Labour and time management
Spending time on your business is considered by many to be as important as spending time in your business. Planning, monitoring and analysing the performance of the farm business is critical in assisting the farm manager to make informed and tactical decisions on how to spend his/her time and money to maximise profit.
Be wary of doing an operational task yourself ‘to save money’ instead of getting someone in. It can be more expensive in the long run if it means you haven’t got the time to spend on business planning, monitoring and management. Having effective time management in both the business and operations areas of the farm is a key skill requirement of successful farm business managers.
Labour sources for farm businesses can be in the form of contractors for specialised tasks (for example, shearing, crutching), casual and full time employees. Labour costs vary considerably depending on farm size, enterprise mix and machinery investment.
Measures can be taken to increase efficiency of labour to reduce labour costs of employees on an hourly/daily rate. For example:
- Have a logistics management plan during peak periods to avoid staff/contractors downtime or ‘waiting’ for something to happen or someone to do something.
- Be well prepared prior to the events or upcoming operations ensuring everything is in working order and all equipment and consumables are in supply and available.
- Invest in multi-skilling staff, particularly full time staff.
- Ensure adequate training and material is provided to new/less experienced staff to avoid mistakes and improve efficiency.
- Communicate effectively with staff so everyone knows what is planned and expected to happen.
- Provide feedback to staff to improve productivity and reduce risk of errors/mistakes/accidents.
- Ensure the mix of contract, casual and full-time labour matches the business needs to avoid underutilising labour.
- Consider investing in technology that may reduce employee injury or mistakes, eg. sheep handling equipment, auto-steer, ban mobile phones for certain operations to avoid risk of accidents.
- Ensure machinery is in good working condition and sheep are ready (drafted in yards) to allow contractors/casuals to work as productively as possible.