Waikato farms attract worldwide workforce

Map pins show the countries represented among Westmorland’s 12-members strong team. It also acts as a visual prompt to think globally, as this is where their quality milk goes to.

The list is impressive: UK, Germany, Belgium, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Philippines, New Zealand and Ukraine.

Owners David and Sue Fish believe that the business is only as good as their team.

Attracting the right people and providing them with a great working environment has been the foundation of the business’ success.

Sue says the business focus has been to spend plenty of time at the recruitment stage to find the right people to fit their team.

A focus on people’s well-being and their ‘team first’ mentality, backed by strong social media presence, means there’s no shortage of people willing to join their team.

Sue told Rural News that she believes there is a global pool of skilled and dedicated people waiting to be tapped into coming and working on NZ dairy farms.

“It’s all about trying to make our business attractive to everyone,” she says.

“Yes, it has become hard to get people in NZ and from around the world, but there are those who want to come and experience the dairy industry.”

Westmorland has been an Immigration NZ accredited employer for four years.

Sue says for them it’s been looking at what they can do as an employer to attract good people.

“Why should someone opt to work on our dairy farm as opposed to a different industry down the road?”

One of their latest recruits is a German mechanical engineer. He had never milked cows before but loves the job and environment.

Operations manager Dries Verrycken, from Belgium, believes it’s about picking people with the right attitude and also about offering them the right, training, working environment and support.

Verrycken says most employers focus on skills when recruiting.

“But that’s something you can train; it’s always hard to find all things in one person.

“For us, it’s about finding the best fit, personalities that we can work with.

“We can then teach them how to milk cows or drive a tractor,” he adds.

He says some of their team members bring other skills from their previous occupations which come in handy on farm. The business has people with backgrounds in vet nursing, economics, agronomy, animal science, nursing, business production, vet, psychology, payroll, mechanic, agricultural, and more.

Recruitment is done mostly online and on social media platforms. This is spearheaded by Verrycken’s wife and human resources manager, Paola.

Westmorland Estate is made up of three dairy farms, all situated within Waitoa.

Verrycken says they work as a team.

“We are three separate farms but at the end of the day there’s one big team.

“We work together: if there’s a man down on one farm, then a member from another farm steps in to help.”

The hard work of the team is given due recognition. Every month an employee of the month is announced – going to a someone with can do attitude, proactive, will go the extra mile and takes pride of his or her work place.

And an annual performance awards event is held.

This event is to celebrate the team and how their hard work contributes to the success of Westmorland Estate Ltd and the wider dairy industry.

Last week the whole Westmorland team gathered in Matamata for the event, which is supported by industry stakeholders.