Sep 20, 2017

Ag compensation, HR information released by Western Growers

Western Growers has released its 2017 Professional Compensation and HR Practices Surveys, exclusive data on base pay, incentive pay, merit increases and health plan coverages of the California and Arizona produce industry. Information from the surveys provide valuable insight to keeping agriculture-related businesses’ compensation competitive, and helping to attract and retain the best employees in the specialty crop industry.

“For seven years, we have provided Western Growers members with the crucial data they need to keep compensation levels competitive and to stay on top of their recruitment and retention strategies,” said Karen Timmins, senior vice president of human resources at Western Growers. “This year, we have taken it a step further to include data from more companies and greater data points. To fill a void this year, we also included field jobs.”

The newly-released Professional Compensation and H.R. Practices Report is the most comprehensive analysis available on compensation and H.R. practices for the California and Arizona specialty crop industry, as Western Growers is the only organization that compiles and provides this type of data. This year’s survey will include:

• Exclusive HR data compiled from more than 3,000 employees from nearly 100 companies.
• Details for 70 roles across companies, including executive, sales, marketing, plant, office, and field jobs.
• New data for nearly 25 additional field worker positions, including labor sources, compensation, eligibility for incentives and piece-rate, and worker retention programs.

Compensation and HR practices for over 20 categories, including base pay, health plan coverage, incentive programs, and merit increases.

“This survey is my trusted, go-to source of pay data that I use year-round for setting compensation for new hires, ensuring internal pay equity within groups of jobs, planning annual merit increases and comparing HR practices with similar companies,” said Stephanie Thiessen, vice president of human resources of The Munger Companies.

“We appreciate Western Growers for supporting the annual HR Compensation and Practices survey and for producing a professional, easy-to-use guideline of pay data for our industry.”

Western Growers members can now purchase the surveys on the Professional Compensation & HR Practices Surveys website. Those interested in purchasing the surveys, but are not yet Western Growers members, can sign up for membership by contacting Kim Sherman by email or (949) 885-2265.