LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Talent management is an often overlooked key to success in food and agribusiness. New information presented by Purdue University can help managers make the most of their No. 1 asset: People.

"As we look at the data to guide us in managing people, we can go on more than just a gut feel. The data is a strong aspect of the new system that’s coming out," said Scott Downey, associate professor of ag economics at Purdue.

Most ag business leaders say their top asset is having the best people, said Allan Gray, director of the Center for Food and Agricultural Business and an ag econ professor at Purdue. "It’s not good enough to say we have the best people if we don’t think enough about how to motivate that talent," he explained.

Upcoming is the National Conference for Agribusiness on Nov. 10-11 in Lafayette, Ind., by the Center for Food and Agricultural Business. Registration is $1,295 and the conference is CEU- and CCA-accredited. Speakers will present data compiled by Google, Inc., a multinational Internet company, and the results of Purdue’s national survey of ag managers. In a recent webinar, Purdue’s professors of ag economics discussed some of these concepts. "Google believed managers weren’t necessary to its business, but its data analysis found that with good managers there was less turnover. Google also found eight qualities of a good manager," said Gray.

Those eight top behaviors of a good manager (from greatest to least) are:

•Be a good coach

•Empower the team and don’t micromanage

•Express interest/concern for team members’ success and personal well-being

•Don’t be a sissy – be productive and results-oriented

•Be a good communicator

•Help with career development

•Have a vision

•Use your technical skills to advise

"Notice that technical skills are at the bottom. Though your skills are important, they’re not as important as the others. Often we promote people based on their technical skills, but as a manager they are not nearly as important," Gray said.

Some manager pitfalls to avoid are lacking consistency and spending too little time communicating and managing. While managers should treat employees as individuals, they also need to exercise consistency from person to person, Gray said. "Google is about as far removed as can be from agribusiness. How do we transfer those ideas to the field and the truck?" asked Michael Gunderson, associate professor of ag economics.

Downey said communication and management are more difficult when the workforce is dispersed throughout the countryside, but that investment and management of people is just as important. "In the sales area, we like to think of the people in the field as customers and treat them that way," he said. "When I look at this list of top behaviors, it’s close to what a good salesperson has to do. The manager’s role in developing their people is similar."

In looking at talent management, there are various elements, such as business strategy and talent requirements, talent acquisition, talent development and retention and succession planning.

Downey said senior management in agribusiness will be retiring soon and will need to be replaced. During the tough economy in the 1980s, he said few people were hired in agribusiness, so there may be no one to step into senior positions. "It is especially important in agribusiness to do succession planning," he added.

Based on a question from an ag business, a disparity exists between the number of students interested in agribusiness and the food industry and the number of open positions in those fields. Ag employers may need to recruit students without an ag background, Downey said, as fewer people are being raised on a farm.

Sometimes those students are more engaged in agriculture, he said. The hardest thing may be convincing them to move into rural communities. Leaders at Purdue are thinking of ways to reach high school students with ag opportunities.

"4-H and FFA have had to think about providing value to a broader set of people, and they’ve done a good job of that. We need to create opportunities to those groups of people," Downey said.

The research on young people shows they are drawn to professions in which they can make a bigger impact on the world, Gray said. "In agriculture, we have a compelling story. There is no bigger impact than food and agriculture, the sustainability of farms and where food will be produced in the future."

He said the conference is not just for human resources personnel. It is also for managers or farm managers. For details, visit www.ag.purdue.edu/commercialag