Specifically barn labor, employees that deal with physical work such as stalls and maintenance. What has worked for you in terms of keeping your employees happy? Obviously this kind of work doesn’t earn you millions. $10 an hour seems standard but what has worked for you to retain? What is someone’s motivation to stay? I know this has been discussed before.
[QUOTE=Fig;8554003]
Specifically barn labor, employees that deal with physical work such as stalls and maintenance. What has worked for you in terms of keeping your employees happy? Obviously this kind of work doesn’t earn you millions. $10 an hour seems standard but what has worked for you to retain? What is someone’s motivation to stay? I know this has been discussed before.[/QUOTE]
As someone who worked her way through school in a barn giving lessons and caring for school horses, the number one thing I can say is to respect the employees requests for small days off or vacation time. People who work with horses generally don’t mind working hard and they enjoy it… But it is long hard work. If possible, try to give 2 days off a week or at least one day off and a short day. If they ask for an afternoon off or a weekend off once in a while, try to accommodate.
Another thing would be allow them time to ride. I hardly rode when I worked at a barn! Offer free lesson once or twice a week or allow them to hack a school horse out. If they have their own horse, give them an hour to ride or groom and don’t make them feel guilty. People who work in barns like horses and want to enjoy themselves too.
Also, throwing them an occasional bone like a new pair of paddock boots or work gloves goes a long way.
I think my two points above were my biggest issues. I worked 20 days in a row, I deserved a weekend off or I wanted more time to actually enjoy my hobby.
6 Likes
I know when I used to work low paid jobs when younger (I now run a business), bosses doing nice things such as buying every one lunch a few times a month, even a simple lunch such as pizza went a long way. I would think days off would be precious and appreciated.
4 Likes
Since I only require part-time help, I pay $20/hour to keep good,reliable help interested. I give them 1-2 days off per week (their choice). I also make sure I’m generous with (cash) bonuses, lunches and praise.
For full-time people, offering decent housing (if possible) in addition to $10/hour goes a long, long way to buy loyalty. In many areas, $10/hour won’t get you decent housing and groceries/utilities, etc.
8 Likes
Definitely days off, even if it’s one day a week and 5 unpaid vacation days to use throughout the year. I know lots of people who have gotten burned out on barnwork jobs because they were literally going 7 days a week with no breaks. Almost nobody can do that for more than a year or two max. Everybody deserves some personal time and the ability to take off for a short vacation or to attend important events like weddings. Any extra cost of having a part time person to cover those shifts may well be made up by the fact that once you have a good full time employee, odds are they will stay on longer and work better since they have some personal time to relax and refresh.
3 Likes
I think physical and mental burnout is big in this industry. Staff are expected to break their backs for long hours each day with lousy pay and no prospects for development. A few ideas:
Ensuring people have the resources to do the job well, whether that is equipment, enough staff to get the job done properly, etc.
Being a good manager. Ensuring people feel valued for the work they do. Staffing in a way that ensures that people are working reasonable hours, and get time off. Providing mentorship that allows one to develop professionally. If it allows, offer promotions and more areas of responsibility (with corresponding pay increases to reward their development).
Pay more. If you find someone that is valuable, show them their value with $$. At the end of the day a good worker is more efficient and effective. Retaining this type of person can save you money because it’s less training, less down time, less waste, etc.
5 Likes
Goodness- $10/hour isn’t minimum wage here in Ontario, and 10 days (2 weeks) per year vacation is mandated for employees, or vacation pay in lieu. I think the employee standards may be a bit different for agricultural workers, but they shouldn’t be. What is the average starting wage in retail work in your area? (adults, not teenagers working a few hours/week)
If barn staff are working long days for $10/hour with no time off it’s no surprise that retention is a problem! If you are running a business, employee costs are business costs. I know there is a very small profit margin for most boarding barns, but are you charging enough if you can’t pay a decent wage to your employees?
Treat barn staff like human beings and give them decent working conditions and pay. In addition to the suggestions above- real breaks during the day, and some where warm to sit during the winter (or cool in the summer). Clear job description and performance expectations, reasonable support (especially during training)and supervision.
8 Likes
There are only 3 US states that have set the minimum wage at $10 per hour or higher. The Federal minimum wage is $7.25 so $10.00 may well be an above average wage for general labour in the OP’s area.
If your staff are full time then this is not really a wage they can support themselves on easily anywhere. That is not to say it isn’t a fair wage for the work, just not an easy wage to live on.
I think recognition in the form of acknowledgement of work well done, lunches, maybe a gift card for a major store to help with the purchase of working clothes - or even a “barn uniform” that might be jeans and a polo shirt that you buy to help with those costs. Most barns are not on public transit routes so maybe a gas card now and then.
Recognizing why part timers are working can also be a help. A previously stay at home Mom who wants a few hours work in the morning would appreciate different forms of recognition than a high school student who works on the weekend - so being aware of what forms of recognition might be more attractive to each worker.
Clearly defined job descriptions so that the barn staff know what is expected of them on their shift - especially in a larger facility that has more than one worker. Who does what and who to go to for what clearly defined for the boarders. If there is a barn manager or the barn owner does that role - clearly define how and when to communicate to them so that barn staff aren’t having to take messages on feed, turnout, blanketing and so on changes.
1 Like
Where did th US and Canada diverge in development that Canada actually respects the needs of its workforce?
I have the rare deal where what I work off and my horse’s board is a fair and equal balance. Knowing his needs are more than taken care of in the best setting I’ve boarded at in nearly 20 years of horse keeping is my incentive to stay on.
2 Likes
Wow, that’s the million dollar question. I use professional full time and part time staff. I think that the biggest thing that retains staff is if the job is set up so that it is a reasonable long term lifestyle. The pay has to be enough to live on. The person has to have enough time off that they can have a life outside of work. Some workers say they want a lot of overtime, but burnout is inevitable if you allow it. Pay is important I think mostly in that it can allow you to be choosier about who you hire in the first place. It also can prevent an employee from looking for a better paying position elsewhere. However, paying significantly above the going rate does not necessarily guarantee better workers or better work.
Ultimately, though, no matter how well you pay or how great of an employer you are, many employees don’t last. There’s not much upward mobility as a barn worker, and I think that people still sometimes just need a change. Sometimes long term familiarity breeds contempt or something like that. I’ve seen long term well respected employees start taking their job for granted or feel like they are owed more than what they are making. That can deteriorate into laziness, trying to claim hours worked that weren’t worked or even stealing.
3 Likes
The barn I’m with hires part time help at $10 an hour. I think anything less isn’t going to attract the type of people that stay with you. I’ve been with this barn for almost 2 years now and the other lady that helps even longer than that. It’s hard work, you have to give your people respect, time off and a happy environment to work in. I now trade work for saddle time exclusively but when I had my own horse, I worked for cash and logged my hours. I’ve never been happier in a barn even as a full board client.
I think if you need full time help, you’ve got to up the ante and offer some sort of benefits package or at least housing because as many people have stated, $10/hour won’t get you far in today’s economy and if you want qualified staff helping you, you have to pay them like you want to keep them or we leave.
Pay them WELL
.
1 Like
I have one barn-help person, a guy who feeds my horses one x a day, when I can’t be there. (either am or pm) He lives 5 minutes away and has a good paying, full time job-- non horse related.
To prevent burnout I set all the feed and hay up for each horse beforehand, so all he has to do is feed/check water and pick up any manure piles in the run-in sheds. He leaves the manure in muck baskets that I dump later in manure pile.
Pretty easy job-- takes less than a half hour and I pay him 15 bucks per visit.
I try to give him weekends/holidays off as much as possible…and also try to use him sparingly through the week, but enough that it’s worth his while. Some weeks he only feeds 2-3 times…other weeks 4-5 times. On average he’s earning about 3000 bucks a year, which pays a portion of his monthly utilities or his car payment or whatever.
It helps that he LOVES horses and he says he really enjoys coming to the farm.
1 Like
[QUOTE=demidq;8554162]
Goodness- $10/hour isn’t minimum wage here in Ontario, and 10 days (2 weeks) per year vacation is mandated for employees, or vacation pay in lieu. I think the employee standards may be a bit different for agricultural workers, but they shouldn’t be. What is the average starting wage in retail work in your area? (adults, not teenagers working a few hours/week)
If barn staff are working long days for $10/hour with no time off it’s no surprise that retention is a problem! If you are running a business, employee costs are business costs. I know there is a very small profit margin for most boarding barns, but are you charging enough if you can’t pay a decent wage to your employees?
Treat barn staff like human beings and give them decent working conditions and pay. In addition to the suggestions above- real breaks during the day, and some where warm to sit during the winter (or cool in the summer). Clear job description and performance expectations, reasonable support (especially during training)and supervision.[/QUOTE]
I agree with all of the above and have a few observations of my own to add – burn out is HUGE in this industry and it creeps up on a lot of people.
As a BM, some things that worked:
Increasing the pay to more than $12/hr. More money =more motivation to work = a better job = more reliable staff = happier boarders.
We liked to get lunch every other day for our workers and we did a lot of fun things too - we tried to break up the menial labor with projects like painting jumps, practicing clipping, etc… barn was a Pony-Club barn so lots of learning teens.
The biggest thing that eliminates burnout IME is finding the best/most efficient way to do something. I have found there is nothing in the world more frustrating than committing massive blocks of time to perform a chore that could easily be done in 30m with the right tools or workers. For instance, wheeling a full wheelbarrow of poop from the barn 1/2 m up a hill or away from the barn is custom in most barns. Fine 1 or 2 times a week but for full timers, SO aggravating. That gator, while expensive, starts to look appealing quick and IMHO making your worker’s job easier for them goes a LONG way in retaining the worker.
You would be surprised how many barns have “routines” that are just NOT time ergonomic or labor efficient but are performed because “that’s the way it’s always been done”. This leads to so much wasteage - both in available hours in a day, labor, and physical/mental effort. For instance - setting up water in a way that is efficient with the barn layout (including setting up water lines outside to each paddock) eliminated TWO HOURS A DAY!!! from the barn I managed. TWO hours! I don’t think I need to stress how much extra time that is for a BO/BM.
Same goes for T/O – setting up T/O in a way that it is efficient, with multiple workers, will go a long, long way into preventing burn out and frustration.
7 Likes
Wow… I pay more than ten bucks an hour to the guy who cuts my weeds!
I agree with everything other people suggested.
I boarded at a place where the barn owner came up to the mucker one morning & said, “Pete, why don’t you ride before you start on the stalls? When you ride afterwards, you’re too stiff to make much progress in your lessons.”
I was all kinds of impressed with that, as was Pete.
6 Likes
Wow… I pay more than ten bucks an hour to the guy who cuts my weeds!
I agree with everything other people suggested.
I boarded at a place where the barn owner came up to the mucker one morning & said, “Pete, why don’t you ride before you start on the stalls? When you ride afterwards, you’re too stiff to make much progress in your lessons.”
I was all kinds of impressed with that, as was Pete.
1 Like
It’s not just pay them well. Employment studies across all areas/careers really show that employee retention has to do with employees feeling valued, respected, or having a sense of their own contribution.
Things above such as lunches, keeping a fridge stocked with cold beverages in the summer, thank you cards with a surprise gift card for going above and beyond, are what keep good employees happy. Time off is dicier with an hourly job, as usually people want as much money as they can, but maybe alternating the really heavy work if you can with other work like landscaping, painting jumps, dragging rings, etc (improving the appearance of the place, instead of just shoveling s**t 6 days a week) can also help.
2 Likes
Agree with other suggestions made here about respect, days off, ^^ pay, riding.
Also, don’t underestimate a worker’s ambition to learn and be included in vet visits, farrier visits, etc. Not just to hold the rope, mind you, but to give a proper education on how to diagnose lameness, how to judge a (relatively) balanced foot, what exactly IS colic, (and what you’re dealign with now vs. what may come up in the future).
Try to include the barn worker (who shows an interest) in the types of footing you’re considering when you decide to buy more. Also, perhaps mention the types of fencing available and why you chose the type you did.
ASK those employees regularly to share with you if they notice anything out of sorts with the horses. Don’t underestimate the mucker’s comprehensive knowledge of each horse’s personality. They will often know before the manager or trainer, if a horse is sick. To this end, take meals together on occasion to encourage discussion. If nothing else, put the eating area in a place where conversation can bloom naturally.
If yours is the type of barn that advertises year end awards, CREDIT all employees with contributing to the overall success of your barn and health of your string. Add: Credit them BY NAME, not just “all the wonderful staff that makes it possible”.
Make sure your management style isn’t one of “Go get me a rock. Not that one, another one. Nope, another one”. Be clear in your descriptions of work you desire to be done, and for the love of Pete, don’t ask after the fact why they didn’t do XY and Z when all you asked of them was to do 1,2 and 3.
Bottom line: Respect Respect Respect.
5 Likes
You are just not going to find many people who will work for $10 an hour on a long term basis. They will move on to higher paying jobs, probably not horse-related.
If you offer housing, board and lessons to supplement the $10 an hour wage, then you may get someone to stay longer.
Many of the above posters have good suggestions as well.
2 Likes
Don’t ask for or expect extra work, unless it is for extra pay.
1 Like
