How to Market Your Farm or Agribusiness to Potential Employees

Job seekers are going beyond the job description to find a job. They want to find an organization they align with and that cares about having them on the team. Potential employees are doing the work to dig deep into learning more about prospective employers. Before clicking the apply button on any job advertising, they're doing their research on your farm or agribusiness. Therefore, it is important to think about your employer branding and marketing strategy when attracting job seekers to your job openings.

What is Employer Branding

An employer brand is the overall perception of an organization in the job market. It’s what an organization conveys as its identity to current and potential employees. It includes the company’s mission, vision, culture, and personality. Your employer brand can tell job seekers if your farm or agribusiness is a great place to work and help with retaining current employees.

To understand your employer branding, you need to consider:

• Your organization’s vision, mission, values, and culture.
• How employees perceive your organization. Do some internal research with current employees.
• How your organization compares to competitors’ employer branding. Take a look at their websites and social media sites.
• Your ideal candidate. Determine what attributes you are looking for in a future employee so you can be sure to attract the right type of candidates.

Learn more about leveraging your employer branding to attract the right talent.

How to Attract Potential Employees

Once you understand your employer branding and the type of candidates you want to attract, you should start with your marketing strategy. Below are some tips to help you market your company and your job to today's job seekers.

Have a Website

Even if you are a small family farm, having a general website can help you find and attract job candidates. With the right keywords to help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), candidates will be able to learn more about your operation with an easy web search.

Your website doesn’t need to be fancy, it just needs to house the right information. There are several free website builders, such as Weebly or Wix, that include templates to easily plug in your information. You may also consider hiring a freelancer who can build you a website for a one-time fee.

Having a website not only helps confirm the legitimacy of your operation, but it also gives candidates a better glimpse into what your company is all about. Throughout your website, showcase your values, culture, and what makes you stand out from the competitors.

Have a Career Page

If you have a website for your farm or agribusiness, consider including a career page in your design. A career page doesn't have to be overly complicated. It should be a place where job seekers can quickly learn about your farm or agribusiness to decide if it's a place where they can see themselves working.

A simple career page should include your organization's story, the mission and vision statements, images and/or videos, a list of your current openings, and instructions on how to apply. Also list any benefits and perks of working for your organization. The career page should tell your story as well as showcase what a day-in-the-life looks like at your organization. Including images and videos can illustrate that easily.

To take your career page to the next level, consider investing in a company branding video to add to your page and/or website.

Be Active on Social Media

If you don’t have a website for your farm or ag business, we recommend at minimum creating a Facebook Business page or a LinkedIn page. Ideally, you have all three, but make sure you have at least one to start. In this digital age, it’s crucial for every business to have some type of online presence, whether that be a website or social media profile.

Posting behind-the-scenes content regularly on Facebook, LinkedIn, and/or Instagram can help with your employer branding and allows potential employees to see the day-in-the-life of working for your organization. It’s as easy as posting planting and harvesting images or pictures from a company event. Maybe you are celebrating a goal or one of your employees’ accomplishments.

Create a Detailed Job Description

It may seem obvious what a job description is for, but it should be so much more than just listing the job responsibilities and qualifications for a specific job. You want to make sure your job description is thoughtful and detailed. Your job description should include:

• Details about your business - When was your organization founded? What are your values, mission statement, and/or vision? What is your organization known for? It should showcase your farm or agribusiness, so job candidates can get to know their potential employer a little before they apply. Candidates want to know "What does this company do?", "do they have the same values as me?", "what is it like working there?", and "do they care about their employees?"
  
  
• Describe your company culture and working environment - Candidates are not only reading job descriptions to understand the duties of the job, but to see if the company aligns with their values and will support them. It's as easy as including your company values and what it's like to work for your team.

• Provide details on compensation - More than ever, candidates want to know the compensation range for a job before applying or a least before they finish the first interview. If you are able to provide a salary range, you will most likely get more quality candidates to apply. Before including the range, do some research on the average compensation for similar jobs in your region. You can look at websites like Salary.com, research similar jobs near you, and look at what your competitor is advertising for pay.

• Provide details on the benefits package - Your job description should also include the benefits and perks of working for your agribusiness. Include information about any benefits offered with the position. Do your employees have Paid Time Off (PTO)? Do you offer health benefits, dental and/or vision benefits? Do you have an IRA or 401k? Do you offer an employer match with your retirement benefits? Don't be afraid to include some out-of-the-box benefits and perks in your job description. Do you have flexible work hours in the offseason? Is housing included or a company vehicle?

Post Your Job on a Variety of Platforms

There are a variety of ways you get your job posting out to the right job seekers. Not every platform is right for every organization or every job, so it might be something you need to experiment with. You’ll want to consider the type of job candidates you are looking to attract and where you think those candidates are searching for jobs.

• Job Boards – Today, most candidates are searching for jobs online. The important thing to understand about posting your jobs online is ensuring you have the correct keywords so candidates can find your job. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is what search engines, like Google and Bing, use to get your job in front of job seekers. The same principle is applied to most job boards. Posting your job opening on job websites, such as Indeed, is a good place to start to get in front of a wide range of candidates. Posting on niche job websites, like AgHires.com, can help you reach more targeted candidates within your industry.
  
  
• Career Page – Posting your job on your own website’s career page will also help candidates find your jobs. Candidates may research farms or agribusiness in their area and look for job listings straight from the source instead of staring with a job board.

• Social Media – About 73% of Americans use social media, so it can be an excellent tool to get your company and your job openings in front of job seekers. Posting your job on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn can not only get your job opening in front of your followers but if you encourage your followers to share your job posting your reach will extend.

• Participate in Job Fairs - If you have a lot of openings, such as seasonal jobs, it's beneficial to attend (or host) job fairs. You will meet potential candidates and have the opportunity to showcase your farm or agribusiness.

Engage with Job Seekers

Engaging with job seekers can be as easy as posting on social media and updating your company website. It keeps those potential job seekers and employees informed about your farm or agribusiness. Once a job seeker has applied for your job, keep them in the loop about the hiring process. Let them know of the next steps, if you’ve decided to pass on them, or if there are any obstacles in the way of moving forward. Keeping them engaged during the hiring process can ensure you keep quality candidates interested in the job, even if you’ve decided to interview more candidates or if you’ve gotten behind in the process.

Partner with the Agriculture Recruitment Experts

The easiest way to market your opportunities and get connected with the right talent is by partnering with the leading ag recruitment firm. Whether you’re looking to hire on-farm employees, sales professionals, or executives, our team of expert ag recruiters are here to do the recruiting, so you can focus on other areas of your operation. We work with your team to develop a tailored recruitment strategy and utilize our vast industry connections to attract only the top talent for your ag business.

Learn more about our hiring services or contact us today.