The U.S. Agribusiness HR Review survey, conducted yearly by AgCareers.com, highlights various strategies utilized by both large and small ag employers to win talent. Twenty-seven percent of responding organizations were from the crop and animal production sectors.  

More than 40% of U.S. ag companies expect their workforce to increase in size within the next two years, citing growth strategy as the source of this anticipated increase.  Significant factors influencing workforce planning needs other than voluntary turnover were recruitment difficulties and involuntary turnover.

Employee referrals and networks remain as the top method of attracting prospective applicants (77%). The use of social media continues to increase; the majority of agribusinesses are now using social networks to support recruitment efforts (over 72%). Nearly half of agribusiness companies plan to do more graduate recruitment in the next 1 to 5 years. This push for new graduate hiring is largely driven by career progression and succession planning. 

Better benefits offered
Offering better benefits (72%) was the primary strategy used for competing against other employers, followed by higher compensation (52%). Another trend that emerged was the increased use of performance rewards to retain top employees (73%).

In the last three years, employee retention was a notable objective but has historically ranked third or fourth among response options. While more employers are using performance rewards to retain top talent, fewer are paying bonuses. Thirty-five percent of companies indicated that more than 90% of all employees received a bonus in the last financial year. This was a drop from 2015 when 42% companies estimated that more than 90% of employees received a bonus in the last financial year. Ag employers appear to be taking a closer look at performance rewards for top performers.

Eighty-seven percent of companies reported that salaries had increased during the past twelve months. In addition, 95% of U.S. ag companies said some or all staff are likely to see increases in the coming year. Ag employers will look to continue to engage and motivate employees through a variety of ways including compensation, benefits, training and development, promotion, flexibility and beyond to retain high performers.

Want to know more about what other ag employers are doing to engage, retain and recruit?  Find out by downloading your free copy of the full U.S. Agribusiness HR Review report.

Human resource managers and business leaders from more than 90 agricultural companies participated in AgCareers.com’s tenth edition U.S. Agribusiness HR Review. The final analysis and resulting trends represent current HR practices for an estimated 170,000 ag employees across the United States. 

For more information, contact [email protected].

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