I agree with all of these previous suggestions! What an awesome thread. I don’t comment much but I needed to chime in on this. I hope everyone who owns a business reads these comments! Some of my comments may only apply to full time employees or employees who aren’t just stall cleaners but it’s important across the board.
- Fair pay that isn’t under the table. Benefits are great, but if nothing else at least fair pay for your full time employees. They need to be able to pay their bills, otherwise why would they stay? If you can’t pay for rent and utilities, how CAN you stay? Part time employees should also get fair pay that isn’t under the table.
- RESPECT and APPRECIATION. Yes, those needed capitalization. I will work my ass off with insanely long hours and never complain about it if I know I am respected and appreciated. I think it’s important to have this both on the coworker to coworker level and as well as boss and employee level. As another poster mentioned, knowing my boss has my back and trusts any decisions I make is a big deal. Occasionally everyone makes a mistake or the wrong decision and it’d be nice to know that I won’t be fired when it does happen.
- Communication. Employees should know their job and what is expected of them. They should know the goals of the business, as well as the goals for themselves, and be able to ask questions. Employees should be able to express opinions (within reason, at an appropriate time obviously) and say things like “I’d like to learn this” or “I’ve been working a ton of extra hours, I’d appreciate an extra day off when our schedule slows down” or “I’ve been noticing something and I think this horse would be happier/healthier if we tried ____. What do you think?” I can’t tell you how many mistakes I’ve seen over the years because the BM/BO didn’t pass something along to the employees, one employee forgot to tell another, no one wrote it down, etc. Clear communication and knowing that you are able to reach whoever you need to reach in a short amount of time (and that they won’t be upset if you need clarification!!) is a big deal. It saves time and money for the business. It also helps cut down on employee stress knowing that they know everything that needs to be done and if they have questions, it’s no big deal just ask. For example, my current barn does not have great communication on any level or between the owner, the manager and the employees. I can rattle off several examples that has happened the past month alone. I’d list them here but it’d become a novel. It’s a regular concern of mine that I haven’t been told the correct or complete story and thus am not able to make decisions to the best of my ability.
- Working smarter, not harder. This is HUGE as well. Stream lining processes (with good, working equipment, through a better order, however) to save time or money should be encouraged. It doesn’t need to be from a BM/BO point either! Employees should be encouraged and feel that they are able to speak up and say “hi, I think it’s easier if we try it this way. What do you think?” This is not always the case.
I’ve worked in barns for 15+ years at this point, in multiple barns depending on where I was in my life (before college, in college, out of college, etc) but spent around 2 years in an office because I needed a break from the barn life. I ended up leaving my office job to go back to a barn I had worked at previously for many of the reasons above. We weren’t paid well, we were treated like children without any respect, there was “group punishment” (ie one person made a mistake so now everyone is punished), not paid for extra work we put in, job descriptions were inaccurate, personal lives got involved at a lower and managerial level. I left after two years (side note: I should of left in under a year…) because the culture was awful, communication sucked, a slim chance for advancement, and it was nearly impossible to live on the salary. Who would stay in a position like that?
Love this post and all the comments!
Something about retiring someday and “fairness”.