As average herd size is increasing employee management is becoming a more important part of many dairy operations. A recent study of dairy herds in 3 states showed that larger herds (>500 cows) tended to have higher bulk tank somatic cell counts (BTSCC) compared with small (≤250 cows) or medium (250–500 cows) herds (Schewe et al., 2015). Herds who had an increasing number of non-family employees also had increasing herd BTSCC. Herds that place an emphasis on hiring and retaining good employees and ensure that protocols are maintained have lower BTSCC compared with those who do not emphasize the same values (Schewe et al., 2015). Comprehensive mastitis evaluations were completed in 64 Michigan dairy herds that assessed: 1) Management and monitoring of infected cows, 2) Milking proficiency, 3) Milking system function and 4) Cow environment. Additionally, fifth element of the evaluation, identified as a critical need by interviewing producers and employees, termed “Farm Management Culture” was included in the evaluation. VaDia vacuum recorders (Biocontrol, Rakkestad, Norway) allow cows to “rate the milking protocol” by describing parameters of the milking event, such as milk let-down and overmilking. 3822 milking events were recorded, with an average of 61 recordings per herd. Statistical analysis found significant (P < 0.05) positive correlations between 2 herd-level dependent milking outcomes, average overmilking time, and percent of cows with bimodal milk let down and a third dependent variable, new intramammary infection (as defined by individual cow SCC) and a variety of independent variables that included employee factors such as, number of hours spent milking per day, total distance each employee moves per milking shift, employee turnover and cows milked per employee per hour. Negative correlations were found between the percent of cows with bimodal milking and the average teat stimulation and number of passes during the preparatory procedure. These results suggest that VaDia analysis of milking procedures can help identify opportunities to improve milking performance and that factors deemed to increase parlor throughput pressure on employees may result in decreased milking performance.