Fresh produce has gradually been edging its way into the centre stage of all things food-related, thanks to an ever-increasing focus on healthy living. But the same cannot be said for the industry behind it.
The problem of recruiting suitable candidates at all levels of the trade has been well-documented within these pages, as has the ignorance of the general public about what goes into producing their favourite fruit and veg for a pittance. So, why aren’t we attractive enough to warrant due consideration from consumers and prospective recruits alike?
These are issues confronted by the industry’s recruitment agencies on a daily basis. The products themselves are attractive enough but for some reason getting involved in the business fails to hold the same widespread appeal. “Fresh produce is never going to go away - it is the first thing you see when you walk into a supermarket and it looks great,” says Victoria Gipps, managing director of Grade One. “People value it but they don’t appreciate the work that goes into it and that is very frustrating because it really is a wonderful industry.”
David Macaulay, senior consultant at Redfox Executive Selection readily agrees the lack of appreciation is palpable but says consumers are not to blame because the industry has been unduly remiss in making a name for itself in the public eye, and, as such, when it comes to choosing a career, graduates or school leavers are going to be swayed by the bright lights and big noises made by larger corporate companies they have actually heard of.
So, what is the solution? How can fresh produce industries hope to entice some of the enthusiastic new blood it so desperately needs? According to Guy Moreton, director of MorePeople, it is a question of getting back to our roots and driving the message home with the very young. “Children fundamentally love gardening and plants and then something happens between the ages of 13 and 18 to put them off horticulture as a career,” he says. “But, it’s probably not that anything actually puts them off. What happens is that the industry doesn’t tell them there is something there for them to do.”
As such, Moreton has made it his mission to encourage all fresh produce firms, however big or small, to adopt a local school and talk to children about the whys and wherefores of horticultural production. “Overnight you would have twice as many people talking about horticulture,” he says, adding that having recently introduced some 11-12 year old pupils to the joys of production and the exciting jobs available to them in this field, he can readily speak of the mutual benefits for all involved. “A lot of the kids think the jobs are digging potatoes or picking strawberries or working in a glasshouse. Of course, there are those jobs but there is a plethora of opportunities for young people in produce.”
Macaulay believes the notion of a childish affinity with horticulture may be restricted to the concentrated growing regions, such as Lincolnshire or Kent, with the average inner-city youngster unlikely to show the same enthusiasm. However, these qualms aside, while attracting the youth of tomorrow is all well and good, the industry is facing a serious labour shortage, which needs to be addressed rather more urgently, he claims. “The produce industry really needs to target people who come from a farming background,” he says. “That’s the immediate solution. It’s all very well thinking about appealing to children but we are missing a generation of teenagers and are facing a five-year gap where there will be a serious lack of suitable candidates if the industry doesn’t do something to attract them now.”
According to Gipps, the once steady stream of graduates taking flight from established colleges continues to dwindle. “It is the old chicken and egg situation,” she says. “There are fewer and fewer students applying for the courses so that means the courses are closing or changing, and those remaining still struggle to get applicants.”
Macaulay, however, says the industry has failed to take advantage of potential recruitment opportunities. He urges companies to think outside the box a little and harness the potential value of highly educated individuals not necessarily from fresh produce backgrounds. “Companies should be targeting business schools, as well as the likes of Writtle and Harper Adams,” he says. “Even the big names, such as JP Fruit and Mack or Barfoots, might feel unable to compete with all the other graduate propositions, but they have a great story to tell.”
However, Macaulay sympathises that companies may be lacking the time or budget to canvass every graduate open day alone, suggesting a more unilateral approach headed up by the FPC is called for. Moreton agrees, adding that the industry has been penalised for not having big brands to generate the same kind of excitement that other industries rely on and therefore desperately needs some kind of singular, rallying cry. “The FPC is not a big organisation and I fully appreciate the resources it has only stretch so far, but I do think it has a responsibility to communicate a clear message to schools and colleges,” he says.
Gipps says she has no problem persuading non-fresh produce candidates to consider the industry and while some clients are reluctant to steer too far from the familiar in seeking new recruits, the rewards can be numerous for those willing to do so, she suggests. “It can be difficult for people from other disciplines to make the transition to fresh produce, which has a definite culture of its own, but sometimes people with different training bring new approaches that enable them to see problems so ingrained within the industry that from within no one can see them,” she says, adding that often operational or technical issues could be cleared up easily if looked at from a fresh perspective. “It is about a whole new management culture. We have got to get our clients to embrace the broader food industry, which is full of people with new ideas waiting to be introduced to this fantastic industry.”
The dominance of the supermarkets spreads to the recruitment arena, with retail positions still holding a significant allure to a lot of young people. However, according to Theresa Huxley, Sainsbury’s product technologist for stonefruit, while buying positions may be more readily filled, it is a definite struggle to recruit for more technical roles. At the same time, Gipps says candidates who initially flock to retail roles or defer from the supply sector often soon discover the grass is not as green as they anticipated. “A lot of people find supply more fun and they have the chance to get more involved,” she says. “A buyer or technologist has a very defined role. They have a particular level of responsibility but they can’t easily progress beyond that so there is not much room for growth.” Gipps readily admits, however, the most valuable candidates are those who have experience of both sides of the industry, and can, therefore, understand the trials and tribulations of supplying supermarkets as well as the pressures buyers are under to deliver customer satisfaction.
Experience, most recruiters agree, is a serious bone of contention in trying to meet client requests. However, all too often when the issue of salary comes up, companies can be unrealistic in their expectations. In the industry’s defence, Moreton says the salaries can be much better than outsiders often perceive but there is definite room for improvement. For many areas of the industry, wholesaling in particular, antisocial working hours are an unavoidable reality. But companies can still make themselves more attractive in spite of these aspects of the job, Gipps claims. “It is a 24/7 industry and that is never going to change, but it could be better acknowledged,” she says. “For example, by having a freer system for weekend cover and making sure people get days in lieu during the week. We do have clients who haven’t lost a QC in years because they look after their staff. Companies need to be mindful of the fact that young people or people with families have other priorities as well.”
In addition, when companies do take on young, and often fairly experienced people, more attention should be paid to the work they are given, Gipps emphasises. “Graduates tend to find themselves going into QC,” she says. “You do need people to understand the products and the supply chain but it is very hard work and quite mind-numbingly boring for graduates. There needs to be more acknowledgement - more training for graduates within the first one to two years - so they are not just stuck within one area.”
Moreton fully agrees and says this issue is at the heart of a new project in graduate calibre recruitment that MorePeople will launch in the new year. “Fresh produce is very “now” and there aren’t many people thinking long-term enough to say, ‘we’ll need five graduates next year and then maybe two for the year after’.” However, some companies have started to come around to this way of thinking, he says, and following the widely-acclaimed success of MDS’ training schemes, replica in-house versions of the system have been introduced.
Fyffes started the process four years ago and the venture has proven very successful, according to HR manager Michael Key. “We were members of MDS for years but then about five years ago we decided to start our own scheme,” he says. “One of the disadvantages of MDS is you could have someone for six months but then you are in competition with other companies to keep them. This way we have them for two years and of course we can’t keep everyone but we have been able to place people in the company and it is working well.
“Generally speaking, we don’t groom people for particular jobs. We try to be flexible about it and give the recruits as broad a training as possible in order to get a feel for what suits them and us best.
“On a yearly basis we take on about three or four graduates across Europe, co-ordinated by our offices here in the UK. We take them in September and they have two years of training, with six-month placements in four different areas of the company.”
Key says the interest has been phenomenal, and he typically has 400-500 applications to sift through after placing adverts in two of the most renowned graduate handbooks. Fresh produce experience is not a prerequisite for applying, he says. Rather, the interview panel is looking for an enthusiasm for the industry and potentially strong leadership skills.
Key is quick to highlight the time and effort involved in offering such placements but the rewards are considerable he says, and he believes that as the scheme progresses more of Fyffes constituent companies will see the value in investing in potential employees in this way.
Moreton agrees, adding that Fyffes is at the forefront of what he hopes will be a major step forward in fresh produce recruitment. At the same time, however, while he urges companies to be proactive, he emphasises the industry should be entitled to a significant degree of support from outside. But it will take a concerted effort to get it, and the question, he says, is who is going to get the ball rolling?
“The government is strongly pushing the healthy-eating message but what I want to know is where are we going to get all the people we need to support the industry so we can deliver the produce to meet that growing demand?” Moreton asks. “If you think that less than 10 per cent of the population is eating three pieces of fruit or veg a day at the moment, produce consumption should increase dramatically. It could be three times the size in a few years and that is going to require a lot of work from the industry.
“It is a fairly simple scenario. The government is spending millions of pounds on that side of promotions so why can’t it give the FPC £25 million to make sure the industry has the right calibre of people to deal with the kind of growth they are aiming for?”
“LET ME ENTERTAIN YOU” - EXPLORING THE ROLE OF THE MODERN DAY TRAINER
Daryon Eldridge - human resources and training consultant Redfox Executive Selection Ltd
After having the dubious pleasure of co-running a training programme alongside a male trainer with a penchant for cracking jokes and talking about himself for most of the day, I began to question what people really want from a trainer. My dilemma: are trainers on this earth to entertain or to spread the word of learning? After seeing this guy turn an audience of serious-minded senior managers into an hysterical bunch of school children whom I had struggled to get focused on any topic in depth, I wondered if I should forget my 15 years of training experience and head for the circus for some additional development.
Maybe I just don’t get it. Co-training with a comedian is a total nightmare. I just manage to get a meaningful point across, the audience is with me, the cogs of learning are wheeling round and he’s in there with a ‘bust a gut’ witticism which has them all in stitches. I’ve lost them and they’ve lost the point.
I’m not for one moment suggesting courses should be dry events run by trainers who have had their sense of humour removed, but if you’ve paid good money you presumably want to learn something. If you wanted to be cheered up then surely a trip to the pub with a few friends would be a better choice of activity.
You might argue that laughter raises energy levels and I would agree with you there. I’m not adverse to the occasional mildly amusing story as long as it illustrates a point: I recently told the well-publicised and true story of the “naked interviewer” on a recruitment and selection course. However, I am not a performing seal and my skills lie in helping people learn and inspiring them to change their lives and those of others around them.
So what on earth is wrong with “funny” trainers anyway? Something about all song and dance and no substance springs to mind. Weeks or months later you may remember having a great time but the chances are you won’t remember what you learnt or even what the title of the course was. So that brings me to ask what, therefore, is the point of a training course? Is it to change something about oneself? To generate some new ideas? To network with others? To try some new concepts out in a safe environment? To take some ideas back to work to share with others? To be inspired? My viewpoint is that any training event should generate some, if not all, of these things. So the next time you go on a training course, please don’t judge the experience on the entertainment value but on the learning messages and the actions you take after the course. This surely must be the true measure of any learning event.
For further information on Redfox’s innovative training approach or to comment on this article, contact the team on 08702 405441 or e-mail us at hello@redfoxes.co.uk.
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