A new Hiring Handbook developed by Manitoba Pork will help pork producers meet the challenges of finding, hiring and retaining workers.
To assess the challenges faced within the pork industry in attracting and retaining workers and identify solutions, Manitoba Pork surveyed independent pork producers last year.
Producers were asked about how they are finding workers, problems retaining workers, experiences with the Foreign Worker Program, competitiveness of salaries, training and any other concerns.
Janice Goldsborough, the Human Resources and Training Coordinator with Manitoba Pork, says information gathered through the survey was used to create a Hiring Handbook that will be released this summer.
It’s been vetted by our legal council to make sure that everything in it is current, it’s legal, it’s applicable. It will cover things such as where can we advertise, what are some other sources that the independent producer maybe hadn’t thought of previously, both free resources, maybe ones that might cost a little bit.
Then we also cover things like how do you screen the resumes, what are you looking for. I’ve also developed questions that you can ask in the interview. We talk about things like reference checking, how do you find our whether this is a good employee or not.
Then I also provide letters of offer so that we know exactly what goes into the letter so that there’s no confusion between the worker and the owner or the manager and finally how do you send regrets letters to the unsuccessful candidates.
The final piece in the hiring handbook is an orientation and what the new worker needs to know before they’re ever even setting foot into their barn. ~ Janice Goldsborough – Manitoba Pork
Goldsborough says a template for an Employee Handbook, which can be customized for each individual operation, is also being developed.
She says that will cover things the employee needs know in terms of what are the benefits, what are the policies for every barn, who is responsible for training, salaries and that sort of thing.
