Tom Wall, also known as The Dairy Coach, recently joined Chip Flory, host of AgriTalk at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wis., to share his invaluable tips on efficiently running a dairy farm with employees. With an impressive 24 years of experience, Wall has been helping dairies optimize their employee management plans.
“It’s all about getting employees engaged so they stick around,” he says. Wall emphasizes that the key lies in owners and managers developing soft skills. “It all boils down to communication, connection and clarification,” he notes.
Clear Expectations: The Foundation of Successful Management
“It really starts with just having clear expectations, so everybody knows what to do,” Wall explains. “Once they know what to do, everybody’s on the same page, and we can actually get results.”
The life-long dairy coach highlights that owners often need coaching to put emotions aside, stressing, “The fact is that many didn’t get into dairy farming to be employee managers or bosses. They got into it for the love of livestock, tractors, and all the things they signed up for.”
Wall assures that employee management is a learnable skill.
“The more we practice, the better we get. The more we make mistakes, the more we learn. Every day is another classroom opportunity,” he says.
Overcoming the Hurdle of Clarification
According to Wall, the biggest hurdle when it comes to managing employees is clarification. He points out, “We’ve got systems for everything, whether it’s reproduction or herd health. We’ve got systems for literally everything.” Wall continues, lamenting that “with employees, we just wing it. We hire people with no plan, get them started with no plan, and take them through their entire employment path with no plan. The fact that we don’t have systems for one of the hardest jobs on the farm is the biggest hump.”
Implementing Systems for Employee Management
Wall’s message is clear: Dairy farms need structured systems for managing employees, just as they have for other farm operations. Developing these systems involves clear communication, set expectations, and continuous learning and improvement.
Wall underscored that efficient employee management on dairy farms is both critical and achievable. By developing clear expectations, embracing the role of a manager, and overcoming the hurdle of clarification with well-defined systems, dairy farm owners and managers can ensure their employees are engaged and effective, leading to better overall farm productivity.
To listen to the entire conversation between Wall and Flory on AgriTalk about labor retention, go to AgriTalk-10-1-24-Tom Wall - AgriTalk - Omny.fm.
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