Careers

Employee Spotlight Rana Lansink

HR Rana Lansink Employee Testimonial Web page 060519 vf3

Rana Lansink launched her first career after attending beauty school more than 25 years ago. It was an expensive business to run and she quickly began looking for another job option.

My father-in-law said ‘Jan at the co-op in Ida Grove needs help, apply there,” Rana recalls. “I didn’t know much about farming. Jan was a good trainer. It takes a good person to train someone. I’ve moved locations, but I’ve never left.”

It was that experience as the “new kid” that helped make Rana so passionate about training and bringing new employees into the cooperative.

It’s because of that experience that she’s such a strong recruiter for Landus Cooperative. “If someone doesn’t know anything about agriculture and they want to work here, I ensure them that other people will help you. My granddaughter is a city-girl and she’d like to help at harvest when she’s old enough.  I would convince them to come watch and see how it works.”

For the customer service roles in particular, Rana can really promote the role. “I’m a people person. If you’re a people person, you would love this job. You get to meet a lot of people.”

Once she has them interested, she promotes the benefits program and the growth opportunities. “We have a retirement plan. That’s nice. And, I feel like I can’t even use up all of my vacation time because I earn it so quickly. I cash it in every year.”

The people that you meet help create the opportunity for advancement in the company,” she notes of the training which is always available to help someone advance or move between locations to get more experience. “There’s a lot of opportunities if you want to seek them.”

Today, Rana is responsible for on-boarding nearly 30 seasonal employees for Ida Grove and Odebolt each fall. “I never would have taken on new employee orientation when I started two decades ago,” she said.  “My team, including my location manager, encouraged me and I love it.  I take pride in my work and what I do. When you like what you do, it doesn’t feel like work.”