United Kingdom fruit and vegetable growers are combatting labour shortages by using data and focussing on retention of staff, according to a senior AUSVEG manager.
AUSVEG national public affairs manager Lucy Gregg told the Fair Farms conference, Melbourne, she'd recently observed labour practices in the UK, during a study tour.
"Like Australia, the UK and Europe are suffering widespread workforce shortages and it's hard to get the traditional workers, such as from Poland, Romania and Bulgaria," she said.
"They are tending to stay at home - most of the new migrants are coming from the 'Stan' countries, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan."
The UK had a seasonal labour migration program, with workers being allowed to stay for a maximum of six months, before returning home; they were not allowed back into the UK for another six months.
All employers must use six licenced operators to source migrant workers.
"Workers from the 'Stan' countries work as much as possible - the ultimate aim is to get home with as much money as possible," she said.
"After they have worked their four days, they will then go and stand in the queue on their days off, to try and pick up extra shifts," she said.
Employers were using significant amounts of data, to make business decisions.
"They have data on everything, they take regular workplace surveys, to understand how the employees are feeling, what are they are happy about, what they are unhappy about," she said.
"Money is very much a driver for satisfaction, if they can get extra shifts and extra money, then they are really satisfied."
Companies also employed a lot of key performance indicators, she said.
'They are always monitoring employees as to how they are benchmarking against their KPI's - they do a lot of analysis of efficiency versus quality versus worker satisfaction.
"There is no point in increasing productivity by reducing quality and worker satisfaction."
Employers knew exactly how much it cost to retrain a worker and were quite happy to give a pay rise or bonuses to keep staff.
They aimed for a 70 per cent return rate -"employee satisfaction is really high," Ms Gregg said.
There was also an increasing reliance on automation, with much bigger tractors and equipment like harvest machinery and boom sprays, and in packhouses for repetitive jobs.
"One of the things we really noticed is there are very strong family values," she said.
Every business the delegation visited on the tour was family owned, some of them up to the fifth generation, with very strong links to the local community, she said.
"They value their employees and that cul," she said.
Ms Gregg said there were similar price pressures on growers in the UK to those in Australia.
'They are constantly getting squeezed by the retailers, so they are trying to implement as much efficiency as possible, but at the same time trying to make sure their employees are kept happy," she said.
No changes were made, including changing shifts, without finding out the effect on employees.
Combatting modern slavery was also high on the agenda, she said.
"Many of the growers make sure every single employee is trained about modern slavery, right through from the casual worker through to the chief executive," Ms Gregg said.
"Modern slavery is front and centre in the UK - it hits the front pages of the paper and it's not good for the industry.
"It's all about cleaning out unethical employers and putting generational reputation back."
Andrew Miller
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
I'm a general reporter with Stock & Land, with a special interest in irrigation issues. I completed my cadetship, with the Age, in 1980. Over my career, I've worked for ABC radio news (Mt Isa, Qld) and at provincial and suburban newspapers.
