A couple years ago it was common for people to hear ‘remote’ and think of a rural location. Fast forward to today and ‘remote’ no longer refers to geography, but to work-from-home jobs.

For those working on-farm, this concept may seem irrelevant. However, if you’re a farmer looking for talent, you need to think about extending these benefits to include flexibility.

Okay, maybe it’s impossible to offer flexible hours or work-from-home when there’s crops to plant or harvest. For those that work ‘on-farm,’ tending to crops and animals, remote work seems far from reality. But there’s been a lot of buzz about work-from-home and remote work over the course of the pandemic.

Studies vary, but it’s estimated that about one-third of the overall workforce could do their job remotely. More than half were working from home at times during COVID.

But this includes every industry—how can we translate this to agriculture?

Work choice in post-COVID world

Workers are on the move as we enter the post-COVID job market. But you shouldn’t dismiss the idea of offering flexible schedules as completely impractical.

Preliminary data from the 2021 Agribusiness HR Review shows that the “option to work from home or have flexibility in schedules” was the top change in benefits in 2021. AgCareers.com recently conducted a pulse survey of agricultural employers. The poll reported that to keep current talent, 25% of participating ag employers were offering flexible schedules to their employees, even higher than the 19% that were keeping work from home policies. When discussing flexibility in the workplace, don’t assume this is exclusively work-from-home/remote work.

No, your employees probably cannot do their job from home, but one of the major advantages of work from home is flexibility. How can you rethink your employment strategy to incorporate flexibility while still ensuring coverage and profit? Think alternating schedules, adjusting work hours, time-off, childcare considerations, comp time, and other benefits that dispel the typical rigidity of the workplace.

The pandemic has blurred lines between work and home life for all staff, not just for remote employees. Leaders and managers need to understand their employees as people, not just workers. Start by asking questions aiming to understand the employees’ work, life, challenges, and what motivates them; what do employees need from you to succeed? How can your organization flex to help them meet their needs and excel?

For additional information on employee benefits and hiring, visit www.AgCareers.com.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Farm Progress.