Overview

How to Hire Farm Workers is a self-paced, online course that covers the basics of hiring and managing farm employees. We structured this course to guide you through the process of hiring the right person for your farm. Registration in the course gives you access to five hours of content, including videos, checklists, templates, and resources.

The course is divided into three sections:

Hiring Process – How to write a job posting, interview candidates and set up payroll.
Attracting Great Farm Workers – How to build a positive work culture and prioritize strong communication
Working Together – How to create a comprehensive onboarding plan and skills training, support employee wellness, providing and receiving feedback as an employer, and organizing effective meetings.

Is the How to Hire Farm Workers course for me?

How to Hire Farm Workers is open to anyone who wants to learn about hiring farm employees – whether you’re just thinking about hiring your first employee and want to see what is involved in the process or you have a team of employees and are looking for ways to attract and retain people to work on your farm. All production types and farm sizes are welcome!

What is the course format?

This course is self paced and entirely online. That means you can do the course at any time, from anywhere!

All the content is available as soon as you register and includes a mixture of text, videos, self-assessment quizzes, resources, and templates. The topics are organized in a way that walks you through the hiring process from writing a job description to celebrating at the end of the season but you are welcome to move through the course in whatever way suits your context.

What is the cost of the course?

We love supporting new and young farmers to grow! To make the How to Hire Farm Workers course more affordable we are offering a sliding scale payment, which means that you are able to select how much you pay to participate.

The suggested sliding scale cost is $25-$125. If you are not able to pay on the suggested sliding scale, you are welcome to contribute an amount that works for you. No one will be turned away from the course for lack of funds.

We base the price range on the cost of running the program (coordination, speaker fees, program development, and online infrastructure). When you register you are able to enter any amount as a registration fee. If you’d like to learn more, please go to “What is sliding scale payment? Why do we use it?”.

Farm partners/teams that are working together to hire, can register together. If you have any questions, would like to pay without using a credit card, and/or want to arrange a payment plan, then please contact us at elearning@youngagrarians.org.

FAQ

Will this course cover how to hire foreign workers and the paperwork involved their visas?

No. This course only talks about hiring a Canadian citizen or permanent resident as an employee, it does not touch on temporary foreign workers or visa requirements for out-of-country workers. For resources and information related to hiring people from outside of Canada please refer to the Hire a temporary foreign agricultural worker page on the Government of Canada website.

That being said, most of the topics (e.g. effective farm meetings, farm safety, strong communication) apply to anyone who works on your farm and you may find that content relevant for your farm.

How much time is required to participate in this program?

There is approximately five hours of content (reading, watching videos, completing self-assessment quizzes). You can complete the course at your own pace and come back to it at any time.

How long do I have access to the course?

Once you register, you have lifetime access to the content.

What do I need to participate?

All you need for this course is a computer and access to the internet. You’ll be asked to create a profile for our e-learning platform (or use your existing profile to login) and then you can register for the course. Use this profile to login to our site and access the content.

Questions or ideas? Email the E-Learning team at elearning@youngagrarians.org.

Looking for more resources? Click the button below to learn more about our E-Learning programs.