Utilise Overseas Ag Interns
OPINION: Farmers have been clear: it is getting harder, not easier, to find and keep good people.
First published in 2012, the guides – Living and working on a New Zealand dairy farm (a guide for migrant dairy farm workers) and Are you recruiting migrant workers? (a guide for dairy farmers) – were developed to help migrant dairy workers and their employers work better together.
Immigration NZ’s national manager settlement, Judi Altinkaya, says the guides have led to better productivity on farms.
“They have helped dairy farmers and New Zealand-born dairy workers gain an insight into why migrant workers may work in a different way from them and how best to support their migrant colleague to settle into living and working on a dairy farm.”
New information in the second editions of the guides is based on the feedback INZ collected from migrant dairy workers and their employers.
The updated guides include new information on getting ready to move to New Zealand, visas, workplace communication skills and the Kiwi rural lifestyle. There are also lift-out quick reference information cards – popular in INZ’s guides for the aged-care and construction sectors.
The reference cards include ‘a checklist to plan ahead’, useful communication tips and a list of settlement support services.
“These cards enable a migrant to have essential settlement information readily available to them, and they are easily portable for ready-reference,” says Altinkaya. “Some users put them on their fridges.”
