Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Employee/manager Salary and Incentives

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Richard Robinson <rrobinson AT nasw.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Employee/manager Salary and Incentives
  • Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:25:08 -0500

On 11/14/2011 at 10:17:58 AM, Dalew Farms wrote:
> Hello,
>
> This winter we're planning on hiring a Market Garden/CSA manager for our
> farm. This person will be primarily responsible for making sure that the
> work gets done that needs to be, when it needs to be, for about 3/4 of the
> various veggies we grow for our CSA, as well as for packing our CSA shares
> so
> they are ready for customers. ( Our CSA system is mostly pre-packaged
> delivered to a meeting point in a parking lot). They will oversee student
> workers/interns to help them with the work.
>
> I'm interested to hear thoughts and ideas from folks on the list about ways
> to structure salary so as to provide a good incentive to make sure that the
> person not only does a great job, but is rewarded for doing so. We can't
> afford huge bonuses, but we'd like to have something spelled out ahead of
> time so that the person has some targets to aim for. However, when my wife
> and I sat down and tried to spell out some, it turned out to be harder than
> it first sounded! :)
>
> We had talked about making the bonus based on our CSA customer return rate
> for the next season. We've been hitting our target of 80%+ and we want to
> keep that there, but we felt that it might not be fair to the potential
> manager if that was the only way of calculating their bonus because there
> could be other factors beyond their control affecting the return signup
> rate.

I haven't been on either end of such an arrangement, so take my thoughts for
what they
are. On the one hand, the employee's work will affect the productivity of
your fields,
since they will be overseeing the work crew. On the other hand, they have no
control over
the many other factors that determine that productivity. To me, that makes
tying a bonus
to that productivity a bit suspect. Even more, I would say, they have little
control over
the return rate, as you note, so tying a bonus to that seems unfair. I would
suggest
thinking about a non-bonus based incentive. Start the person at a fair
salary, and if
their work is exemplary, raise it midway through the season. It should be
clear within a
few weeks if they are good at what you are asking them to do. You might also
consider
whether it is possible to increase their responsibilities, and pay, after it
is clear they
will work out. And then at the end of the season, if it's been a good year
and you can
afford it, a small thank-you bonus can do wonders for goodwill if it is
unexpected, and
the employee has been paid fairly throughout the season.


Richard Robinson
www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/
Hopestill Farm
www.hopestill.com






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page