EXTENSION LABOR MANAGEMENT
PROGRAMMING IN MINNESOTA:
EVALUATIVE OUTCOMES AND
IMPACTS
ROB HOLCOMB, CHARLES SCHWARTAU, GARY A.
HACHFELD, DAVID B. BAU, ANTONIO ALBA MERAZ AND
DONALD L. NITCHIE
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
PROGRAM BACKGROUND
 Inter-disciplinary team including University
of Minnesota educators from the Extension
Dairy Team, Extension Family
Development, and Agricultural Business
Management.
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES
 ↑ Understanding and exhibit application of
skills related to labor recruitment and
retention
 ↑ Understanding of labor regulations
 ↑ Understanding of tax issues related to
hired labor
 ↑ Understanding of compensation systems
 ↑ Understanding of human risk
management through developing an
employee handbook
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
TARGET AUDIENCE
 Livestock and crop
producers in Minnesota
 Secondary audience
included agricultural
professionals such as
lenders, commodity
organization staff, and farm
management instructors.
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PROGRAM OFFERINGS
 Employment Management Skills for
Today: Planning for Success
 Employment Management Skills for
Today: Tax & Regulatory Issues in
Minnesota
 Employment Management Skills for
Today: The Why’s and How’s of
Developing Employee Handbooks
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
PROGRAM TOPICS: PLANNING FOR
SUCCESS
 Assessing the need for hired
labor/effective hiring process
 Tax and regulatory issues
 Communications – includes a cultural
component
 Compensation
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PROGRAM TOPICS: TAX &
REGULATORY
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
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
Becoming an employer
Employee vs. contract labor
Worker documentation
New hire reporting requirements
Anti-discrimination laws
Minimum wage/overtime
Payroll & payroll deposits
Year-end reporting
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
PROGRAM TOPICS: WHY’S AND HOW’S OF
DEVELOPING AN EMPLOYEE MANUAL



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Business policies
Orientation and training
Work Policies
Employee pay information
Leave of absence
Discipline
Job performance
Employee benefits
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RESULTS – “PLANNING FOR SUCCESS”
 A total of 127 participants
attended one of the 10 workshops
presented since February 2012.
 Participants represented 71 farm
businesses from 63 different
communities.
 Seven local business sponsors
and three local educators
involved in marketing the
program.
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IMPACT STATEMENT – “PLANNING
FOR SUCCESS”
 100% of participants self-reported increases
in knowledge around all eight of the program
educational points.
 Significant knowledge increases were
reported in five of the eight educational
areas.
 98.7% of participants rated the overall
workshop good or excellent
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
SELF-REPORTED KNOWLEDGE INCREASE
END-OF-MEETING – PLANNING FOR SUCCESS (PFS)
Program Educational Point
Pre-Post Mean ∆
Assess business and determine labor needs
.95
Labor recruitment and implementing a hiring process
.89
Federal / State employer and employee tax / labor
law requirements
1.14*
Minnesota worker compensation, minimum wage,
and non-discriminatory laws
1.09*
Develop and implement an employee compensation
plan
1.11*
Complex lives of Hispanic/Latino workers
1.06*
Unique needs of immigrant employees
1.05*
Employers’ role in facilitating a positive work
environment (relationships/communication)
.66
* Denotes level of significance at .05
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FOLLOW-UP EVALUATION (PFS)
 Follow-up evaluation
performed six months
following the last
workshop.
 Focus is to determine
program impacts based
upon how participants
utilized and acted on their
new knowledge.
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
FOLLOW-UP EVALUATION (PFS)
 Follow-up evaluations were
sent to 105 owner/operator
participants from the 10
workshops.
 20 businesses returned
follow-up evaluation surveys
(19%).
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
FOLLOW-UP EVALUATION RESULTS (PFS)
Question
Yes
No
Have you assessed your operation and determined the level
of hired labor needed?
65%
35%
Have you implemented a new or revised labor recruitment &
hiring process?
20%
80%
Have you updated or implemented a new process for
compliance with federal & state employer & employer tax &
labor laws?
35%
65%
Cultural component helpful?
45%
55%
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
QUALITATIVE COMMENTS (PFS)
 Financial benefit from
changes to hiring
process:
– “Saves the operation $400
each time we hire a new
employee.”
– “This information helped
us and has potentially
saved us any hiring
penalties – about $500 in
savings.”
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
QUALITATIVE COMMENTS (PFS)
 Employer/Employee tax & labor laws
process:
– “We were not following everything according to
the law. This helped us get into compliance.”
– “This prompted us to check and see if we were
in compliance with all the tax and labor laws.”
– “We are paying more attention to the I-9 forms
now.”
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RESULTS – TAX & REGULATORY
 One session sponsored by Minnesota
Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ Association
in 2014
 Attendance: 11
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
IMPACT STATEMENT – TAX &
REGULATORY
 100% of participants self-reported increases
in knowledge around all seven of the
program educational points.
 Significant knowledge increases were
reported in all seven educational areas.
 100% of participants rated the overall
workshop good or excellent
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
SELF-REPORTED KNOWLEDGE INCREASE
END-OF-MEETING – TAX & REGULATORY
Program Educational Point
Pre-Post Mean ∆
Federal employer and employee labor law
requirements
1.20*
Regulatory issues such as worker compensation,
minimum wage, non-discrimination and overtime
1.30*
Accurate and timely completion of the Form I-9
1.20*
Examination and recording of worker documents
1.50*
Storage requirements for Form I-9
1.33*
Processing payroll and payroll deposits
1.30*
Year-end information reporting (W-2s, 943, W-3)
1.40*
* Denotes level of significance at .05
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RESULTS – WHY’S AND HOW’S…..
 Sessions held in January and March of
2014
 Attendance: 16
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IMPACT STATEMENT – WHY’S AND
HOW’S OF DEVELOPING EMPLOYEE
MANUALS
 100% of participants self-reported increases
in knowledge around all seven of the
program educational points.
 Significant knowledge increases were
reported in all seven educational areas.
 100% of participants rated the overall
workshop good or excellent
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
SELF-REPORTED KNOWLEDGE INCREASE
END-OF-MEETING – WHY’S AND HOW’S DEVELOPING EMPLOYEE
HANDBOOKS
Program Educational Point
Pre-Post Mean ∆
Reasons for and importance of an employee handbook
1.43*
Types of policies that should be included in an employee
handbook
1.43*
The process involved in developing, writing and
implementing an employee handbook
1.71*
Usefulness of the “worksheet for organizing your
employee handbook”
1.64*
Usefulness of the sample handbooks
1.64*
The value of working in small teams on policy drafts
during the workshop
1.29*
Usefulness of the notebook material to continue
development of your employee handbook
1.50*
* Denotes level of significance at .05
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
 Marketing/sponsorship
seems to be the
challenge
 MN ABM team has
recently experienced
numerous retirements
and new hires.
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION (CONT.)
 Follow-up evaluations are a challenge as
behavior changes often are related to
compliance issues
 Frequently contacted by farm managers for
follow-up compliance issues
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Rob Holcomb, EA
Extension Educator, Agricultural Business Management
University of Minnesota Extension
Extension Regional Office, Marshall
1424 E College Drive, Suite 100
Marshall, MN 56258-2087
Email: holcombr@umn.edu
Phone: 507-337-2807
Fax:
507-337-2802
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© 2015 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
Thank you
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