Staff shortage.

ARW

Member
Location
Yorkshire
Any body else having trouble finding good staff?
Just had a lad leave us because he is sick of driving tractors apparently and needs to be at home on his 100 acre Farm and pet sheep. That won't pay the bills.
Had a young lad come before harvest on full time basis, didn't even start because he changed his tune an decided he would only work 40 hours a week and wanted weekends off (because he gets tired), fair enough but that's no good, baling isn't a 9-5 job yet he wants to do Farm work.
Had a lad on in spring, good hand, self employed, paid well. After a few months he is late everyday from 10 mins to over an hour. Bad job when you can't get up for £700 a week.
Shortage of men round here, seems they would rather do f all than earn a wage, we don't expect them to work as hard as us or work for nothing.
Is this common in other parts?
 

roscoe erf

Member
Livestock Farmer
Any body else having trouble finding good staff?
Just had a lad leave us because he is sick of driving tractors apparently and needs to be at home on his 100 acre Farm and pet sheep. That won't pay the bills.
Had a young lad come before harvest on full time basis, didn't even start because he changed his tune an decided he would only work 40 hours a week and wanted weekends off (because he gets tired), fair enough but that's no good, baling isn't a 9-5 job yet he wants to do Farm work.
Had a lad on in spring, good hand, self employed, paid well. After a few months he is late everyday from 10 mins to over an hour. Bad job when you can't get up for £700 a week.
Shortage of men round here, seems they would rather do f all than earn a wage, we don't expect them to work as hard as us or work for nothing.
Is this common in other parts?
YES
 

Landrover

Member
Don't employ anyone myself but speaking to other people there is a shortage of good men, loads of useless ones seeking work tho, most good part time men have work lined up months in advance and there's just the dross left. A lot of young lads want to dictate what jobs they do, to such an extent a friend took a 17yr old for harvest and he expected to be the combine driver and walked of the job when told he would be mainly carting corn and bales ! If you find a good member of staff keep hold of them !
 

A Trebor

Member
Location
Isle of Axholme
Any body else having trouble finding good staff?
Just had a lad leave us because he is sick of driving tractors apparently and needs to be at home on his 100 acre Farm and pet sheep. That won't pay the bills.
Had a young lad come before harvest on full time basis, didn't even start because he changed his tune an decided he would only work 40 hours a week and wanted weekends off (because he gets tired), fair enough but that's no good, baling isn't a 9-5 job yet he wants to do Farm work.
Had a lad on in spring, good hand, self employed, paid well. After a few months he is late everyday from 10 mins to over an hour. Bad job when you can't get up for £700 a week.
Shortage of men round here, seems they would rather do f all than earn a wage, we don't expect them to work as hard as us or work for nothing.
Is this common in other parts?

Technically he can't be late if he is self employed but do agree about good staff.
 
I'm afraid you'll have to pay more, and treat them better.

When staff are so hard to come by, the ball is their court. The lad mentioned could probably easily find a combine driving job elsewhere.

This is very true. Employers seem to think that staff are just lucky to be offered the job! Truth is, employees are also interviewing the potential employer to see if their place suits them just like the employer is interviewing the employee to see if he suits their place! Most employers forget this!

I have been offered jobs and they want an answer right away even though when they interviewed me they said I would have to wait for an answer as they have other candidiates to interview. When I tell them they will have to wait for an answer because I have interviews lined up with other companies they tend to get very arsey very quick and a number withdraw their offers. This proves to me that they would have been difficult to work for right away!
 

multi power

Member
Location
pembrokeshire
This is very true. Employers seem to think that staff are just lucky to be offered the job! Truth is, employees are also interviewing the potential employer to see if their place suits them just like the employer is interviewing the employee to see if he suits their place! Most employers forget this!

I have been offered jobs and they want an answer right away even though when they interviewed me they said I would have to wait for an answer as they have other candidiates to interview. When I tell them they will have to wait for an answer because I have interviews lined up with other companies they tend to get very arsey very quick and a number withdraw their offers. This proves to me that they would have been difficult to work for right away!

if i ever go for a job interveiw i do the interveiwing , it normaly works for me
 
if i ever go for a job interveiw i do the interveiwing , it normaly works for me

Exactly, it is a 2 way street. I have had 2 telephone interviews with a firm in London though and they basically just asked me questions for 30 mins and then said thank you and hanged up. I literally had no chance to as them any questions whatsoever on both occasions. Their attitude really pee'd me off, then when they asked me over for an assessment centre I declined because I got such a bad feel from them. They then emailed wanting to know why I declined acting all shocked and I said I could tell from the telephone interview that it is not a firm I would thrive in so I would be wasting both our times.

It is imperative for an employee to find a place that will allow them to meet their potential and enjoy their work!

I have seen so many farm workers and farm managers get treated like dog sh!t by employers, one of the best working arrangements I have heard of seems to be @Clive 's. Just reading his working arrangements makes me think that this industry wouldn't have half the trouble it has with staff if they copied some of his principles!
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
There is the expression 'pay peanuts and you get monkeys' which is very true. However at the moment it is hard to justify big wages in many parts of ag in the uk. It is one of those costs that keep climbing and our outputs most definately not keeping pace.
 

norfolk'n'good

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
norfolk
I'm afraid you'll have to pay more, and treat them better.

When staff are so hard to come by, the ball is their court. The lad mentioned could probably easily find a combine driving job elsewhere.
You are assuming he is a bad boss who pays peanuts!
Same old thing on here if an employer makes a comment about shortage of GOOD staff people say pay more and be nicer!
That's not going turn Shiite employees into good ones. I agree when you get a good one make sure you keep them, but please don't assume that because someone is struggling to find a good employee they must be paying a pittance and be terrible boss!
 

multi power

Member
Location
pembrokeshire
All we want is someone who comes to work with us, up for a laugh and pay them a decent wage. We have a few self employed that come when they can and they are a pleasure to work with and fit there jobs in round ours and it works well, finding someone to come all the time with this attitude is impossible

what do you expect from a worker? somebody who can work unsupervised? what about hours? etc
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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    Votes: 79 42.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 65 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.1%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 6 3.2%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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