Finding good, solid employees can be tough in Alberta's labour market right now.

Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development’s Retention Improvement Grant is intended to help agriculture employers review their retention practices.

"We're just trying to help the industry, whether it's to reducing turn over, or helping employers recruit," he says. "It's a tough industry and it's very challenging for both sides of the industry and competition for workers is pretty fierce," says Alan Dooley, agricultural labour recruitment specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.

He says they've had people use them to assess what their HR policies look like, as well as to develop programs to help supervisors deal with a multicultural work force.

The program covers 50 percent of the costs of hiring an HR consultant up to the cost of $25 thousand.

Under the Retention Improvement Grant, hiring human resource expertise to identify and coach on retention strategy development, retention program improvements and supervisor training are eligible expenses.

Employers must apply and receive approval before contracting a consultant in order to be considered for funding.

A copy of the consultant’s completed report and a report prepared by the employer’s project manager are required in order to be reimbursed under this funding program

"It's definitely been successful for those who have taken advantage of it," Dooley says.