The third text message goes unanswered from our best breeder and the promising new team member just left for a gas station … beat us by a whole dollar as well as a flexible schedule. Forty eight hours ago we were full staffed for a week. 

The worst part … Your manager of nine years has seen this several times and with a young child at home now the early mornings and the later evenings are getting harder. 

And for the farm? Budgeted for 10 but we aren't really sure how long its been since we had a full team for more than a month. 

In many cases this is the reality we have had for the last few years on a sow farm. The common response? Repeat the process that led us there. Open up the roles on Indeed with the same starting wage. 

So how do we break this damaging cycle? There is not one magic wand or employee engagement rollout that can solve it but here are three critical mistakes you may be doing, but with the best of intentions. 

Marathon onboarding
"We need to improve training and provide what life will look like in 10 or 20 years!" "The manager needs to complete these forms, scan and email them back over the first four weeks." (The packet is big enough to kill the rat in gestasion we have spent over $800 trying to exterminate … we call him "cockroach.")

It's a fact we need to spend a valuable amount of time onboarding the employee and providing a glimpse into what could be down road but leave it at the level of value they are ready for. We wouldn't be talking about marriage on the third date so let's not rush to think our new team member is looking for that either. 

"But I thought a good onboarding was what was missing?" Yes, but think value. More packets doesn't always mean better. 

Focus on learning who they are as a person, train them on how to be safe in the farm, and getting very good at two to three tasks that are the highest priority. 

Check off Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs:

Ask yourself "what is easiest way we can provide these for our team?" It still needs to achieve the result, but don't overdue it just to be flashy. 

As far as the packet I mentioned. The easier you make the administrative task on a manager or any team member you will not only get the information back quicker but you can save thousands of dollars in lost labor due to inefficient administrative tasks for your HR department, farm manager, trainer and new team member.

Letting valuable team members go over $0.50
Margins are difficult in the swine industry and sometimes it is difficult to evaluate the impact of the team member or if you should chase the wage or not. But before you let them go because they are leaving for $0.50 or $1 more, write it out. 

If this team member is a high risk employee and has negative implications on the team you may let them go or you may want to consider extending their wage.

Making a dollar or two increase on good or great talent may end up saving you thousands of dollars down the road. Review your farm by farm labor costs, turnover from team members leaving for a higher wage and current performance. You may need to find a new sustainable labor budget for the farm pending the severity of your current strain. 

Repeating a failed strategy 
If you continue to replace parts on a vehicle or try a certain recipe that works 30% of the time (summarizing retention data) would you continue to do the same thing or look into different options? Do we need this part? What about this ingredient? 

By no means am I recommending the dismissal of team members, this is for the teams that struggle to maintain their staff required for their current strategy. For example, if you are budgeted for 10 but have consistently ran the farm with seven to eight, begin building your strategy around eight people. 

You may look at taking the $15,000 - $25,000 in lost labor investment (directly and indirectly) from the turned over roles and begin building efficiencies into the building, a service or increased development in your team. 

Begin asking how your team currently operates when it is low on staff and what are the most demanding tasks for time, effort, and skill level. Identify where you can reduce wasted time or effort when that team member (skilled labor) can be better utilized somewhere else in our workflow. Focus on your Return on Talent (ROT) not just the cost. 

If the farm seems to consistently operate at eight out of 10 budgeted for example, build your new strategy around eight. Bring in experts that provide different solutions and ask other producers what they have found beneficial recently. The answers are there and in some cases the risk of not doing it is more than it is to do it. 

Before you go back to the labor vacuum, remember to look at these three areas first.

If you are battling team member engagement, onboarding or how to look at the return on talent, please reach out via email.

Source: Barrett Eller, who is solely responsible for the information provided, and wholly owns the information. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.