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Hiring and Retaining Farm Employees - Creating an Employee Handbook

Jesse Ketterman, Maria Pippidis, Paul Goeringer, and Nate Bruce

Summary

Creating an employee handbook can be a challenge for farm business managers. Educators from multiple states took on the task of creating an employee handbook that can be modified for general use in farm operations. Topics include basic legal requirements and how to incorporate benefits that agricultural employees deal with, such as offering retirement and health insurance. Benefits can be an important factor in recruiting and retaining employees. Creating a job description can reduce liability to the farm operation. The business structure can determine how benefits impact financial consideration on tax reporting. The 2015 USDA ARMS survey indicates that 10 percent of farm households lacked insurance, 18 percent have insurance through direct-purchase, and 28 percent through government programs. Knowing available health insurance options can be an important financial consideration within the farm operation to include establishing programs like health reimbursement accounts. On a similar note, we all think about retirement and even more so as we age. The session includes retirement planning and considerations of contributing to various retirement programs such as an IRA, Roth IRA, or offering a 401K. The session touches on the five areas of farm risk management.

Details

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