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Year-Round Employment in a Seasonal Industry

Local employment has been one of our top priorities at the Harlow strawberry smart farm facility in the United Kingdom. Providing consistent, full-time jobs in a typical seasonal field is what truly sets SMARTKAS apart from competitors in the UK's soft-fruit industry.

The operations in Harlow have been set up by a small key team of people. In conjunction with office employees, precisely 16 Smart Farm Operatives have been responsible for picking and packing the produce. To put this into perspective, in a traditional strawberry growing field, at least triple the number of people would be needed for harvesting the berries, transporting them to a packhouse, and packaging them to be sent to retailers. Growing, picking, packing, and shipping in the same building makes it possible to involve significantly fewer people, but still produce the same, if not more, quantity of strawberries.

Stable, Long-Lasting Employment

The question we often get asked when saying we grow our produce efficiently indoors with the help of artificial intelligence and robotics, is “how can we still promote being a great local employer?” The secret is in the longevity of employment and not so much the number of people hired. The local talents we welcome as part of our SMARTKAS team are secured with full-time, stable jobs, all year round in what is a typically seasonal field of work.

In the traditional soft fruit industry, field workers often arrive per growing season from outside the UK, and there is often no guarantee in the continuation of a job. With these uncertain circumstances, it not only results in an inconsistent schedule for the workers, but also inconsistencies in the quality of the produce can arise; e.g. employee turnover and the need to continually train new workers.

“What truly sets us apart from our competitors in the industry is the consistency of employment in our new ways of growing fresh produce.”

 

Growing Our People

Hiring locally is also a valuable opportunity for us as a business to invest in the people we choose to hire. Being a rapidly growing company, we want to see our employees progress as we do. We are always looking for the right training and collaboration opportunities with local entities, this sets us apart from competitors.

Company Culture

At Harlow our impact is not only at the Innovation park, but it is actually within Harlow city itself. We are actively attracting and seeking local talents to have access to SMARTKAS.

By doing so everyone understands what we do and how we are changing the agricultural sector. Being able to see and show their own SMARTKAS grown strawberries on the shelves of their local supermarket creates a sense of pride and commitment to their work.

We invest in our team early in the process to make sure they have the right skillset to operate. For instance, during the onboarding process new hires learn all about food safety regulations, how to take care of the farm and ultimately how to best harvest strawberries.

Besides providing training opportunities we also encourage our team to grow and follow their interests within our company, this way we build trust and cooperation. At SMARTKAS we invest in people and we treat them like family.

 

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