Specifics of labour organization and human resources management in agriculture
3 min read
Personnel in agriculture is a key resource alongside land and machinery, but it is the most difficult to manage. Unlike an industrial enterprise, where the workflow takes place in a closed workshop, the work of an agronomist and machine operator directly depends on living organisms and the climate. To keep production profitable, a manager must take into account the biological requirements of crops and the specifics of field work. Rational organization of labor at the enterprise helps not only to save resources but also to retain people during a period of severe labor shortages.
Main features of agricultural labor and their impact on production
Work in crop production is inextricably linked to living nature and strict time frames. The results of work here are always unstable: the same labor input on plots with different soil fertility or in different weather years will produce a different volume of harvest. In addition, in field cropping, there is a time gap between the investment of labor and the receipt of products. For example, costs for winter crops begin in the autumn, and the farm receives grain as the result of work only once a year, unlike livestock farming, where milk, for instance, is produced daily.
The seasonal nature of field work creates an uneven workload for personnel. The peak overstrain of people during sowing and harvesting is replaced by forced downtime in winter. Due to tight deadlines, operations often have to be performed in bad weather, which increases the risk of injury.
Another important feature is the lack of narrow specialization. In field cropping, the same employee performs many disparate technological operations throughout the season. This requires machine operators and field workers to have a wide range of skills and the ability to adapt quickly. At the same time, manual labor prevails in the industry, the share of which remains high due to the specifics of many field processes.
In the Russian agricultural sector, there is an increasing shortage of personnel and a trend toward their aging. Today, the work of elderly people predominates in the fields, and the share of women and teenagers is high. When planning motivation, it is important to take into account that due to low wages, workers often combine production with managing a personal subsidiary plot.
For proper planning of the farm's economy, it is important to separate the resources spent. Live labor represents the direct actions of employees in the field managing machinery and caring for crops. Reified labor consists of resources created earlier and transferred to the finished product: seed, fertilizer, plant protection products, and agricultural machinery depreciation. Only a balance of these two components allows obtaining the optimal cost of production.
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