I visit a lot of field offices stacked with excellent farm labor software. There's a system for timekeeping, another for onboarding, another for labor compliance, and one for payroll. Each one solves a specific problem really well - that's a good thing; you shouldn't compromise on solving your core problems.
But here's the catch I've seen: if those systems don't talk to each other, you don't get true ROI. You move the inefficiency somewhere else.
Let me explain
At a grower I recently visited, they were thrilled with their labor-tracking system. Once employees had RFID badges, the system made timekeeping fast, accurate, and painless.
The problem was everything that had to happen before the badge ever touched a time clock.
To get one employee set up, their team had to:
- Use one app to take the employee's photo
- Use another app, on a different device, to crop the photo and drop it into a badge template
- Use a third app to print the badge
- Finally, jump into the time tracking app to register the badge
Four different apps to get a single worker ready to clock in.
None of those tools was "bad." But no vendor owned the "in between," a.k.a the connections between each step. So the grower was left to duct-tape a workflow together on their own. The result was predictable: it worked, but it was clunky, slow, and frustrating.
And honestly, why would it be great? Their core business is farming, not building optimal badge-printing workflows. 🤦♀️
The invisible tax on efficiency
I think this is what many growers feel, without words for it: a small, constant tax on efficiency.
Bringing a new worker on isn't just getting paperwork signed. It's:
- Collecting their information
- Getting them into payroll
- Issuing them a badge or employee ID
- Assigning them to the right crew
- Making sure timekeeping is ready on hour one
- Getting them trained and documented
If each of those steps lives on its own little island, someone on your team is spending time copy-pasting, uploading, re-entering, and double-checking. That's time and attention that should be devoted to running your farm.
Why Harvust cares about the "in between"
At Harvust, we deliberately focus on the "in between" work. Yes, we handle the core HR and compliance tasks. But the real value growers feel every day comes from how all of those tasks connect and flow:
- New hire info flowing straight into the right places
- Training, timekeeping, and payroll set up as part of one connected process
- Fewer tools to juggle, fewer steps to remember
Is it harder to build software that way? Absolutely, but it's worth it because that's where real ROI lives. Great farm labor tech isn't just about cheap prices and lots of features. It's about how smoothly those features fit together so you and your staff can move faster, make fewer mistakes, and stay focused on what you do best: farming.
If you'd like to see how we can help you eliminate the "in between" efficiency tax, get in touch with us!
