What is Macro Analysis?
Macroeconomics is the study of the wider economic environment and throughout this blog, we will be discussing The Jockey Club’s Macro factors using the PESTLE analysis. PESTLE is a framework that allows us to analyse political, economic, sociological, technological, legal and environmental factors of a business. Political factors will help determine the impact a government or policy will have on a business (E.g. taxation policies). Economic factors are things such as, interest rates, unemployment rates and foreign exchange rates. these may affect the economies performance and in turn, directly affect the business. Sociological factors relate to society and emerging trends and are useful to a business for determining their customers needs and wants. The rate of technological innovation is important as it could affect the market or industry. These could include new methods of distributing, manufacturing and logistics. Legal factors are very important for a business as it is essential they understand what is legal within the market they operate. This also includes being aware of changes to laws that could affect this. Lastly, environmental factors are becoming more and more important as the Climate Change movement has gained massive amounts of support in the last few years. This means that for businesses this is arguably one of the most important factors to consider. Things they could do include looking at recycling procedures, their carbon footprint and sustainability.
Political
The Jockey Club takes pride in having a very good reputation, therefore it will not take part in activities that are relating to tax and they also always ensure to abide by government policy to ensure they don’t get onto any trouble. They are aware of the importance of having a strong corporate governance framework, this ensures that the accountability, responsibility, and ethical behaviour of the company (The Jockey Club, 2020).
All employees are encouraged to report any problems that happen during there shifts by using their Whistle Blowing policy. The Whistle Blowing Policy allows issues to be viewed and solved by other employees and managers in a quick and easy manor. As well as this, The Jockey club have in place internal policies that help the running of the company and these are: Environmental, Health and safety, Equal opportunities, Sustainability, Bullying and Harassment, Purchasing (The Jockey Club, 2021) these polices make sure that employers feel safe at work and are happy with the running of a large company such as the jockey club.
Economic
The group chief executive of The Jockey Club, Nevin Truesdale, pointed out the impact of the pandemic on racing revenues and the potential for widespread job losses without aid. He said “we need the government to step in and provide direct support” after the government halted plans to reopen stadiums in July (Financial times, 2020). Racecourse incomes have suffered hugely without spectators this has affected their ability to continue providing race prize money. Venue owners therefore have pushed the government to give them and spectators a clearer idea on when courses can reopen so they can begin to plan for that and manage their finances better.
In August the racecourse association estimated that its members would lose revenue between £250 million and £300 million in 2020 alone due to the pandemic (BBC sport, 2020). The Jockey Club has also confirmed that it is cutting 70 jobs from its work force of 638 people to save costs (The Jockey Club, 2020). Horseracing contributes £4 billion a year in revenues to the UK economy and supports 20,000 jobs, according to the British Horseracing Authority, the industry’s regulator (Racing T.V, 2020).
Social
For The Jockey Club diversity and inclusion are a fundamental part of their organisation and they aim to have a respectful environment with equal employee rights. Over recent years they have joined forces with different organisations across England to achieve this. For example, in 2015 they became a Member of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme. Stonewall’s is Europe’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender charity and work to ensure all LGBT staff are accepted without exception in the workplace (Stonewall, 2020). The Jockey Club also hold a corporate partnership of Women in Racing which was created in 2009, to develop the profile of women in British Racing. Their goals are to attract more women into the sport, enhance mentoring and development opportunities for women, and develop cross-industry working groups and knowledge-sharing (Women in Racing, 2021).
They work with a range of charities that support people with physical and mental disabilities to ensure their venues are open to everyone this includes “#GoGreenRacing”, the Racing welfare phoneline and ensuring there is wheelchair access across all of their venues by working with “Access Able” (The Jockey Club, 2021). #GoGreenGracing is currently being trailed at Nottingham racecourse with the goal to introduce it across all of The Jockey Clubs venues in the future. It is a quiet space within the venue for people with hidden disabilities and anxiety to take time out while still enjoying the races on TV. These are just a few examples of the twenty-two different partners listed across their website and as well as making sure their venues are accessible, they also have regular training for all of their staff with multiple headings including Vision & Mission, Allies Programme, Recruitment, Training, Marketing and Branding, Research, and Communication.
Technological
The Jockey Club relies hugely on technology for all angles of their business. Firstly, they have their own website where they advertise new deals for events and ticket that are for sale. They also do lots of advertisement on upcoming events and dates that you don’t want to miss out on. By selling tickets directly from their website, it gives the jockey club a lot more control over sales, this is what contributes by directly gaining the profits instead of taking out any third party services, which will cost ore money and take longer to achieve. ITV also pays £9 million a year to own the right to be able to broadcast racing nationally (Racing Post, 2020). They do this because by selling these rights to ITV, it prevents The Jockey Club from having to create their own streaming service for home viewers and also is another way for extra advertisement of events. This is particularly important when leading up to large races such as The Grand National, ITV then advertising this event on the lead up to this race but also throughout the day.
The Jockey Club also rely hugely on betting, most of this is done online via websites such as PaddyPower. If people bet during the races they usually go to the betting stands while there, due to the increased amount of betting while there, the jockey club has added many electronic stands which are quick and easy to use and takes the pressure of people working there. Without the betting factor of racing it would lose a lot of spectators so it is extremely important these work.
Other technological factors include the cameras that film the racing and the large screens that are hired by venues on race days to give the audience the best possible view at all times, due to the size of race courses it would be difficult to watch without these. Cameras also allow there to be a replay and slow motion of the event if there is a dispute over winners or excessive whip use in a race.
Legal
According to recent data the British racing industry directly generates over 85,000 jobs across the UK (British horse racing, 2021). These jobs range hugely from grooms to trainers as well as heads of different racing committees and vary in both skill and wage.
The Jockey club employ 638 people directly across their courses.There are also 168 elected Members of The Jockey Club and 24 Honorary Members. Members are appointed on account of their contribution to horse racing, alongside a commitment to help The Jockey Club to achieve its vision (The Jockey Club, 2021). These people keep the courses well looked after and advertised all year round but many more staff are called in on actual race days to ensure everything runs smoothly from course walkers to catering companies.
For people who work first hand with the horses, especially grooms, having a career in racing can be quite dangerous as they are constantly surrounded by young, fit and unpredictable horses. The job is also physically demanding with long hours and many early mornings and late nights for, especially during the breeding season. As an employer, The Jockey Club work hard to ensure their staff are cared for well, where possible they pay above minimum wage and always ensure nobody works over the legal working week of 48 hours. Both The Jockey Club and The National Stud, a branch of The Jockey Club, also give all staff a personal pension plan, West field health which allows them to claim back on health expenses such as the dentist, life assurance, and yearly eye care vouchers.
Since Brexit, there has been concern that some of The Jockey Clubs foreign employees may no longer have the right to work in the UK. To help, the organisation have worked hard alongside the affected staff to find out any new legal factors that may affect their current working situations. They are trying to be as efficient as possible in solving this.
The Jockey Club are also dedicated to being an equal opportunity employer and are confident their is a pay parity between females and males in equivalent roles. As of 2018 their analysis of the Company’s hourly gender pay gap shows that there is a mean 9% difference between males and females, while at the median point females are paid 17% more than male employees. The investigation showed that the mean difference is accounted for by there being more males than females in the most senior executive positions at Jockey Club Racecourses, such as the Chief Executive.Women do however represent 40.5% of the top pay quartile and 58.7% of the Upper Middle Quartile. The median difference is driven by the many women employed in manager and senior management roles, in functions including Marketing, Finance, Sales, Human Resources, Operations, Events and racecourse general management. (The Jockey Club, 2018).
Environmental
In 2012, after many years of people campaigning for a more sustainable planet, The Jockey Club launched a programme called ‘Going Green’, this was created to help reduce their impact on the environment. They originally set up two targets with end goals to try and reach. The first target was to not send any waste to the landfill by 2020 but in 2018 they had already achieved this. The second target was to reduce their energy consumption by 25% across all of their racecourses. In 2019 they also aimed to reduce the total volume of waste by 10% and this target was exceeded. Most recently they turned their attention towards eliminating the use of single-use plastics. In June 2018 they banned plastic straws and stirrers on all courses and since then have worked through other single- use plastic items either eliminating them or significantly reducing the use of them (The Jockey Club, 2018).
Through the work of their Green Champions, five of their sites achieved more than 80% recycling in 2018 with Carlisle achieving 92% (The Jockey Club, 2018)
As well as focusing on recycling the organisation are also working hard to reduce their overall energy consumption, after setting this target they achieved a 14% reduction in total mainline energy consumption in one year from 2017 to 2018 (The Jockey Club, 2018).
Finally, alongside aiming to reduce their current energy consumption, they are also ensuring that all of the energy they do still use comes from clean and sustainable sources. In 2017 their solar panels at Exeter produced enough electricity to power 15 homes for a year. While in 2018 solar panels were installed at Newmarket and Cheltenham racecourses and at the National Stud, they generated around 300,000 kWh in 2018 and aimed to produce more than 500,000 kWh in 2019 (The Jockey Club, 2018).
References:
(2019). Nottingham goes green Goracinggreen.co.uk [online] Available at: https://goracinggreen.co.uk/blog/f/nottingham-goes-green [Accessed 12 March 2021]
(2020). ‘Modern slavery and wages’ Thejockeyclub.co.uk [online] Available at: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/modern-slavery/ [Accessed 12 March 2021]
(2020). ‘Nevin Truesdale appointed CEO of the jockey club’ RacingTV.com [online] Available at: https://www.racingtv.com/news/nevin-truesdale-appointed-group-ceo-of-the-jockey-club [Accessed 10 March 2021]
(2020). ‘Our commitment to sustainability’ Thejockeyclub.co.uk [online] Available at: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/about-us/our-future/sustainability/ [Accessed 12 March 2021]
(2020). ‘Racecourse group steps up calls for UK government bailout of sport’ FT.com [online] Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/a9856ef7-1106-4762-90c1-6a5e86e682b4 [Accessed 25 March 2021]
(2020). ‘The Jockey Club publishes pre-pandemic annual finances’ Rapleys.com [online] Available at: https://rapleys.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/JCR-2019-Financial-Results-Press-Release.pdf [Accessed 14 March 2021]
(2021). ‘#gogreenracing’ TheJockeyClub.co.uk [online] Available at: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/nottingham/visitor-info/go-racing-green/ [Accessed 11 March 2021]
(2021). ‘Diversity and inclusion’ Uniqueness is a core strength thejockeyclub.co.uk [online] Available from: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/about-us/diversity–inclusion/ [Accessed 14 Mach 2021]
(2021). ‘Environmental sustainability’ TheJockeyClub.co.uk [online] Available at: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/about-us/our-future/sustainability/ [Accessed 12 March 2021]
(2021). ‘Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking Statement | The Jockey Club.’ Thejockeyclub.co.uk [online] Available at: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/modern-slavery/ [Accessed 11 March 2021]
(2021).‘Diversity and inclusion vision’ Thejockeyclub.co.uk [online] Available at: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/about-us/diversity–inclusion/ [Accessed 13 March 2021]
(2021).‘Uniqueness is a core strength &diversity’ Thejockeyclub.co.uk [online] Available at: https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/about-us/diversity–inclusion/ [Accessed 11 March 2021]
Jockey club Analysis 