Team and Time management
We are finding with labour shortages, financial pressure and shortening weather windows, farmers are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with the work load and management requirements.
Identifying the issue
It’s key to identify if there are steps that can be taken to reduce the pressure within the team, if you find yourself doing the following its time to make changes:
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Find yourself running around putting fires out all day.
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Are busy but don’t feel like your work has high impact or achieve what is needed.
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Have a hard time delegating, saying no or don’t trust people to do the job.
- It takes too long to explain to others, so it’s quicker to do it yourself.
Understanding the difference between urgent and important tasks will allow you to plan your time more effectively. This means planning to do important tasks in advance, so you do less firefighting.
Delegating
Delegating is key part of managing a team of people and is an area that should be considered carefully. If you get delegation correct, you will save time, money, and feel less stressed!
Planning is the key to success:
This is delegation:
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Understand the key skill areas within your team. This will allow you to delegate tasks that fit their skill set.
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Everyone learns differently so take time to explain instructions clearly. Always check that instructions have been understood.
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Oversee the first time they carryout a task, this will allow you to gage their understanding.
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Always offer support when needed.
This is not delegation:
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Piling work on people because your are too busy.
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Expecting someone will automatically understand the job and do it exactly the same way you do.
- Rushing through the explanation of a task.
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Panic and take over when you see people getting it wrong or taking too long.
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Express your frustration and lose composure.
training
Management/leadership training can help you manage people better this is key to ensure good delegation and develop your team, training for your staff can be planned by using a skills matrix:
What is a skills matrix?
A skills matrix is an on-farm tool to record training and skills to help identify the areas where further training is needed.
It provides your business and employees with a clear outline of identify staff members skills sets for certain types of jobs. It will also allow you to identify skill gaps, to plan required training, and help staff progress into other roles. It can be updated six-monthly or annually to ensure it is up to date with all training undertaken throughout the year.
Useful skills matrix documents can be found below from the AHDB website.
How does it work?
The matrix usually takes the form of a table, with skills and tasks in one column and employee names along the top. For each skill, you can record whether the employee has been trained, is skilled, or is fully experienced and competent in the activity. The box is left blank when training is needed in that area. Tasks can be edited and new tasks added, to tailor the matrix around the needs of your business.
Why should I use it?
It will enable you to determine the skills you want new recruits to bring to the business and to plan the aspects they need to learn, when recruiting and inducting staff.
It can help your employees to identify skill gaps, and consider their future training requirements.
You can benchmark the skills in your business against standard requirements and identify areas for improvement.
If you run a larger business with many employees, it can be used to identify staff who are able to cover for absences (e.g. holidays or long-term sickness)
For more help and advice send us a message below:
Agricultural Farm Consultants - Douglas Green Consulting