Career and Succession Management for Agriculture and Agribusiness
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
What this looks like in agriculture and agribusiness
The parts of career and succession management that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Progression From Field to Supervision
Building crew leaders and unit supervisors from the workforce you already have.
What this coversHide
Progression From Field to Supervision
Building crew leaders and unit supervisors from the workforce you already have.
What this coversHideAgribusiness rarely has a career ladder written down, and yet every operation depends on crew leaders who were once field workers and learnt the role by watching someone else do it.
- Field worker
- Experienced hand
- Crew leader
- Unit supervisor
- Farm or processing manager
- Criteria for each step, stated in observable terms
- Crew leader capability built deliberately, not assumed
- Literacy and record-keeping support where the step requires it
- Seasonal workers tracked across years so progression is possible
- Processing unit roles as a route out of seasonality
- Successor identified for every supervisor and unit manager
Naming the ladder matters more than formalising it. Workers who can see a route stay across seasons; those who cannot treat the work as temporary regardless of how long they have done it.
The general method — what career and succession management covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the succession and leadership development page. What is above is the part that differs for agriculture and agribusiness.
Other HR topics for agriculture and agribusiness
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.
See all HR topics for agriculture and agribusiness, or another industry.