By Jack Bosworth, Director, FJ Bosworth & Sons. Published 10 July 2023.

I hope everyone is well.

One of the huge challenges facing our business, and agriculture more widely, is labour.

We need good people to help us progress, and the reality is that if we do not continue to progress the business, we will not be able to generate the additional revenue needed as and when further borrowing is required to keep our succession plan on track. People are not a soft topic. They are the topic.

SPORT: how I think about managing people

I have learnt an awful lot about managing people in the six and a half years I have been responsible for staff. My approach has settled into a framework I call SPORT:

  • Support
  • Profile
  • Opportunity
  • Reward
  • Tools

It is not academic. It is just the five things I find myself coming back to whenever I am thinking about whether we are doing right by the team.

Support

Support comes by way of my door always being open. The phone is on 24 hours a day, whether there is a question, a problem on the farm, or a problem at home. Our staff, along with our animals, are always the priority. That is not a marketing line. It is how we have to run a working unit responsibly.

Profile

Profile is something that is genuinely underestimated, in my view.

By profile I mean: what are someone’s strengths, what are their weaknesses, what makes them tick, what are their interests outside of work and, most importantly, how do they fit into the team?

When I recruit, I get candidates to complete the Belbin team roles questionnaire. It is one of the most useful tools I have come across for understanding how a new person will actually slot in alongside the people who are already here.

Opportunity

Opportunity can be anything from different roles within the business, to additional responsibilities, to further training courses. If someone wants to grow into something, my job is to make sure the route exists.

Reward

Reward is about how we recognise the work people are doing. That includes:

  • Pay.
  • Holiday.
  • Flexibility.
  • Accommodating different life situations.
  • And a fair bit more besides.

Reward is not a pay round once a year. It is everything that adds up across the year.

Tools

Tools are just as important as the other four areas.

Are we giving our staff the right tools to make the job as enjoyable and as easy as it can be? That covers everything from buying a new shovel when one is needed, through to the facilities the team have to relax in during break times.

The staff room I have wanted to invest in for years

That last point is something I have wanted to invest in properly for a long time. I am genuinely pleased to say that our new staff area will be ready in the next few weeks.

The previous staff room was small, tired, and just dull. The new facility is over double the size. Improvements include:

  • More windows.
  • Better insulation.
  • A laundry room.
  • A new fully functioning kitchen with a breakfast bar.
  • Faster Wi-Fi.
  • A screen for analysing performance and running training during work time, and for watching TV at break times.

It is not glamorous, but neither is the work the team do day in, day out. They deserve a properly thought-through place to take a break, eat a proper meal, and come back into the unit feeling like the business actually values them.

That is the bit that any good “Reward” and “Tools” thinking eventually has to put its hand in its pocket and pay for.

Editor’s note (May 2026)

The SPORT framework Jack outlines here continues to underpin how we recruit and look after the team at FJ Bosworth & Sons. If you would like to know more about working with us, including current vacancies and what life on the unit actually looks like, visit the Careers section of this site.

About the author

Jack Bosworth is a fourth-generation farmer and Director of FJ Bosworth & Sons, an arable and pig farming business at Spains Hall, Willingale, Essex. The farm has been in the family since 1919, and Jack farms alongside his father Stuart Bosworth, who was named Farmers Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year in 2011. The business is Red Tractor assured and runs an integrated farm-to-fork model, with home-grown cereals milled on site using solar-generated electricity.

You can follow Jack’s articles on fjbosworth.com, or get in touch via the WhatsApp link on the site.

Written by Jack Bosworth

Fourth-generation farmer at Spains Hall, Willingale. Runs the contracting team and writes most of what appears here.