Whether you’re considering hiring an Estate Manager for the first time or you’re thinking of taking up an Estate Manager role, this piece will help shed light on what exactly the job involves on a day-to-day basis.
Obviously as with all household roles, there are no hard and fast rules – when hiring someone the most important thing to consider is whether they’re a good fit for your household.
The Estate Manager is an essential cog in the working mechanism of a landed estate. Those requiring a private Estate Manager will often have a large household with multiple buildings and several hundred acres of land. It’s a highly respected role, so it is of the utmost importance that you find the right person for the job.
What does an Estate Manager do?
Estate Managers oversee and contribute to the profitability of their employer’s estate. They are responsible for maintaining and preserving what is already there, though also bringing in contemporary approaches in order to make sure it is performing at its best and fulfilling all its potential. Land management is a vital part of the role.
Each estate is different, but the role may involve the management of other members of household staff and can extend from budgeting and administrative tasks right through to the management of the shoot and event planning.
Staff managed by an estate manager can include farm workers, game keepers, gardeners and book keepers – but every estate is different.
Smaller estates may require an estate manager who also takes on an active role in the family home; therefore they may be required to manage and oversee private chefs, butlers and other service staff within the household.
Livestock care is frequently par for the course, and tied into that it is not uncommon for the Estate Manager to be the point of contact for regulatory bodies such as DEFRA, veterinarians, farriers, tree surgeons and agronomists, to name but a few.
Regardless of what the role involves in each household though, it is without exception a hands-on, busy and varied job that requires a highly professional, organised individual.
A financial mind is helpful to the role, as is experience with project and budget management. It is also often expected that Estate Managers should have a detailed knowledge of the farming industry, and experience working on the land – an agricultural qualification may be required. But the specific skills and experience required will differ depending on the household.
Typical responsibilities of an Estate Manager:
- Staff management,
- General health and safety inspections,
- Overseeing security measures,
- Generating new and innovative income streams from the estate,
- Organising shoot days,
- Scheduling corporate events.
A typical working day for an Estate Manager runs from 8am to 5pm, though they remain on call day and night, throughout the year. For this reason, when either looking for an Estate Manager for your household, or looking for a role, it is always best to go through an Estate Manager agency, to ensure the right fit for the household in question.
Why become an Estate Manager?
- Diversity and variation,
- Working and living on a beautiful estate,
- Private and business use of the estate’s vehicles is a common perk,
- The difference you can make to an estate is both visible and tangible, which means there’s huge job satisfaction.
