10 Ways to Make Equine Employment More Satisfying
Posted by Seth Burgess on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 @ 03:43 PM
In our recent equine employment satisfaction survey, the most important element in equine employment for most every horse industry employee is "being appreciated for what I do." It even ranks ahead of getting a high salary.
All employees like to feel they are appreciated, they are doing important work, and they are contributing to the success of their employer's business. However, most employees won't know how they are doing unless you tell them. Employees at the groom and stable help level are far removed from the facts and figures that indicate success and may not be able to see how their job is vital to the organization. Even managers and Trainers may have their particular focus and not be aware of the big picture.
Here are ten ways in which you can make your employees more aware of their contribution to the success of your horse business and make their work more meaningful.
1. Be quick to praise your employees for a job well done. If you praise them in front of other employees, the value doubles. Praise in public, but reprimand in private.
2. Explain to each employee how their specific job contributes to the success of the business. For instance, cleaning stalls may not be glamorous, but when customers see dirty stalls, they will be turned off and are likely to spread the word that your horses are not well cared for.
3. Explain your philosophy. Tell employees about why your are in the horse business and how your products and services make your customers happy and the world a better place.
4. Create a diagram of the jobs in your organization and connect each job with lines that lead to things like sales, customer satisfaction, better horses, better riders, and a better-looking more-profitable business. Hang this diagram in your workplace.
5. Create a mission statement for your organization, so that everyone on your staff can identify with the mission, and you can refer to it when explaining the value of a particular job.
6. Ask your employees for input on a regular basis, so they can feel like contributors to your success.
7. Have a written job description for each horse job type. Give each employee a copy of their job description. This will not only help everyone be on the same page about the job, it will give each employee a template by which they can judge their own performance.
8. Consider linking compensation to job performance and business success. Give bonuses based on measurable performance, either work performance or business success. Tell your employees about your bonus program to give them something to work towards.
9. As best you can, hire people who are excited and passionate about your mission in the horse business. Avoid hiring people who don't really care about your mission.
10. When you hire, integrate your workers into your mission as part of the orientation and training process. Then commit to enhancing the personal success of your employees in your organization as the months and years go by.
Attitude starts at the top. If you are discouraged about your horse business and pessimistic about it's future, your attitude will rub off on your employees. Take our horse industry economic survey and see the results instantly for free. It might surprise you how most horse people are optimistic about the future of the horse industry.