When you think about filling part-time, short-term or contract work positions in agriculture, most likely assume the discussion will be about the temporary foreign worker program.
But work opportunities in agriculture are as diverse as the industry itself, and AgCall has approached filling these part-time labour and expertise needs with a unique business model.
Arron Madson, with AgCall, explains that they’re not your typical recruitment company. Instead, the company works like a project manager of sorts, filling the individual needs of the company it works with by connecting qualified people to work in a specific geography and a specific role.
From running research trials, to doing sales calls, or working behind the scenes, Madson says there are several different roles they fill for clients. By having to recruit a diverse group of individuals to contract has turned in to be a year-round job.
Once someone is part of AgCall, they may work on one project at a time, or perhaps several projects all year. Others might put in full time hours for a few weeks, or some may put in just a few hours year round. It all comes down to what the client needs, but also what the contracted employee is looking for. Madson says they hire everyone from newly graduated students, to recently retired farmers or sales people, to consultants, and stay-at-home parents, all in an effort to fill experience and geographic needs.
The one consistent thing between all of them, however, is their ag backgrounds. Every person working with AgCall has an ag background, Madson says, and that’s key.
And why would a company choose to engage AgCall versus just hiring these staff members themselves? Madson says that not only is recruitment time consuming, supporting staff is also expensive, from hiring, and training to on-going support. For many companies, the year-round cost of employee would simply be too great when the need is shorter term or highly specialized.
Hear more from Aaron Madson in conversation with Shaun Haney, here:
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