February 9, 2023 - Noon Eastern Time

Presentation & Session Materials

In this interactive workshop, participants explored key components of recruiting and hiring employees that fit your operation, and training people in ways they can succeed and meet your operation’s needs. The session featured short "virtual farm visits" with farmers and farm employees who described how these practices play out in their operations, and introduced resources and tools on the Farm Labor Dashboard that support effective labor management.

Note: There is not a recording of the session. However, you can review the presentation slide set from the session. The presentation includes links to many related resources and materials.

Advance Materials

To get the most out of the workshop, participants were asked to review the following information and complete a short exercise in advance of the session. 

• Take a half hour or so to address some of the self assessment questions in the Developing a Values-Based Vision for Your Farm Workbook. Notice your reactions and immediate thoughts when you read through some of the questions. While we don’t expect folks to fill out in its entirety before our session, just thinking about how you might answer some of these will give you a sense how you might describe some of the core values that guide your farm’s management. 
• Watch/listen to this 18-minute TedX video How great leaders inspire action by Simon Sinek. 
• Listen to this Farm Commons Podcast- Episode 46: Avoiding Discriminatory Questions During an Interview (23 minutes). This episode, zooms in on avoiding discrimination during interviews with prospective employees. Staff attorney Chloe Johnson walks us through some of the dos and don’ts of interviewing, including questions to avoid.

Note: If time does not allow for you to complete all three, please prioritize the visioning workbook and watching minutes 8-11 of the Tedx video. After that, if you can listen at your convenience to the podcast on the legality of questions you can ask during an interview. 

Finally, here is some introductory information about your facilitators for the session, for Jesse Wright and Seth Wilner.

Session Materials

The following materials will be referenced during the session.

• Sample Farm Vision Statement for Woodland Farm