A job that offers a challenging and rewarding career, a good salary and the chance to be part of a fast-paced and vibrant industry, often with the option of worldwide travel, ticks the boxes for what many would consider a dream job. This is exactly what many positions in fresh produce circles can offer, but the sector is still struggling to attract enough new talent, even in the aftermath of one of the most severe recessions to ever hit the UK.
The skills needed across the fresh produce game are many and varied, from the technical expertise needed for seed breeding and production through to the languages that come in handy when it comes to building strong trading relationships and the fresh ideas expected from a forward-thinking sales and marketing team.
However, the lack of new talent coming into the industry is a problem that stretches through a cross-section of the business. At the same time, the lack of people taking up training and in the longer term, the provision of this kind of education will hit the development of the UK industry.
The root of the problem?
A briefing paper put to DEFRA by the Fruit and Vegetable Task Force’s production sub-group earlier this year and released to FPJ last week identifies the “extremely poor” situation for skills and education in the produce sector.
The study took production horticulture to mean the top- and soft-fruit categories, protected field crops including fruit, vegetables, salads and herbs, field vegetables and salads as well as potatoes, which are sometimes categorised under agriculture. This accounts for some 82,000 people spread across some 7,745 businesses, 85 per cent of which are small- and medium-sized businesses.
But worryingly, the number of candidates who completed a NVQ Level 2 in Production Horticulture in 2008-09 is just 22. Take up has plummeted from 111 in 2007-08 and 75 in 2006-07, with the majority taking the qualification in the ornamental sector, rather than edibles. Not one person completed the next step up, an NVQ Level 3.
David Winn, industry manager for horticulture at sector skills council Lantra, concludes in the paper: “At present, it seems that the investment in training is dependent on the negotiation of prices paid by the customer and in the main, this is dominated by the four largest supermarkets. While there is such pressure on low prices, the likelihood of increased demand for skills is highly unlikely.
“However, there is still a high level of technical expertise, but this too has been reduced due to the slimming down of research and research facilities, so some specialist knowledge has been imported. It may be the case that as the production of food is global, so too we must look to the global market for expertise and the development of these experts.
“The result to the UK being that training and education provision is close to non-existent and will be further damaged by reduced funding support, as this is not a government priority sector.”
The group aims to put together a set of recommendations in time for the autumn. In the meantime, Lantra has linked up with the National Farmers’ Union and the Horticultural Development Company to study career profiles and progression for the benefit of the wider industry.
Winn tells FPJ: “The old bottom line is such that businesses are questioning how to pay for training and whatever happens, it seems that they struggle through and achieve their aim but that is not a sustainable system.
“If the government wants food security, it is going to need skills. Things have been slipping for years, but things will have to change even if now it doesn’t seem like the best time.”
A ray of light
For now though, the industry is recovering from one of the toughest patches it has endured in a long time. The growing confidence in the candidate market means that the fresh produce industry could be looking at more options when it comes to filling vacancies.
David Macaulay, director at recruitment firm Redfox, believes that the “talent crunch” will be more evident in the next 12 months, but he claims that people are more interested in moving on and developing their career now that the recession is behind them. The recruitment firm has never had more roles on its books.
“There has been an increase in the number of candidates, the confidence has returned,” Macaulay explains. “At the height of the recession, many companies were still looking to recruit but people weren’t looking to move. Confidence was never so badly damaged as it was 12 months ago, but we are finding that candidates are now more willing to reconsider and relocate to develop their career.
“However, the fresh produce industry is going to face competition from primary agriculture including wheat, barley and beef, which are a lot more attractive now than they have been in a long time and will be another option for those going into farming.”
So what can the industry do to turn the situation around and secure the future of the UK sector in the long term? This is the crux of the issue, but finding a solution is easier said than done.
Victoria Gipps, managing director of recruitment firm Grade One, insists that the industry is trying to tackle the issues at the roots, starting with public perception. “We are working much harder at the graduate end of the market, doing our best to sell the benefits andchallenges of such a dynamic and demanding industry, not just to graduates studying in the sector, but also to linguists who are keen to use their languages on a daily basis,” she says.“We can always guarantee this - as well as extensive travel, of course.
“But it’s the same old story - we have to makeit ok to go home at a sensible hour and not feel guilty about it, work out fairrota systems and time off in lieu for weekend and Bank Holiday work andget realistic bonuses and rewards back on the agenda,” she insists. “There is more money in the pot now. Offer training and development, language courses, overseas placements - these all make an employer more attractive to up and coming graduates.”
It seems that making the most of the graduate pool is key and back at the beginning of a career in fresh produce, some training programmes are taking a fresh approach to education and have continued to get results.
Danni Shaw from Management Development Services (MDS) admits that it is a “really hard market” for graduates at the moment, but she insists that MDS graduates continued to get jobs right through the economic downturn, which shows “there is no shortage of requirement for good people in fresh produce”.
The MDS scheme will recruit eight candidates for the autumn and 10 for the spring. The programme has been running in its accredited form for three years but has been creating industry leaders for more than 25 years.
“We have had a lot of applications including from people who previously might not have applied,” says Shaw. “There are a lot of people casting about for anything, but we are quite specific about who would suit the industry. The industry is Marmite; you either love it, or you hate it.
“Nearly all of the MDS scheme is placement,” she continues. “Over two years, students take on four different roles at four different companies, backed up with 27 days of off-the-job training and study. It’s not about chalk and talk; it’s about learning the process and getting a huge amount of experience right across the supply chain.”
At the other end, the most forward-thinking companies are taking matters into the own hands in order to safeguard their future.
The industry has recently come together to form a HR forum to try to resolve the frustration that many statistics that companies could potentially benchmark themselves against are in fact attributed to the wider food and drink category, which includes everything from major food processing operations to meat, bakery and breweries, as well as fresh produce.
Members include Tricia McCarron from Worldwide Fruit, Sue Armstrong from Empire World Trade, Gwen Marshall from JO Sims, Chris Sargeant from Fesa and Sarah Gibson from Greencell.
The first meeting was held last month at Worldwide Fruit’s site in Spalding, where the group decided to collate HR data for the fresh produce industry, share best practice and establish a HR network to talk through issues as and when required. Alongside this, the team will co-ordinate training requirements and work to raise the profile of the industry to make it more attractive to new recruits.
Across the industry, both large and small companies have their work cut out to attract the people who will take the category forward in the long term. Many hoped the recession would encourage more people to keep an open mind as to which industry to go into, but it looks as if the sector will need to take action now if it is going to be able to make the most of the UK industry.
HOW TO GET MORE FROM YOUR PEOPLE
Peter Hunt from recruitment firm MorePeople on how to attract the best people, and keep them.
Attracting and retaining the best possible people is vital to the long-term prosperity of any business, let alone any produce business. There are key factors behind companies that can point to having developed a successful long-term recruitment and retention strategy. And contrary to popular wisdom, it’s not all about money. Of course, financial incentives are important and every sector will have its superstar performers. These may grab the headlines but for the vast majority of roles there is a generally accepted range of salaries and benefits and in day-to-day practical terms, that’s what most people aspire to. So what else can you do to make your business stand out from the rest?
Well, before you can start to recruit successfully, you really do need to know what you have to offer. The relatively low profile of the fresh produce industry and the effect this has on attracting people to the sector has been an oft-aired topic in these pages and as an individual company, there is a limit to what you can do about that. However, what you can have an impact on is your own image - just how are you perceived in your markets and what makes you stand out among your peers? Success breeds success, so if you are working on some new initiative that’s newsworthy, make sure everyone knows about it. People like to be associated with innovative and progressive companies. Half the battle is getting someone interested in your business in the first place, so an up-to-date and professionally produced website is the minimum candidates expect to see.
Lots of fresh produce companies are now seeing the value of marketing to their businesses and how they can use new techniques to add value to the relationships they have with their customers, so how about thinking about recruitment as a marketing function and how you can use it to help build your “employer brand”? Candidates do talk to one another and how you handle the recruitment process can have a big influence on how you are perceived. As a business, do you have a recruitment culture? Are you always on the look-out for the best people? Good people aren’t always available when you want them, but the most successful companies have a culture that means they always want to be kept aware of good people. Whether it’s someone you meet at a trade fair or conference, or someone referred to you by a contact (or friendly recruiter), it’s always a good idea to build up your own pool of talent that you can dip into when the need arises - proaction is always better than reaction.
But the recruitment process doesn’t stop once you’ve got someone through the door. Over the course of their working life, the best people will want to progress and develop. To prevent them from pursuing their ambitions elsewhere, you may have to effectively “re-recruit” people, which means where possible provide opportunities internally that satisfy their career aspirations. By far the most effective way to do this is through training and development. Good people invest a lot of themselves into the businesses they work for and want to feel involved and stimulated by the jobs that they do. Giving people the opportunity to use the knowledge they have of the business but apply this in different areas through the acquisition of new skills can be a very effective way of keeping someone involved and motivated. You won’t be able to please everyone, but the aim has to be to retain the people that you want - the ones that you have identified as your stars of the future. Developing a reputation as a business that invests in the training and development of its people helps at the front end of the process, as it’s a really strong factor in attracting good people in the first place. If you can start to manage your recruitment process in the same way as you service your customers, then you should be on the right track.
CAREER PATHS: A WORTHY GRADUATE
Duncan Worth, managing director of AH Worth and Co Ltd, chairman of QV Foods and Worth Farms and a member of the Management Development Services (MDS) board, started his fresh produce career on the scheme. Here, he talks Anna Sbuttoni through his career.
When did you start on the MDS scheme and what attracted you to it?
I started back in June 1987. I was interested because the work experience that I had undertaken was in agriculture and my degree was in Agricultural Economics, but I had not decided 100 per cent what I wanted to do. The prospect of a two-year management training scheme, working for four different businesses in an organised, project-based way appealed to me. My view at the time was that this would provide me with an accelerated entry into the produce arena.
Were there any other produce industry figures in your class?
Not in my intake, but Julius Joel (fellow MDS director, from Spearhead International), Jonathan Tremayne (from Emmetts) and David Wright (from Manor Fresh) were in the intake before me.
How has your career developed since then?
Post-MDS, I spent six months travelling and six months working for a carrot and lettuce packer near Lincoln. I got my lucky break in August 1990 with a job offer for a buying position at Tesco’s head office in Cheshunt. They were looking for someone with a broad produce experience to radically move forward their organics business. I am sure that the training, the range of products I handled and business experience that I gained through MDS got me that job. I moved to Compass Service in 1993 and back into the family business in 1995.Between 1999 and 2001, I gained an MBA from Lancaster University. I am now managing director of AH Worth and chairman of QV Foods and Worth Farms.
What do you make of the so-called “talent crunch” that has evolved in the fresh produce sector, with the lack of young people coming into the industry and the question of succession planning?
In the short term, I do not think there is an issue in our sector. The supply base has contracted, which has meant that there is a good pool of talent. I do not think that this situation is the same in other sectors and I can see signs of issues in our sector. The produce industry needs a continuous flow of well-trained managers entering the industry to ensure that we can all drive forward our businesses.
What has been your career highlight?
There are a number. Gaining the role at Tesco was a huge move forward in my career, but also gaining my MBA and now being heavily involved in driving forward our successful family business is great.
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