Recently, the barn I work for was in need of another team member.
This isn’t the first round of hiring that we’ve been through since I’ve gotten here. Despite how easy the process should be, the reality is that, lately, it seems difficult to find hard working, passionate, and caring people.
For those of us who have put our heart and soul into caring for, and training horses, we know that this industry isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s long hours, heavy lifting, sometimes blood, a lot of sweat, and a few tears. To make it with the best of them you have to have passion, and a firm grip on the end result being worth the effort, and the journey it takes to get there. It is for that reason that finding long term, solid help, is hard to find. Not everyone has it in them to sacrifice what they want in the short term to reach a long term goal.
In our case, finding help, specifically to muck stalls, has been a little on the difficult side. There aren’t many people looking to apply for the job of “Professional Poop Shoveler”.
So how do you encourage people to apply for a position that some may consider less than desirable?
Start From Within
The people who you have working for you may be your biggest assets when it comes to finding new help. People talk, and the people that they talk to, also talk to other people. If you can find ways to make the team that you do have become the best they can be, they are going to talk about that. Investing in your team’s growth shows how much you care that they succeed as individuals, rather than just how much they can help your business succeed.
Network
Sometimes competition gets the better of us. In an effort to win, or be the best in our discipline we run the risk of isolating ourselves from the community around us. I would love to see more barn communities getting together to just have fun together, rather than always competing against each other. For those who have communities like that, networking can help you find working students, or someone who is working at a barn that isn’t a good fit for them, who may work better in a different environment.
Also, think outside the box. Talk to people in the grocery store, at the coffee shop, or anywhere really. You never know where you’ll find someone like me who thought working with horses was just a dream. I certainly thought that, because I didn’t have the money for lessons. Don’t forget that anyone who wants something bad enough is willing to start working their way up from the bottom.
Offer Growth Opportunities
There are those, like myself, who are always willing to start at the bottom when we’re learning. However if you don’t provide opportunities for growth, then you will still find yourself searching for people to fill positions. Many of the barns that I worked for provided growth opportunities in one way, or another. Some barns let me work for lessons, others gave me opportunities to observe the vet, or the farrier. In all of them I gained experience, and working with more horses meant gaining more experience. First with the easy horses, and progressively toward the more difficult horses.
Also a word of advice to my fellow employees, look for your own opportunities to grow as well. I’m the type of person who is constantly looking for ways to grow. In my mind, knowledge is currency. The more you know, the more opportunities you have, and the more opportunities you have, the more experience you have to gain.
Last, But Most Important – Be Honest, And Be Real
It sounds simple, but I’m sure there are a few of us out here who can tell the tales of employers who talked really big talk in the interview, to get people in the doors, who never delivered what they promised. As well as the stories of employers acting one way, only for the honeymoon period to end, and we find out that they aren’t really the person they wanted us to believe they were.
I hope these tips help fellow barns who are looking for help, and fellow employees in the industry. I have seen a lot of people come, and go, in several of the barns that I have worked for. Our industry seems to be better at giving people reasons to barn hop, than it does reasons to stay somewhere long term. I don’t know about you, but that is something I would like to see change going forward.
Leave us a comment with some of your tips on how to find good barn help, along with tips on how to also be the good barn help.
