Feeding the World with Talent

December 23, 2016
Newsletter Article

AgCareers.com is grateful for the opportunity to connect agricultural employers and top talent across the globe. Our vision is “Feeding the World with Talent,” and we’ve updated our mission statement to reflect the evolving agricultural landscape and employment needs in the industry. The AgCareers.com Mission: “To provide global talent solutions in agriculture and food.”

In 2016, AgCareers.com was recognized among the best of the best in the online employment services industry. WEDDLE’S named AgCareers.com as one of the top User’s Choice Award winning sites, as voted by job seekers. Candidates are increasingly considering opportunities in agriculture and companies are looking to fill openings through AgCareers.com as demonstrated in our AgCareers.com Agribusiness Job Reports.

On average, more than 6,000 new jobs have been posted on AgCareers.com each month of 2016. More than 100,000 applications have been processed this year. Candidates are searching for careers in agriculture, with more than 11,000 new resumes added to the AgCareers.com database in 2016.

AgCareers.com continues to see growth on our social media platforms with more than 40,000 followers. We joined Instagram in January of this year and have seen success on this platform with more than 700 followers. Following a campaign to increase readership on our blogs Career Cultivation and Talent Harvest, we have seen a rise in subscribers to nearly 200 on each blog.

The AgCareers.com Job Seeker mobile app was updated with significant changes to help enhance the job search process, available for download from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Through our association relationship with National FFA, AgCareers.com developed nearly 200 new career profiles for students to view about each career and connect them to real-time opportunities by linking those profiles back to AgCareers.com. There are currently 235 careers profiled, with plans for expansion to highlight the breadth of opportunities in agriculture.

AgCareers.com hosted educational webinars for employers throughout 2016, and an in-person workshop, Instruction & Coaching Skills for Managers & Team Leaders. We also educated job seekers on Resumes That Get Past the Robot in our free June webinar.

More than 200 human resource professionals, university and college career services staff and industry association representatives gathered in Iowa for the 2016 Ag & Food HR Roundtable in August. AgCareers.com also offered an optional diversity add-on workshop in conjunction with the Roundtable. The 2017 Roundtable will be held in Kansas City, August 1-3, 2017.

AgCareers.com conducted the Veterans and Military Professionals in the Agricultural Workplace survey in the summer of 2016. Agricultural employers responded very positively toward hiring military veterans. The report also examined some challenges moving forward. Valuable insight can be gained from the full report.

AgCareers.com proudly released exciting updates in the new 2016-2017 Ag & Food Career Guides. While celebrating ten years of bringing this invaluable resource to students and young professionals, it was time for a few energizing changes. The Guide features a fresh cover design, plus the name change from Employer to Career Guide to better reflect the purpose of the piece– career education, and connecting people to the varied and numerous careers in the agriculture and food industries.

We launched Virtual Career Fairs in the fall to allow ag employers and candidates to connect online with zero travel. The Resume Database Career Fair was held September 27 and the Two-Year/Technical Colleges Virtual Career Fair was held October 6. Between both events, there were nearly 400 registered job seekers and 3,800+ chat interactions between employers and job seekers during the live events! Of the 26 employers participating, on average each interacted with 30 candidates during their designated chat hours. Due to the success of the fairs, AgCareers.com will be bringing back two virtual career fairs in 2017.

2016 kept HR professionals on their toes as they navigated the ever-changing hiring market and balanced ongoing labor and employment law changes. The HR Solutions team delivered resources to assist clients in monitoring the dynamic landscape. Over 100,000 ag employees across North America, were captured for benchmark reporting in the 2016 Compensation Benchmark Review survey. Subscribers kept up-to-date on pay trends utilizing the market pay comparison tools found in the online toolbox of the survey database. Additionally, the 2016-2017 Agribusiness HR Review highlighted emerging HR trends from ag employers this fall. Participants will receive the report pre-release soon; look for the full report to be available in January!

AgCareers.com ended the year by launching Elite Talent, a private online community from AgCareers.com where experienced, quality-checked professionals within agriculture can connect with agricultural employers, explore career opportunities, and access career transition resources in a controlled and confidential manner.

Thank you for helping make AgCareers.com a success and we look forward to serving our customers with original and exciting features in 2017! As always, we welcome your feedback at agcareers@agcareers.com. Wishing you holiday cheer and much success in the New Year!