The impact of farm workforce turnover in the cotton sector
Project overview
Whilst the cotton sector has established benchmarks and measures for the physical and financial performance of farms, the business case and measures for improvement in human resources are not as well understood. This represents a major gap in current knowledge for the productivity and profitability of cotton production given that the human resource-related costs average over $700/ha farm (contractors and wages) (Boyce 2012).
This project aims to:
- establish meaningful measures of turnover that can be used to assess change in human resource management performance and track progress over time at a farm and industry level;
- examine the real costs and impacts of turnover on a sample of cotton farms;
- identify the practices most strongly linked to low turnover;
- explore the relationship between turnover performance and farm profit.
The research will involve a multi-disciplinary team including social scientists with experience in human resource management on-farms and the broader system of primary industry workforce development, a farm management economist, and access farm benchmarking information.
A case study methodology will be used in which 15 to 20 farms will be chosen to represent a range of farm business performance (e.g. current Boyce analysis farms). Growers and employees will be interviewed and data collected to complement the physical and financial analysis collected via Boyce.
Data collected will include:
- The employers’ attitudes toward employee turnover and the relative importance of employee engagement and retention;
- A calculation of turnover for the farm; the costs, benefits and impacts from turnover (from farmer experience and farm business accounts in the previous 12 months); and
- Human resource management practices on farm and employee skills, training and work engagement.
Results will be analysed on a per-farm basis for individual farmers and a report provided to growers. A cross-case analysis will be undertaken to examine any quantitative trends associated with costs of turnover, farm profitability and social and industry impacts of turnover.
Industry outcomes
The project will be used by growers and the industry to consider the business-case for improved people-management on farms and in establishing meaningful measures to assess the impact of interventions in improving people management.
Findings will contribute to current theory and practice on human resource management in agriculture.
Project Duration
July 2014–December 2015
Research Group Leader/Key contact
A/Prof. Ruth Nettle
Contact details
A/Prof. Ruth Nettle
T: 03 8344 4581
E: ranettle@unimelb.edu.au
Partnership details
Cotton Research and Development Corporation