Introduction

Introduction: 

Finding and keeping farm workers is a major challenge for farmers. According to data  from the Farm Labor Survey (FLS) of USDA's National Agricultural Statistical Service  (NASS), the number of self-employed and family farmworkers declined from 7.60 million  in 1950 to 2.01 million in 1990, a 74-percent reduction. Over this same period, average  annual employment of hired farmworkers—including on-farm support personnel and  those who work for farm labor contractors—declined from 2.33 million to 1.15 million, a  51-percent reduction. As a result, the proportion of hired workers has increased over  time (ERS).  

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Because finding and keeping employees has been a challenge for farm operators for  some time finding new approaches are needed. Identifying strategies to recruit and  keep employees starts with creating a personnel recruitment and management plan. 

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The goal of this guide is to provide clear information regarding recruiting, keeping and  terminating employees that are legally sound, as well as simple, clear and actionable.  

We wanted to make this a useful tool so for each section there is information to consider  and action step questions to help you move forward in hiring and keeping good  employees. We hope that this helps to simplify and focus your processes to improve  your business. 

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Reference: 

USDA Economic Research Service. Farm Labor. Found: https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm economy/farm-labor

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Link to Section Pages:​

1. ​To Hire or Not to Hire, That is the Que​​

2. Writing a Job Description

3. Offering Benefits to Retain Employees

4. Health Insurance as a Benefit

5. Retirement Savings Plans as a Benefit

6. The Interview Process

7. Checking References Provided by Candidate

8. Employee Resources

9. Periodic/Annual Review of Personnel

10. Terminating Employees 

11. Keeping Records

This material is based upon work supported by USDA/NIFA under Award Number 2021‐70027‐34693, and is funded by the NE Risk Management Education Center.