What Recruiters Can Be Doing Now

In our new COVID-19 impacted world

Recruiting Involves the Following

• Planning and Organizing• Finding and Identifying• Making Connections• Recruiting• Follow Up• Documenting Efforts• Beginning Services/ Providing

Referrals

• What is possible today?• Every single part of recruiting

is still possible with some shift changes in how we operate and what we do.

Planning and Organizing

• Recruiters should:• Know their areas• Know when people are

coming and going and why related to agriculture work.

• Make connections with those places and people that possible eligible families and youth come in contact with.

• This is all still possible with COVID-19 but it can not be done in traditional ways.

Planning and Organizing- Stay Informed

• We are working to keep everyone updated. Please check this page often

• https://www.idr-consortium.net/Covid-19.html

Planning and Organizing• Do you have your farms and

agribusinesses mapped out in your area with a comprehensive list of these places?

• Is this completely up to date?• Do these farms and

agribusinesses know of your program and have you developed a plan to work with them?

• Have you had conversations with human resources and farm owners or managers?

Planning and Organizing• Great sites to use to find farms

and agribusinesses• https://www.manta.com/• (like the white pages for

businesses with info about the company)

• Often once you search they will provide suggestions of other businesses similar to the one you are looking for.

Planning and Organizing• Review your own state Department

of Agriculture website• Often they promote specific state

products and farms with specific listing and crop information.

• Your state Agriculture office is another great place to reach out to now.

• Some states make coalitions or official networks and Ag can be invited into this network.

Planning and Organizing

• Review your states Agriculture Extension Resources and websites for each county.

• https://nifa.usda.gov/land-grant-colleges-and-universities-partner-website-directory?state=All&type=Extension

Planning and Organizing• Extension does a lot of work with

farmers. You want to know what types of meetings, trainings, and resources for farmers.

• https://nifa.usda.gov/land-grant-colleges-and-universities-partner-website-directory?state=All&type=Extension

• Examples- Beef Producer, vegetable, food safety, pesticides, aquaculture trainings, etc. Whenever there is a new farm bill they are the ones providing training to the agriculture community.

Planning and Organizing- Using USDA Resources

• Have you learned about your Ag Census data and compared with what numbers and farm listings you have?

• https://www.idr-consortium.net/AgCensus.html

• Do you check back often to learn about USDA Resources.

https://www.idr-consortium.net/Ag%20Census/Knowing%20and%20Understanding%20the%20Ag%20Census.pdf

Planning and Organizing- Using USDA Resources

• Do you use USDA resources for farmers to make yourself aware of what resources are out there?

• https://www.farmers.gov/

Planning and Organizing- Using USDA Resources

• Do you use the seasonal jobs site to find farms and H2a listings.

• https://seasonaljobs.dol.gov/

Planning and Organizing- Contratados

• Look for additional places that are hiring.

• https://contratados.org/

https://hempindustrydaily.com/

Planning and Organizing- Old Addresses

• Do you have a tool to check back at old addresses where you used to have families?

• Can you send an informational mailing about the program?

• Can you strategically put up fliers?

• Do you generally use this in your recruitment plan?

Planning and Organizing- Using Fliers

https://www.osymigrant.org/G-GB.html

Planning and Organizing- Housing

• Do you know the housing sites families/youth normally come to?

• Do you need to reach out in more urban areas and talk with housing managers to identify new places you can recruit?

• You are looking often for places that families first come to when they are new in an area.

Finding and Identifying

• Thank goodness for the internet

• Effective recruitment does not just mean you drive around and look and ask.

• Now we need to be continuing to get to know our areas.

• Now is a perfect time to get to know all of your area.

• This is still possible with some tweaks to normal recruiting efforts.

Finding and Identifying

• Use the farm subsidy database to find large farms in your area.

• This will list top subsidy recipients you can then go to Manta to find their information.

• https://farm.ewg.org/

• This is still possible with some tweaks to normal recruiting efforts.

Finding and Identifying

• Use the farm subsidy database to find large farms in your area.

• This will list top subsidy recipients you can then go to Manta to find their information.

• https://farm.ewg.org/

Finding and Identifying

• https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/inspection

• Here you can get a list of all USDA inspected agribusiness plants in your area.

Finding and Identifying

• https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/inspection

• Here you can get a list of all USDA inspected agribusiness plants in your area.

Finding and Identifying

• Get in Contact with your state labor contractors. Keep a list, make a map, and find out what they know and if they are willing to work with you.

• https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/agriculture/mspa/farm-labor-contractors

Making Connections

• Some people have more time these days and others have way less.

• Be effective to know who has more strain and who would be good to reach out to right now.

• Think outside the box in way to reach out and ways to make connections.

• Be deliberate in finding ways to reach out to families.

• Making connections is more essential now then ever.

Making Connections- Use Social Media

• Programs are often hesitant to use social media but it is a great tool.

• Now is the time to start using these tools if they have not yet been used in your state.

• If they have expand your efforts.

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-facebook-ads-for-local-businesses/

Making Connections- What do MEP families/ youth use?

• Find out what they are using and then learn everything you can about it and how to use it to your advantage.

Making Connections- What do MEP families/ youth use?

https://www.pm360online.com/hispanics-love-social-media-especially-video/https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/220037/hispanics-over-index-on-social-media-use.html

Making Connections- What do MEP families/ youth use?

https://www.pm360online.com/hispanics-love-social-media-especially-video/

Making Connections: Do our Homework…

https://www.nielsen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/the-online-lives-latinx-consumers.pdf

Making Connections: Do our Homework…

https://www.nielsen.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/the-online-lives-latinx-consumers.pdf

Using Social Media- the possibilities are endless• Ask families to like your Facebook

page and send out updates. Ask them to share to help get the word out.

• Offer weekly online classes and invite them to come

• Offer PAC meetings online where families can ask questions

• Ask them to notify you as they move.

• Invite them to programming• Use it as a tool to communicate• Conduct interviews

• Make strategic ads to populations that might be eligible for the program.

• Make effective e-fliers and ask families to help share them.

• Make videos about your program and ask families to join your YouTube channel

• Ask them about what content they want that is relevant to our MEP program purposes and make the content and ask them to share it.

• Get the word out about the program

What are they using?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/29/technology/personaltech/migrants-whatsapp-google-translate.html https://qz.com/1220212/hispanics-use-

whatsapp-more-than-any-other-ethnic-or-racial-group-in-the-us/

https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/for-immigrant-families-whatsapp-is-a-lifeline-and-a-rare-connection-to-the-worlds-they-left-behind

Recruiting

• Recruiting is still very much possible but your services are key to help get reluctant worried eligible families and youth to sign up.

• How have your services changed and can recruiters be used in unique ways to provide services to families?

• Face to face is not possible in person in most places but technology allows us to make up for this.

• Our phones still work well for this also.

Follow up

• Follow up has always been key and this has not changed in any way.

• Be deliberate in your ID&R efforts and in your servicing efforts and follow up is essential in both areas.

• Stay organized. • Work to get referrals.

Getting Referrals

• IRRC Referral Project • Available to IRRC states• No paper needed• Referrals are entered into the

system• Assigned to recruiters and

then they can log in and get their referrals.

• System is being updated after our pilot. Should be finished next month.

Documenting Efforts

• So often we do not have good reporting documentation for ID&R efforts. Now is the time to ensure that is not the case as we plan and prepare for later and for our current work.

• Reports should be gathering information needed to assist in later recruitment efforts.

Documenting Efforts

• Time can be spent now on developing a good reporting system or improving the one you have.

• Do you keep notes on farm visits, reminders of places to go in the season, follow up with agribusiness, etc.

Beginning Services and Providing Referrals

• Recruiters should be involved in assisting families with beginning services.

• Right now schooling across the country has gone from face to face to on-line MEP needs to adapt and assist in this process.

Web Resources that offer Free Learning

• https://www.sparkedinnovations.net/Student%20Portal/ss.html

Web Resources that offer Free Learning

• https://www.weareteachers.com/free-online-learning-resources/

In Summary

• Much of what is needed for successful ID&R can still be done.

• We often do not network, plan, prepare, and strategize as much as we need to make our time in the field more effective.

• The field now may need the assistance of the phone, internet, or an app but we can adapt as needed.