More money isn't always the answer - so how do you attract staff to work for you

[kiwi pom]

Anyway back on topic. This threads quite relevant to me as looking for someone else to help us at the moment.

Decent accommodation and electric, central heating and council tax paid would be other incentive to retain and attract good staff?

Amount of times I hear a staff member is leaving somewhere because house isn't up to scratch.

Decent accommodation, decent wage and hopefully you can find someone you can get along with, that's about all you can do really.
Its hard to pin it down any more than that because everyone and every situation is different.
The big thing to remember is, its just a job to an employee, even if they enjoy it, they're still working to someone else's orders. Young folk are after the experience before moving on, older people have more priorities and commitments than just work. As the farmer its something you're doing because you want to and have built your life around it. Employers and employees have very different viewpoints.

 

[Will 1594]

Must of been Triggers, like his broom

No to be fair same engine and box , had steering box , but every thing else not been touched , td5 ,she smakes a bit when cold ,by end of lane the fog clears

 

[snarling bee]

i wouldnt dare give a staff member stone picking job. they wouldnt come back next day. power is with them. if you havent got a 8RX they wont anser your advert.

We do give staff 'stonepicking' jobs occasionally eg rouging. But we all go out including Mrs SB and Miss SB

 

[Fendt516profi]

We do give staff 'stonepicking' jobs occasionally eg rouging. But we all go out including Mrs SB and Miss SB

how do you attract staff to work for you. The answers in the above post

 

[kiwi pom]

how do you attract staff to work for you. The answers in the above post

That's why "fit" for an employee varies so much. It wouldn't bother me one bit if the boss sent me to do something like that but didn't do it themselves.
The last farmer I worked for milked thousands of cows along with arable/root crop farms and a contracting business. I don't think I ever saw him milk a cow BUT he understood what every job involved and that s**t happens throughout the day and he wasn't scared to give you a hand with something if you got stuck.

 

[Devil's advocate]

I'm told brick layers on the local site are earning £500 per day, yes that is a day not a week.

Funny recession this one, 400 of these houses £280,000 to £520,000 each

 

[The Seeker]

I think the poor are poorer and rich don’t know what to do with it tbh

 

[unlacedgecko]

I'm told brick layers on the local site are earning £500 per day, yes that is a day not a week.

Funny recession this one, 400 of these houses £280,000 to £520,000 each

Wait till you find out what welder pipe fitters are on…

 

[kiwi pom]

I'm told brick layers on the local site are earning £500 per day, yes that is a day not a week.

Funny recession this one, 400 of these houses £280,000 to £520,000 each

It's possible to do more than that if it's priced right and you get that one day where you can just lay away on a simple section. Work it out on price and you can have individual hours where you earn hundreds per hour but that doesn't account for all the other days.
It's a bit like saying an arable farmer sent 30 ton of grain at 300 quid a ton, so they make 9 grand a day.

 

[Devil's advocate]

Wait till you find out what welder pipe fitters are on…

Go on tell me.

Good on them.

My point is its an odd recession

Some drystone walling around the site, can't help but wonder if I should have been helping with that instead of harvesting veg.

I know a former director of Jones homes & 15 years ago he said brick layers £800 per week, drystone wallers £1,000 per week & stone masons £1,200 per week. This chap, company director & university trained civil engineer was/is a decent drystone waller himself, loves to put his rigger boots & gloves on at the weekends.

 

[Devil's advocate]

It's possible to do more than that if it's priced right and you get that one day where you can just lay away on a simple section. Work it out on price and you can have individual hours where you earn hundreds per hour but that doesn't account for all the other days.
It's a bit like saying an arable farmer sent 30 ton of grain at 300 quid a ton, so they make 9 grand a day.

No they are doing this day in day out. Odd days some are doing £1,000 per day piece work £1 per brick.

Problem is they are sucking in all the workers from the small building companies

 

[Lofty1984]

It's possible to do more than that if it's priced right and you get that one day where you can just lay away on a simple section. Work it out on price and you can have individual hours where you earn hundreds per hour but that doesn't account for all the other days.
It's a bit like saying an arable farmer sent 30 ton of grain at 300 quid a ton, so they make 9 grand a day.

Yep when it lashes down or is too cold your sat doing naff all then there’s the days waiting for scaffold to be altered etc

 

[Devil's advocate]

Yep when it lashes down or is too cold your sat doing naff all then there’s the days waiting for scaffold to be altered etc

To be fair not been able to work on nasty days would be a bonus for me.

I agree on a site having to work set hours is a pain, I know when I've been drystone walling up at 4am on a good day, have a bit of a siesta if really hot, work after tea if breezy or finish early if lots of midges (although in my case if midges are biting I'm off on the crop sprayer).

 

[Ploughmaster]

My point is its an odd recession

I would tend to agree. From what I can see of money continuing to be thrown around willy nilly by most people other than those right at the very bottom, it appears to be at present, largely "a figment of a deranged imagination" (as Douglas Adams described the galactic banks in HHGG)

 

[Devil's advocate]

I would tend to agree. From what I can see of money continuing to be thrown around willy nilly by most people other than those right at the very bottom, it appears to be at present, largely "a figment of a deranged imagination" (as Douglas Adams described the galactic banks in HHGG)

Anyone can get a job now though, even if a bit stiff & old can still work on a supermarket till. I know it won't buy an expensive house & car. But it is not like the early 80's, 300 applications for any job offered.

 

[Lofty1984]

To be fair not been able to work on nasty days would be a bonus for me.

I agree on a site having to work set hours is a pain, I know when I've been drystone walling up at 4am on a good day, have a bit of a siesta if really hot, work after tea if breezy or finish early if lots of midges (although in my case if midges are biting I'm off on the crop sprayer).

I could go back to it tomorrow if I wanted too but wrecking my body, dealing with arseholes on site of which there are many all the other crap you have to put up with keeps me clear of it

 

[Bongodog]

Wait till the building industry goes into recession, they will be lucky to get 1200 a fortnight. Its happened many times before, late 1980s bricklayers locally were saying they wouldn't get out of bed for less than 250 a day, within a few months the builders of a new Tesco locally were inundated with people looking for work at 50 a day.

 

[glasshouse]

Wait till the building industry goes into recession, they will be lucky to get 1200 a fortnight. Its happened many times before, late 1980s bricklayers locally were saying they wouldn't get out of bed for less than 250 a day, within a few months the builders of a new Tesco locally were inundated with people looking for work at 50 a day.

I bought a bankrupt brickworks in 1993.
Main building was only 3 yrs oldp

 

[Lowland1]

There's all this talk of machines to harvest fruit and veg due to a shortage of people to do this relatively low paid work surely a machine to replace a high paid bricklayer would be a better idea and probably easier and cheaper to design.

 

[Lofty1984]

There's all this talk of machines to harvest fruit and veg due to a shortage of people to do this relatively low paid work surely a machine to replace a high paid bricklayer would be a better idea and probably easier and cheaper to design.

There are so many variables in the job I don’t know how you’d do it