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Last week, our friends tried to celebrate a birthday at a highly regarded restaurant. They had reservations and arrived on time. After 45 minutes, they still had no water and no clear table server. Amid apologies from a manager about being short-staffed, they ultimately left for another nearby competitive restaurant where things went more smoothly.
These days, it is commonplace to feel the impact of a reduced workforce in many foodservice and retail locations that hire hourly workers. If you are considering a franchise that depends on hourly workers, the current "labor crisis" might be making you hesitant.
However, it is not necessary to worry about maintaining a steady staff in a tough hiring market. With some creative employee incentives, you don’t need to be scared of an hourly employee franchise.
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Make Your Franchise an Attractive Place to Work
It’s an employee’s market right now. For success, small businesses create incentives that attract employees. For a franchise that depends on hourly employees, your creative offers will make yours the business that stands out with enough staff and an excellent customer experience.
- Scheduling choices. You will always need specific shifts covered, but it’s okay to accommodate employees as much as possible. Phones can be answered remotely, and part-time hours might be exactly what your staffers desire, so think of ways to flex your ways of doing things. Work with their requests while still fulfilling your shift-work requirements by giving employees a voice in where and how they work.
- Paid days off. You might not be able to offer weeks of paid vacation, but hourly employees view a paid day off with great appreciation. It can be for personal needs, vacation, or volunteer time—all things that hourly employees often cannot afford.
- Modern and mobile communication. It must be easy to share information, schedules, and issues. Every employee expects that employees will communicate by text or specific apps designed to keep the team informed. Invest in good scheduling software that communicates in real-time, and use whatever social media communication systems work best for your type of work. Mobile contact matters for employees, especially hourly staff whose days are not consistent.
- Pet-friendly workspaces. Humane societies emptied their kennels during the pandemic. Families now have pets that need attention. If your franchise allows employees to bring their pets to work, it makes it easier to hire qualified people who simply need to have a cat on their desk or a dog under their desk.
Offering valuable benefits and choices to employees helps ensure that your franchise provides excellent service while keeping your staff satisfied. In the past, employers did not offer employees a choice of hours and personal perks. If you do it now, your creative options will make your franchise attractive to good employees and will help retain them for longer. You don’t need to fear being slightly different when your franchise soars above its hourly-based competitors.
Anne Daniells is a co-owner of Enterprising Solutions, a professional services firm specializing in corporate communication and financial improvement for businesses where she shares decades of corporate and entrepreneurial experience—including franchise ownership—in her writings on business culture. She has authored hundreds of articles for publications including AllBusiness.com, TweakYourBiz.com, and MSN.com. Reach out via her website for more on where corporate culture, communication, and human architecture collide.