The two-day Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin "People Management: Discover Where and How to Invest in Your Dairy's Greatest Asset" workshop will be led by Mary Kraft, human resources director and chief financial officer of two of the top dairies in Colorado—Badger Creek Farm Inc. and Quail Ridge Dairy LLC. Kraft will share success stories from her experiences managing 75 full-time employees, both family and non-family, building a human resource system that is fit for today's dairies.
Participants will learn:

•What items should be in your hiring package—from mission statement, business philosophy and clarification of pay days to legalities and more.
•How to be prepared for OSHA inspections—What you need to have on file (insurance, workers comp package).
•Family labor—Assess whether family members are best for the job, plus expectations, successes and challenges.
•Family communication—How to work together while maintaining healthy family relationships.
•Generational transitions—How to grow the next generation, both family and non-family members.
•Effective communication strategies and methods—A "must" for any successful business.
Interactive sessions will include "Building a Working Team that Works Together," as well as a mock training session that will help participants discover how effectively they introduce people to their hiring and job protocols. In the mock training, roles will be reversed: While playing the role of a job applicant or employee, participants will examine protocols, training, paperwork and the employer's communication skills to actually experience how their dairy communicates with new and potential employees.
This workshop is open to all dairy professionals – PDPW members and non-members. The world is our classroom and lifelong learning is key to our profession's continued advancement. Details and registration information for PDPW's People Management workshop are available at www.pdpw.org, or by calling the PDPW office at 800-947-7379.
Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin is a dairy-producer founded organization that provides educational programs and services to fellow dairy producers. PDPW's mission is "to share ideas, solutions, resources, and experiences that help dairy producers succeed."
Source: PDPW