Yard Owner Ali Dane has featured in an interesting article in Horse and Hound discussing the difficulties faced by yard owners. With increasing costs and difficulty in recruitment, the viability of livery yards and the ability to recruit and afford good staff is in danger.
The article highlights the need for good employment practices and encourages yard owners who employ PAYE or freelance staff such as grooms, instructors, or yard managers, to sign up for the Equestrian Employers Association’s (EEA) Good Employers’ pledge, as well as a whole-industry effort to raise the quality of employment, through yard owner ensuring their business is sustainable.
Due to the difficulties in viability, yards are struggling to afford good quality staff and so staff retention is poor, and recruitment is increasingly hard. Regular changes in employment laws, such as rises to the national minimum wage and changes to the way employer benefits must be dealt with, mean employing staff can be a tricky business. We’d urge anyone thinking of employing staff, or wanting to check they are employing their staff legally to join the EEA for their guidance and expertise.
You can read the full H&H article here: https://bit.ly/3xdrWrt