WHEN LOOKING for the most talented employees for your business, it's helpful to remember this: Good people know good people. Networking is something that retailers and company recruiters are using more to find and keep talented employees.

Whether it involves agricultural colleges, corporate HR departments, existing employees, crop input representatives or even competitors, networking seems to be the preferred method of recruiting top job candidates today — more so than the use of advertising and employment agencies.

Gary Snell, agronomy team leader for Southwest Landmark in Xenia, OH, helps recruit agronomists and salespeople for his cooperative, which has 22 locations and approximately 220 full-time employees serving 13 southwestern Ohio counties. To find good talent for these stores, Snell has established relationships with area colleges and universities, interviewing job candidates at Wilmington College, The Ohio State University and Ohio State Agricultural Technical Institute — all within a reasonable distance of Southwest Landmark.

The full-service cooperative also has begun using the recruiting services of Agriliance, from which it has received the names of several candidates in the last eight months. One reason the cooperative is working more with Agriliance is the time and personnel required to find appropriate employees. Today, retailers need a different level of employee, one with greater people skills and technical abilities. Snell claims it is more cost-effective for the cooperative to use the services of Agriliance than to devote a full-time person to do the recruiting in-house.

Three people in Agriliance recruit full time throughout the U.S., according to Jen Pierson, recruiting manager for the company. A growing percentage of the national company's customers (both local co-ops and independent retailers) is using these recruiting services. “They're doing everything they can to find talented people,” Pierson says, noting that top talent is driven by the ultimate customer — the farmer, who expects much more from suppliers today.

Pierson and her colleagues work with about 35 major agricultural colleges and universities to recruit new college grads. They attend career fairs and speak to agronomy classes and campus agricultural clubs about ag careers.

They also network with other industry people at conventions, trade shows and CCA training programs, particularly those working at the farm-gate level. “We recruit seed managers, location and branch managers, sales and marketing managers and agronomy managers,” Pierson says.

In addition to talking with young people, the Agriliance recruiters talk with people who have a few years of experience under their belts. The latter, Pierson says, may be looking to relocate or move up for better opportunities. “We may find the right people at the right time in their lives to make a change,” she says.

Rick Huff, director of sales for the mid-Atlantic region of Royster-Clark, also networks with people who are thinking about a change — within his own company. The most valuable recruitment tool is looking within and bringing up associates through the ranks, says Huff, who is responsible for 23 Royster-Clark locations in Virginia and Delmarva, 12 of which are point-of-sale, or Farmarket, operations. Each location has an average of 14 associates. Huff is responsible for hiring Farmarket managers, sales managers and most production people.

Although Huff still interviews recent grads, some of them have not been interested in working their way up, starting out as an applicator driver, for example. They must be willing to work their way up, Huff says, adding that he likes recruits to have farm backgrounds because they are more familiar with what customers need and want. He also prefers recruits with the potential to be CCAs. Most of the associates in Huff's region have made the commitment to start as an applicator and work up through production and sales, with the possibility of eventually becoming a Farmarket manager.

This system has apparently worked. The average associate has been with the Royster-Clark locations for nearly 12 years. By working in different areas of the business, the associates have more contact with customers, and this helps build relationships over the years, Huff says.

The relationship aspect of the business is more important than some other business factors, according to Huff. He adds that relationships among all of the company's employees are key to retaining associates. “There's a focus on ‘we’ in our company,” Huff says. “Once you have teamwork, the Farmarket can be successful.”

To persuade good job candidates to join Royster-Clark, Huff and his associates take them to Farmarkets to show them the work environments there. They also have prospective employees meet customers. “We want to demonstrate that this is a rewarding work atmosphere,” Huff says, adding that the company strives to support management in helping employees achieve their goals.

Agriliance also stresses the quality of support that employees get in its system, Pierson says. To persuade talent, the recruiter and her colleagues (all trained agronomists) focus on the company's training programs and continuing education opportunities. The company also puts together a competitive salary and benefits program, including a company vehicle, Pierson says.

Agriliance focuses on the strengths and diversity of the cooperative system, according to Pierson. “Our owners and our customers are ‘Back 40 to Aisle 40.’ We offer everything from seed and other inputs to grain marketing, feed, energy and food processing.”

Pierson says that, to retain good employees, Agriliance “provides them the knowledge and skills they need to do their job, establishes goals and benchmarking, and follows up with a system to reward them for achieving those goals.”

Recognizing and rewarding employees' knowledge and hard work is one of the most important things a company can do to retain good employees, agrees Mark Whitehouse, director of human resources at Wilbur-Ellis Company in San Francisco, CA. Another is to provide employees with a safe and stable environment, he says, pointing to the fact that Wilbur-Ellis has been around for 82 years. A third big retention factor is giving employees the opportunity to be creative and entrepreneurial.

Wilbur-Ellis branch and business unit managers, such as Fred Bierwagen, the company's area manager in Walla Walla, WA, can contact the corporate office for help recruiting CCAs and sales, operations, credit and other branch personnel.

“Our recruiting efforts are to create awareness of Wilbur-Ellis as a preferred employer,” Whitehouse says. “As a distribution company we must manage costs, so we don't have a large staff to do this on behalf of our customers. But if a customer needs help with an issue surrounding recruiting, a job description or an ad, we are happy to help.”

Bierwagen notes that word of mouth is the most effective way of recruiting. He talks with other Wilbur-Ellis locations, as well as suppliers and customers, if his branch is looking for candidates. However, there is not a lot of turnover within Wilbur-Ellis. The average employee has been with the company for more than 18 years, Bierwagen says.

“Once people get into Wilbur-Ellis, they usually stay,” Whitehouse says. “Our goal is to find agricultural professionals who have a passion for the business and who want to work for a company that will be here five or 10 years from now.”

With current unemployment rates as high as they are, people are understandably concerned about job security. “We strive every day to provide employees an environment where they don't have to worry what's going on at the helm,” Whitehouse says. “This gives them more time and energy to concentrate on the thing that matters — success. If employees have to worry about the future of their branch office, they won't have the drive or motivation to make the branch or the company successful.”

Bierwagen looks for self-starters as well as for people who grew up on farms or have a farming background. He says of the current crop of agronomy graduates that “some seem well prepared” for the real world and some don't. “The challenge is, they are relying on all of the latest software and high-tech agronomy devices but are finding that the workplace is all about hard work, long hours and short deadlines to meet customer demands.” People who have grown up in this type of environment are more familiar with the seasonal demands that come with an ag retail career, he says.

Agriliance's Pierson believes that college grads are getting more talented every year. However, she says that some may be “missing the boat” by not being as focused on selling. “They might not be considering the selling aspects of agronomy,” she says. “We continue to strive for commitment to selling and communications as well as a technology background.”

Because salespeople and managers are given a great deal of autonomy at Wilbur-Ellis, Bierwagen agrees that communication and strong business backgrounds are important. “Employees must help our customers make good business decisions for Wilbur-Ellis,” Whitehouse adds.

Successful recruiting is an ever-changing model, according to the HR director. “The tricky part is to anticipate trends and prepare to meet challenges,” Whitehouse says. “In the past, our HR department was not active in recruiting new employees, but this is changing. Branch managers are now able to use our department for training in recruiting candidates and interviewing skills.”

There are key kinds of questions that retailers can ask to find the best candidates. “Most of the questions we use are behavioral-based questions,” Whitehouse says. “We want to learn how the candidate would handle a situation, so we ask questions such as, ‘Give me an example of a recent project in which you were unsuccessful. What were the most significant challenges and causes for lack of success? What would you do differently if you had to do it all over again?’”

Some companies use a combination of tests and personality profiling to select top talent, but Bierwagen suggests the key is to have the candidate talk to several people in the branch who are experts in their fields. “It becomes quite clear that you either know the subject or you don't,” he states.

Do these industry people have any advice to retailers about hiring and retaining good talent?

“Remember that there is a diminishing pool of people in the agricultural field. You may need to put on a sales pitch about why someone should work for your company,” Pierson says. “Don't be afraid to set expectations and evaluate whether the employee is meeting them. And be willing to pay for good performance.”

“The retail market and customer demands are forever changing,” Whitehouse says. With this in mind, he says retailers need to maintain a flexible environment, give potential employees a good idea of the environment in which they are going to work, listen to their ideas, encourage employees to be creative and give them ownership of those ideas. By doing this, Whitehouse says, employees will begin to feel like they are part of the team and take pride in what they do. People will not leave a company if they feel that they are an important part it.

Lynn Grooms is an agricultural writer living in Mt. Horeb, WI.

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