Meat Processor Workforce Management

Finding capable and willing labor is a serious challenge for all meat processors, regardless of size. Small plants often require a higher average skill level than large plants but cannot afford to pay a high wage through the employee-training period. While we do not know of any great solutions to this issue, we can offer some ideas and programs that have worked reasonably well for other small plants.

• Management and Workplace Culture
• Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
• Schools in the U.S. and Canada offering vocational meat cutting programs
• Workers Compensation
• Ideas for finding employees from a small processor
• How to set up an apprenticeship program

Management and Workplace Culture

Retaining employees is just as important, if not more so, than hiring new ones. National studies consistently show that employees quit jobs more often because of workplace culture and relations with other employees, particularly managers or supervisors, than because of the difficulty of the work. What are personal interactions like around your plant? Between employees? Between you or other supervisors and employees? If you are not sure, or think they could be better, you are not alone. This is part of what “management” is all about.

Because this is such an important issue, we highly recommend that you take a class on management at your local community college. These classes can help you understand your management style and how to become a more effective manager, covering specific topics such as time allocation, interviewing, performance reviews, and how to handle workplace conflicts. Classes are offered as open enrollment throughout the year or can be customized to meet your business and scheduling needs. Check your local phone book to find a community college near you.

When considering employee compensation, one should consider more than just hourly wage. Some plants offer other financial benefits, such as insurance and paid breaks, and others let employees work extra hours if they need the cash, even if business is slow. Many plants offer benefits in addition to salary to show their employees how much they are appreciated. Some examples include free hot lunches a few days a week or every day, free or reduced price meat products, company picnics, and paying for job training.

Workforce Investment Act (WIA)

As many plant owners will tell you and agency representatives will admit, simply posting a small meat plant job through your state's Workforce Development office will probably not be as effective as you’d like. However, state workforce development agencies administer a federal program that might be of particular interest to you as a manufacturer/processor. The Workforce Investment Act was passed to “retrain” workers displaced due to international trade. The program subsidizes on-the-job training by paying up to 50 percent of the starting wage for up to 6 months. (This means that you could start someone at $11+/hr. instead of $7.50/hr while you train them.) To access this program, you will need to contact a “Workforce Investment Act Service Provider” and specifically request to post a job through this program. Every state is divided into several Workforce Investment Act Service Provider regions, each of which has its own funding from which to run this program, but the funds don’t always make it through the end of the year. Find out which region your in and contact the regional office directly.

Schools in the U.S. and Canada offering vocational meat cutting programs

Click here for a list of schools that offer vocation meat cutting programs- contact these schools for a list of recent grads or soon-to-be graduates and you might just find the employee you are looking for.

Ideas for finding employees

A small meat processing facility in Washington suggested the following......

How to set up an apprenticeship program

By Brydie Ragan, T&E Meats

As most processors know, finding skilled staff is a real challenge. At T&E Meats, we took the bull by the horns and started a rigorous Meat Professional Apprenticeship Program to fill the skills gap. Here is some information to consider if you are thinking about offering an apprenticeship program in your organization.

APPLICATION: Our T&E Apprenticeship Program is a 3-year commitment, so we want to make sure we have a good fit between T&E and our apprentices. So, we include a two-day tryout as part of the application process.

CURRICULUM: If we were an electrical or plumbing contractor taking on an apprentice, we would provide on-the-job training (OJT) and send the apprentices to a vocational technical school for academic classes. Most Vo-tech schools don’t offer training programs for meat professionals, so T&E had to design our three-year academic curriculum.  This is a HUGE undertaking.

We researched books, articles, videos, workbooks, and presentations related to all of the apprenticeship topics in order to fulfill the requirement of three study/classroom hours per week for all three years. Some of these resources include training seminars offered outside of Virginia, which our apprentices are scheduled to attend. Then, we mapped the study resources to the on-the-job training modules. For example, before and during the time our apprentices work with live animals, their study materials are related to animal handling. In addition, we developed evaluations such as tests and other homework assignments for each topic area.

OJT HOURS: Mapping out the required OJT hours for a 3-year apprenticeship is quite a challenge. We have constructed a matrix that includes the work activities (by the hour) for every day that our apprentices work at T&E.

PARTNERING WITH THE STATE: The T&E Apprenticeship Program is a state-approved program, so our apprentices will earn an official Journeyman’s Card upon successful completion of the program, just like an electrician or plumber. It takes extra time to coordinate with multiple State agencies, but we think the credential that our apprentices will receive makes it worth the effort.