According to the AgCareers.com Agriculture & Food HR Review, competing for talent is the most concerning human resource matter for agriculture and food employers, followed by recruiting difficulties. Benefits and compensation packages are some of the top ways these employers are competing for talent and retaining staff.
To support the agricultural and food industries in developing stronger benefit and incentive packages for their organization, AgCareers.com surveyed over 1,800 candidates and employees of agriculture and food employers in 2022. The AgCareers.com Candidate & Employee Benefits Survey Results illustrate the critical aspects of pay and flexibility in the workplace.
Flexibility
Employees want challenging and meaningful work, plus professional development, and continuous learning opportunities. But when the survey inquired which employer perk was the most important, flexibility took the top spot, including flexible working hours, job sharing and a compressed workweek. Employees were also looking for telework benefits—working from home or outside the office. Examining employer perks by demographics, flexibility and remote work was most imperative for professionals with 21 to 25 years of experience. Flexibility and remote work were significantly more important to female than male respondents.
Increased flexibility was also one of the top five reasons respondents said they would leave their current job for a new opportunity—flexibility was even higher than company culture. It’s recognized that a good deal of agriculture and food production jobs are strictly on site. Examining other ways to offer flexibility in scheduling presents a challenge, but also a way for those employers to compete for talent using flexible working hours, job sharing, or a compressed workweek.
Compensation
Pay really matters to today’s employee and job seeker; higher compensation was the top motivator for employees to leave their current job for another opportunity. Looking at employee level, salary was of lesser importance to senior executives and most important to part-time employees, temp/contract/seasonal workers, and hourly staff.
The benefits survey asked candidates what made them choose an employer, and employees what made them stay at a particular employer. Results also reiterated candidates’ and employees’ focus on money when asked about the factors influencing their choice in an employer. The salary or compensation package was the top factor, followed by location and benefits when selecting their employer of choice.
In this current competitive labor market, employers need to highlight what is top-of-mind to candidates, and in 2023, that is pay and flexibility. Employers can see how their pay measures up with a salary benchmarking tool like the AgCareers.com Compensation Benchmark Review salary survey.
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