Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experience
ABSTRACT: The first days and weeks on the job set the course for a new dairy farm employee. This project involved an educational intervention to increase the use of new employee onboarding practices in dairy farms and analyzed the resulting effects on (1) levels of onboarding practice use, (2) manag...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2025-04-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Dairy Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030225000025 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849725074025742336 |
|---|---|
| author | R.E. Stup M.K. MacKenzie K.A. Lutz |
| author_facet | R.E. Stup M.K. MacKenzie K.A. Lutz |
| author_sort | R.E. Stup |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | ABSTRACT: The first days and weeks on the job set the course for a new dairy farm employee. This project involved an educational intervention to increase the use of new employee onboarding practices in dairy farms and analyzed the resulting effects on (1) levels of onboarding practice use, (2) manager perceptions of employee performance, (3) manager satisfaction with the onboarding program, (4) manager concerns about compliance with state and federal employment regulations, and (5) employee turnover. Onboarding advisors (educators and consultants) provided templates, examples, and intensive facilitation directly with farm managers to learn and adopt onboarding practices. A total of 36 dairy farms participated in the onboarding project, and 17 provided a complete set of data from before and after the intervention and were included in this analysis. Dairy managers' self-reported data indicated statistically significant increases, measured on a 4-point scale, in their levels of onboarding practice use after the intervention for compliance (increase from 2.47 to 3.24) and clarity (increase from 2.53 to 3.24). Of 23 recommended onboarding practices, dairy managers reported tripling their adoption of mission statements, first-day safety training, and sharing job descriptions, whereas adoption of 5 other practices more than doubled. Managers' satisfaction with their onboarding program significantly increased, going from a mean of 2.65 before the intervention to 5.06 afterward on a 7-point scale. Dairy farm managers reported they were more concerned about their compliance with federal and state employment regulations after participating in the onboarding project, possibly due to increased awareness and rapidly changing regulations. Finally, of the 11 farms that reported complete employee turnover information, an encouraging decline in turnover was observed from before (44%) to after the intervention (28%), but the result was not statistically significant. Our findings demonstrate that, according to self-report, an educational intervention providing templates, resources, and access to professionals with human resource management (HRM) skills was effective in helping farms improve onboarding and increase adoption of specific HRM practices. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ae59644b1ff6478387f8a531648bbea5 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 0022-0302 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Dairy Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-ae59644b1ff6478387f8a531648bbea52025-08-20T03:10:34ZengElsevierJournal of Dairy Science0022-03022025-04-0110844462447310.3168/jds.2024-25319Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experienceR.E. Stup0M.K. MacKenzie1K.A. Lutz2Agricultural Workforce Development, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853; Corresponding authorPRO-DAIRY, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853NWNY Dairy, Livestock and Field Crops Team, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853ABSTRACT: The first days and weeks on the job set the course for a new dairy farm employee. This project involved an educational intervention to increase the use of new employee onboarding practices in dairy farms and analyzed the resulting effects on (1) levels of onboarding practice use, (2) manager perceptions of employee performance, (3) manager satisfaction with the onboarding program, (4) manager concerns about compliance with state and federal employment regulations, and (5) employee turnover. Onboarding advisors (educators and consultants) provided templates, examples, and intensive facilitation directly with farm managers to learn and adopt onboarding practices. A total of 36 dairy farms participated in the onboarding project, and 17 provided a complete set of data from before and after the intervention and were included in this analysis. Dairy managers' self-reported data indicated statistically significant increases, measured on a 4-point scale, in their levels of onboarding practice use after the intervention for compliance (increase from 2.47 to 3.24) and clarity (increase from 2.53 to 3.24). Of 23 recommended onboarding practices, dairy managers reported tripling their adoption of mission statements, first-day safety training, and sharing job descriptions, whereas adoption of 5 other practices more than doubled. Managers' satisfaction with their onboarding program significantly increased, going from a mean of 2.65 before the intervention to 5.06 afterward on a 7-point scale. Dairy farm managers reported they were more concerned about their compliance with federal and state employment regulations after participating in the onboarding project, possibly due to increased awareness and rapidly changing regulations. Finally, of the 11 farms that reported complete employee turnover information, an encouraging decline in turnover was observed from before (44%) to after the intervention (28%), but the result was not statistically significant. Our findings demonstrate that, according to self-report, an educational intervention providing templates, resources, and access to professionals with human resource management (HRM) skills was effective in helping farms improve onboarding and increase adoption of specific HRM practices.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030225000025employeehuman resource managementtraininglabor |
| spellingShingle | R.E. Stup M.K. MacKenzie K.A. Lutz Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experience Journal of Dairy Science employee human resource management training labor |
| title | Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experience |
| title_full | Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experience |
| title_fullStr | Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experience |
| title_short | Onboarding dairy farm employees: Improving the new employee experience |
| title_sort | onboarding dairy farm employees improving the new employee experience |
| topic | employee human resource management training labor |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030225000025 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT restup onboardingdairyfarmemployeesimprovingthenewemployeeexperience AT mkmackenzie onboardingdairyfarmemployeesimprovingthenewemployeeexperience AT kalutz onboardingdairyfarmemployeesimprovingthenewemployeeexperience |