Protocals/SOP/Employee Binders

[Wonders12]

Does anyone have one for their barn?

In the past, NOTHING has been recorded in writing about the barn or how it functioned. My project this winter is to start getting some things down on paper, and I would really love to create a resource binder for employees.

All of our stable staff are part time and usually work 7-15 hours per week. That leaves us with a staff of about 15. To add to the confusion, there are 4 daily shifts with different responsibilities, and 2 barns with different equipment. AND since we hire a lot of students, we have pretty consistent turnover. (Generally from people graduating or their school schedules not working with ours.)

So I would like to put something together that serves a few purposes:
[LIST=1]

An introduction for new employees to use in addition to their in person training.

A reference for current employees who might be subbing for another shift, or have something odd happen during a shift.

An emergency resource if something were to happen and I became unavailable.

A resource for the next BM to improve turnover. (I'm not leaving any time soon, but this also isn't my forever job.) There will be other resources to elaborate on BM duties, but this is for the day to day operations. [/LIST]

Does anyone have anything like this? Or have suggestions on what to include/how to lay it out so it’s effective and useful?

[Cherry]

Did you mean to say “improve turnover”, or did you mean “discourage turnover”? Big difference! Turnover is very costly to a business…

[rustbreeches]

We have them in place, one to make sure we are all on the same page but also as a CYA in the event of an abuse allegation. We work with our vet on anything involving animal care. You might start there

[findeight]

How about labeling the shifts A, B, C, D? Have a sheet listing responsibilities that must be done by each shift. If there is more then one worker on a shift, split it to A1, A2 etc and list those duties. These can change daily depending on how many workers are scheduled for each shift and who does not show up or for earlier closing or any other out if the ordinary days.

Have those sheets available wherever they sign in so they can easily see what their specific duties are…if they are on the schedule as A2, they do what’s on the A2 sheet. If they are the only A shift worker, they get the A sheet. And so forth.

Hope that makes sense, hard to explain. But I recall working at one place and getting scolded for not doing things I did not know I was supposed to do that day while the worker I thought was responsible for them let it slide.

If you make it clear and consistent, put it in writing and be sure all workers read and understand what everybody is doing? It cuts down the drama, misunderstanding and skipped chores.

[Wonders12]

[QUOTE=Cherry;7885440]
Did you mean to say “improve turnover”, or did you mean “discourage turnover”? Big difference! Turnover is very costly to a business…[/QUOTE]

Yes, that is a big difference. I meant to improve the turnover process. With staff, it’s pretty much inevitable because students have to move on to bigger and better things. The BM position is also set up as a turn and burn role. Even if we fix a lot of the problems to improve the longevity (which will be a miracle in itself), it’s just not a position that most people would remain at long term. My direct supervisors don’t really know much about horses or the running of the barn, so I would like to have information in place to help future BMs make the transition easier.

Thanks for the idea Findlight! We do have laminated cards with shifts & responsibilities on it, which they initial. But making some edits for out of the ordinary days would probably be helpful.

[Wonders12]

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