Hort/Ag Ed S 465A

Horticulture Enterprise Management

February 12, 2014

Identifies the HR needs of a business, sector,

community, region or country

Develop a plan and strategy for addressing such needs

As important as planning to purchase new equipment, prepare marketing strategies, and developing operational plans

HR Process

Pitfalls of lack of HR

Hire the wrong person (65%)

Have unmotivated, disengaged staff

Employ people who are not properly qualified

Having to pass responsibilities to other employees (45%)

Having to function with fewer employees (40%)

Having to use overtime/longer shifts (35%)

Why Plan for HR?

Assess future recruitment

needs

Anticipate and avoid staff redundancies

Facilitate, develop, or access key training programs

Minimize staffing costs while maintaining competitive levels of compensation

Asses future premises of industry requirements

Understand and Plan Your HR

Develop your business plan

Identify your HR

requirements

Identify your existing HR

Identify gaps between

existing and required HR

Steps of HR Planning

HR Physical Resources

Buildings

Tillable land

Water

Equipment

Physical Resources

HR Labor Resources

Begin with the bottom line How many employees will your business need and

what will it cost you?

Questions to consider… How can your business’ human resource need be best

met?

Will it be best for your business to have employees or should you operate with contract workers?

Do you need full-time or part-time staff?

Writing the HR Section

Outline and describe stakeholders involved

Organizations

Ex: Horticulture Research Station, ISU Research Farms

Faculty/Staff

Titles, Skills/Experience/ and Support

Writing the HR Section

Outline and Describe the Managerial Structure Class (Board of Directors), farm superintendent, instructor(s)

Outline your staffing requirements Seasonal needs Location specific?

Hrs/week Crop and location specific

Watermelon (Tunnel and Field) Tomato Determinate and Indeterminate

Greens Lettuce, Pac Choi, Tat soi

Cabbage Thyme

Writing the HR Section

What skills are needed and hr/week of those skills

Wage of each laborer Pesticide Applicator

Experienced personnel?

$25/hour

Or Seasonal employees?

$10/hour

Total cost for all employees

Percentage of experienced personnel required?

10%?; 20%?...etc.

Cost of employee benefits

If giving away produce…calculate % loss to market

Labor costs

Risks are inevitable and organizations have a moral

and legal obligation to identify the risk and attend to the safety and well-being of those they serve with their operations.

Look at all the risks throughout their entire operation and incorporate risk management into all planning and decision-making.

HR Risks and Challenges

HR Activity Potential Risk Potential considerations

Compensation and benefits

•Financial abuse •Who has signing authority? •How many signatures are required? •Are there checks and balances?

Hiring •Discriminatory practices •Hiring unsuitable or unsafe candidates •"Wrongful" hiring

•Was a complete screening completed on potential applicants? •Were provincial human rights laws observed? •Is there a set probationary period? •Were promises made to the candidate that cannot be honored? •Did the employee sign off on the policies and contract of employment before being hired?

Occupational Health and Safety

•Environmental •Personal injury or death

•Do we provide safe working conditions and do we conduct safety checks regularly? •Do we provide adequate training for staff? •Do we ensure the use of appropriate clothing and safety equipment? •Do we have adequate policies, procedures, and committee in place?

Employee supervision •Abuse •Reputation in the community •Release of personal information

•Do we provide sufficient orientation and training? •Do we provide adequate supervision (especially for activities that occur off-site or after hours)? •Do we have a performance management system in place? •Are personal information protection guidelines followed?

Employee conduct •Abuse •Reputation in the community

•Do we have clearly written position descriptions for all positions? •Do we follow up when the parameters of the job description are not respected? •Do we provide thorough orientation and training? •Do we provide an employee handbook? •Do we have comprehensive policies and procedures? •Do we provide ongoing training about our policies and procedures? •Do we retain written records of performance issues? •Do we ensure that organizational valuables are secure? •Do we have cash management procedures? •Do we have adequate harassment policies and procedures?

Exiting employee •Property •Reputation in the community •Compensation

•Do we retrieve organizational information and equipment that a dismissed employee used (especially from home)? •Do we ensure that all access codes, passwords, etc are de-activated? •Do we conduct an exit interview? •Do we record lieu time and vacation balances?

HR Risks and Challenges

Risk management is a continuous activity. Having a risk management process means that your

organization knows and understands the risks to which you are exposed.

Good practice to keep current and re-evaluate your organization's risk management system on an annual basis.

At a very basic level, risk management focuses you on two fundamental questions: What can go wrong?

What will we do to prevent the harm/minimize the risk from occurring in the first place?

HR Risk Management Process

Every activity in a organization poses a risk. Ask yourself, “What can go wrong?” Consider both the general risks (that could happen to any

organization) and the risks specific to your organization.

Risks can be: Managerial (Seasonal) Personal injury Medical Environmental Property Financial Reputation Abuse that is either one-time or ongoing (physical, emotional,

psychosocial, sexual, financial)

Identify the Risks

Assess the risks If you have done a thorough job of

identifying risks, you may end up with a long (and overwhelming) list.

The next step is to evaluate each of the risks based on the (1) likelihood or frequency of the risk occurring and (2) the severity of the consequences.

Using a risk map to plot the likelihood of occurrence and the severity of the consequences will help you prioritize your next steps. http://www.ibc.ca/en/Business_Insura

nce/documents/Process-Map-Example.pdf

Asses the Risks

Develop strategies for managing risks

Consider the most appropriate risk management strategies for each identified risk: Avoidance - Stop providing the service or doing the activity

because it is too risky.

Acceptance - Some risky activities are central to the mission of an organization and an organization will choose to accept the risks.

Modification - Change the activity to reduce the likelihood of the risk occurring or reduce the severity of the consequences.

Transfer or sharing - Purchase insurance or transfer the risk to another organization through signing a contractual agreement with other organizations to share the risk.

Risk Strategies

Implement When you have decided which risk management strategies will be the

most effective and affordable for your organization, practically outline the steps and who is responsible for each step in the risk management plan.

Communicate the plan and ensure that there is buy-in from all who are involved in the organization (staff, volunteers, clients, other relevant stakeholders).

Provide training for all organizational staff and volunteers so they understand the rationale of the risk management plan as well as the expectations, procedures, forms, etc.

Monitor Is your plan working? Have your risks changed? Have you expanded or reduced your programs and services? Are changes or updates required? Are staff and volunteers following the risk management plan? Do we need to better communicate the plan?

Risk Management