employees are people with values, desires and needs like everyone. You can control whether you have good employees or mediocre ones. You as a manager of people must ask, “Would I want to work for myself?” Then try to imagine a successful and profitable operation with unhappy employees.

Good herdsmanship
Herdsmanship, or cowmanship, may be defined as interest in and concern for cattle, having awareness or perception – that is, seeing, hearing and sensing when an animal is normal or abnormal and taking prompt action to correct abnormal conditions. Cowmanship, or the lack of it, can determine the profitability of a dairy herd of any size. Having one or more cowpersons (people with livestock sense) working with the cattle and caring for the animals is essential to successful dairying.

The dairy cow is a marvelous creature, a highly specialized and complex biological system capable of growing, reproducing and efficiently manufacturing large quantities of milk. She is also susceptible to many diseases and abnormal conditions that can prevent normal growth, reproduction, synthesis and letdown of milk and that can cause her premature death.

People largely determine whether she will be healthy and productive or unhealthy and unproductive for, in spite of all her marvelous qualities, she is a mute animal. She is dependent on people to perceive:

•whether she is normal or abnormal and what the abnormality is

•whether she is well or ill, and what illness is present

•whether she is contented or discontented, and what is causing the discontentment

•whether she is in heat

Some people can readily detect or even anticipate abnormal or unusual conditions and are interested enough to take prompt, meaningful action. These people are good cowpersons. Others cannot perceive abnormal or unusual conditions until the animal is so abnormal or the condition is so serious that performance is likely to be permanently impaired or even until death is imminent.

Symptoms of poor cowmanship
A number of symptoms typically are associated with herds handled by people who lack cowmanship. These include:

•calf and heifer problems or calf mortality above 5 percent

•unthrifty appearance

•low voluntary and high involuntary cull rates (under 10 percent and above 15 percent, respectively)

•low reproductive efficiency (e.g., calving interval above 13.5 months)

•periodic high incidence of various diseases such as mastitis, foot rot, metritis

•periodic milk-quality problems

•wide fluctuations in daily production

•nervous cows

•low production

Characteristics of herds that indicate the presence of cowmanship are the opposite of these symptoms. The cattle are healthy and contented. They produce large quantities of a high-quality product and reproduce regularly. They are profitable operations, and those associated with these herds are optimistic about dairying and enthusiastic about their profession.

Good cowpersons realize their importance to the cattle, as well as the importance of cattle to them. Good cowpersons are aware that success is dependent on their high performance and that their high performance is dependent on their ability to exhibit characteristics that identify cowmanship ability.

Characteristics of a good cowperson

•moves quietly and easily when near cattle, avoiding sudden rapid movement and loud talking or other noises

•observant of cows, their condition, swollen quarters, abnormal feces and discharges

•visits cow lots several times a day (including at night) to check on cattle welfare, feed consumption, cows not milked, etc.

•takes prompt, meaningful action when unusual conditions exist rather than waiting for a convenient time, treating a sick cow, giving aid at calving, etc.

•knows the cows – calving dates, production, source, history, etc.

These characteristics indicate interest, awareness and ability to take proper corrective action. Combined, they indicate cowmanship ability, an essential ingredient in maintaining a profitable herd of any size.

Some people like machinery. Others are comfortable with computers. Some do well with people. A very important aspect of labor management is getting the right person with the right job. Good cowpersons are needed to take care of dairy cows. PD

—From University of Florida Extension website