Does your farm have one or more employees? We'd like to share with you six tips to run your collaboration as smoothly as possible. The keys: good tasks distribution, good follow-up, and communication!
1-The essential weekly meeting
Once a week, Monday morning for example, gather your partners and employees in your office to plan week's work, share your objectives and resolve any problems. These formal meetings are ideal to ensure real exchange with your employees and guarantee a great start to the week. It's also a good time to share a cup of coffee with few informal discussions to maintain a convivial atmosphere.
2-Informal time for day-to-day contact
To track progress, or even anticipate difficulties, you can set aside one or two quiet moments during the day for discussion. These small, informal moments are also invaluable for ensuring everyone's well-being. It's up to you to decide on the best time: a coffee around 10 a.m., during an afternoon snack...
3-Instant messaging apps
Easy, immediate, and informal, these tools are practical for communicating at any time. For example, you can create a group on WhatsApp to quickly deal with simple questions that don't require a lengthy exchange.
4-Common tasks: share your positions
If, for example, you're working together on a harvest or a seeding project with a short window weather that requires one person to stubble, another to plow and the last to seed, position sharing can make your work easier. Many applications offer this feature: WhatsApp, Messenger, Snap Chat, Google Maps...
5-Adopt a farm management tool
These applications help you to manage, plan and monitor farm tasks within your team. They also facilitate online collaboration. With SKYFLD, you can select a field activity (soil preparation, harvesting...) and assign task to one team member with a completion date. You can add any necessary information: field position, document, photo, etc. Everyone can add a comment to the task if required. SKYFLD even lets you share information with external advisors/technicians.
6-If necessary, sign up for a management training course.
Management is not innate. Don't hesitate to sign up for management training course and/or interpersonal communication. As a farm manager, you can contact your regional VIVEA delegation to finance your training. If you wish to train your employees, you should contact your regional OCAPIAT delegation.