The founders and team within AgCareers.com have worked very hard to establish strong and synergistic relationships with industry organizations and associations from the start of the business. One such relationships is with the National FFA Organization. AgCareers.com is proud to be the “Strategic Career Success Partner” of the National FFA Organization and its Foundation. Our relationship allows the 610,000+ students and 10,000+ teachers/FFA advisors access to real career opportunities and internships on demand. The National FFA Organization is a systematic education and experience platform for young people to identify their life passion and develop the necessary skills to achieve their career goals. More specifically, the National FFA Organization is an integral part of agricultural education by helping make classroom instruction come to life through realistic, hands-on applications. FFA members embrace concepts taught in agricultural classrooms nationwide, build valuable skills through hands-on experiential learning and each year demonstrate their proficiencies in competitions that showcase real-world agricultural skills. FFA makes a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Today’s FFA has evolved in response to expanded opportunities available in agriculture and its needs to hire skilled and competent employees for more than 300 careers. The organization helps students prepare for careers in business, marketing, science, communications, education, horticulture, production, natural resources, forestry, and many other diverse fields.
Chances are if you work for an organization (non-profit or for profit) 10 years or more, you will likely experience a “re-org” or at least you should! The word “re-organization” or “re-org” for those of us that has been around for a while often carries with it a negative stereotype. But it can be a very positive experience if leadership within a given organization has both the awareness and vision to respond to marketplace trends while being in tune with internal human capital utilization. However, if leadership within a given organization sits back too long ignoring industry trends and doesn’t allow their talent to grow and experience achievement, they will find themselves struggling to compete long-term. There is a fine line between being proactive versus reactive when it comes to identifying the time for re-organization.
Below are 5 signs it may be time to re-org your organization:
One of our strategies for 2015 at AgCareers.com included the addition of a couple of “blogs” to our social media arsenal. Viola, now we have Talent Harvest, our blog for HR Professionals, and Career Cultivation for all levels of talent. While we have been talking about it for a couple of years, I must admit I really did not understand exactly what a blog was until early this year. While doing a little homework to educate myself, I fund the following definition: “Blogs serve as tools to deliver timely information with a personal touch in an informal or conversational style.”
When you conduct searches on the Internet for information, you will likely land on something interesting and not even realize that you have just read a blog. The cool thing about blogs is that you can subscribe (via email) to select blogs of interest and you will receive routine update notifications. There are literally thousands of blogs out there! Just Google some of the following: wine blogs, pet blogs, food blogs, vacation blogs, etc. and you will find all sorts. For our Human Resource and Recruiting professional friends, I would like to share a few blogs that I subscribe to and enjoy reading:
As the world’s population is on pace to reach nearly 10 billion people by 2050, the number of employers that continue to recruit international talent continues to increase. The demand for talent in areas such as IT, research, engineering, and large scale animal/plant production specialists challenges employers’ ability to rely solely on domestic talent pipelines. The increased hiring of “expatriates” in developing countries in recent years is contributing to the demand for international talent as well. An expatriate (also known as an expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country other than his or her citizenship. Increased growth of large scale farming operations & modern food processing facilities in developing countries like Russia, China, and parts of Africa will continue to lead to lucrative opportunities for adventurous talent in North America. AgCareers.com is host to numerous opportunities like this.
Below are 5 tips to consider when recruiting internationally for talent:
Performance management is a part of any leaders’ responsibility regardless of the type organization. Whether you are a leader in a church, business, non-profit entity, school, government, or professional sports team, chances are you will face situations when employees are “under-performing.” How and when you confront poor performance are keys to the desired outcomes. As a leader you need to determine the type of culture you want to create within your team or department. I think most of us would desire a culture where people are encouraged to learn, grow, and are motivated to contribute to the organizations success. This type of environment or culture requires leaders to be consistent in how they handle performance management. Below are 2 illustrations I would challenge leaders to consider regarding team member performance:
Performance = Ability x Motivation*
Ability is the team member’s aptitude as well as the training and resources available.
Motivation is the result of desire and commitment.
Many HR professionals, especially those with 200 or less employees, struggle to convince their management and/or ownership the value of investing and participating in compensation surveys. Why? The answer is typically is “it’s too expensive…or, not worth it”. However, below are a few questions that should be posed to management and/or ownership:
Here are 5 reasons ALL employers should participate in credible Compensation Surveys:
Proven industry specific compensation/salary surveys can be an excellent tool if incorporated into the annual business planning process. For over 8 years, AgCareers.com has provided its Compensation Benchmark Review (CBR) to the agriculture industry. The CBR has grown to include over 200 industry roles with 125+ participating employers. To learn more about AgCareers.com’s CBR, click here.
The decision to issue raises can be a grueling process for company leaders and owners. This is the first in a series of compensation related posts. I’d like to share a few important considerations based on my experience around making decisions around giving raises. Given David Letterman is retiring; I thought I would share in true “Letterman” style:
