Gillian Willis

Gillian Willis, Graduate Development Manager, Carlow

Gillian Willis is from a sheep, beef and tillage farm in Ballon, Co. Carlow and is currently Graduate Development Manager with Ifac. Gillian studied Food & Agri-Business Management at UCD and completed an MSc in Food Business Strategy at the Michael Smurfit Business School, UCD. She started her career with Burger King Corporate as a graduate in Madrid in 2015 before taking on roles in HR, Project Management and R and D based in Switzerland. Gillian joined Bord Bia in 2018 as Small Business Development Manager before recently joining Ifac.

Gillian’s Nuffield report is ‘Future proofing people management in Irish agriculture’

Executive Summary:

The global agricultural sector is striving to produce enough food to meet the needs of a growing population all while trying to improve its carbon footprint. As the conversations around sustainability in agriculture continue to progress and topics such as biodiversity, water quality, fossil fuel usage, amongst many others are being highlighted there is one key factor that is crucial to supporting farms on their sustainability journey, ensuring that there is a talent pipeline for the agricultural sector.

The overall aim of this study is to look at the attraction, engagement and retention of people employed in the agricultural sector in Ireland. As the Irish jobs market becomes increasingly competitive it is imperative that the agricultural sector remains a desirable one to work in. Thus, steps must be put in place to ensure that it remains appealing whilst also ensuring farmers are equipped with the right supports to successfully manage those employed on farm.

Visiting farms and agri-businesses across the world has highlighted that people challenges are a significant threat to the agricultural sector globally. In Chile, for example, as it goes through a period of economic growth, fewer nationals are living and working in rural areas. As a result, farms in Chile are now becoming more reliant on attracting workers from other South American countries such as Uruguay and Paraguay. Similar people challenges are also at the forefront of the agricultural sector in the UK, where migrant workers are heavily relied upon due to a lack of interest from the domestic workforce. Furthermore, Brexit has made it exceedingly difficult to attract and retain these necessary workers and farmers are now having to identify new ways in which they can attract this talent, while engaging and retaining the people they already have employed. New UK initiatives include the roll out of a module in diversity and inclusion delivered to the farming community with the aim of educating farmers and empowering them when hiring people from more diverse backgrounds.

The main findings of this study are that whilst Irish farmers are aware of the people challenges that are facing them, they are not best prepared to deal with them. The support infrastructure for farmers in Ireland is very strong, it takes the form of dedicated food and agricultural bodies, universities and farming lobby groups who all have the ability to provide farmers with the right supports and framework to manage these challenges. To future proof agriculture in Ireland, it needs to be equipped with an adequate workforce that is equally supported by farmers who are appropriately skilled and empowered to manage those employees.

From this study a number of key recommendations for the industry have been identified. There is a requirement for the educational body Teagasc to create a suite of people management courses to be made available to farmers to support them in upskilling in this area. In addition, Teagasc should consider upskilling its own advisors in the area of people management to have more informed conversations with farmers. Bord Bia, with over 77,000 members in its Quality Assurance programme have a unique opportunity to capture data to inform future people orientated decisions for the sector.

As a whole, to ensure the future proofing of people management in Irish agriculture it is key that the right provisions are put in place to support farmers in attracting, engaging, and retaining the right people to work in their farming enterprises.

Future proofing people management in Irish agriculture