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One of the most challenging aspects of starting a franchise isn’t opening your doors. It’s hiring the right team. Franchisors work hard to help new franchise owners put all the systems, operations, and industry knowledge into place. They also work hard to help guide the hiring process. However, it’s up to the local franchise owner to pull together the right team of local employees to facilitate the location's daily operations and five-star reviews.
If you’ve hesitated to start a franchise out of fear of hiring and managing a team, or if you’re ready to start your franchise but aren’t sure how to pull together the right team, here are four things to consider.
Finding the Right Team of Employees
If you can bring in the right pool of people from the outset of your franchise ownership, things are much easier. Teams mesh better. Performance is better. And retention is longer-lasting.
Before you hire, you must define the roles you’re looking for and clearly articulate them in the job description. Once that job description has been created, you’ll need to cast a wide net to get the opportunity in front of as many potential candidates as possible. Post on job boards, local forums, social media, and even in analog mode at your store.
With the interviews booked, it’s important to screen your potential candidates carefully. Ask them questions while assessing their communication skills and enthusiasm for the role. Lean into behavioral questions to understand how candidates react in potentially stressful situations. You can also validate their answers by contacting the referrals they list on their application.
Training Your Franchise’s New Team
Once you’ve assembled your initial team after starting your franchise, it’s time to train them on your operations. Your franchisor will provide you with the nuts and bolts of training to help you educate your team, but your role extends beyond telling them what to do and setting expectations.
While training your team, engage in hands-on training. Get them into the store, show them the equipment, and share your vision for daily operations. Getting detailed with your training and expectations will help avoid assumptions and errors.
Team-building training with an all-new team is equally valuable. This is especially important in the beginning stages when no one has worked together. In training and team-building, you get to set the tone for the culture you want in your new franchise. Will it be fun but functional? Will
you motivate your team through rewards and recognition? Deciding what you want that culture to look and feel like can steer how you build your team and bring them closer together as you start your franchise.
Gathering Employee Feedback
Part of team training and culture building is incorporating a feedback loop. Starting a franchise can feel like a one-person job, but offering ownership and a voice to your employees makes it more of a team effort.
Creating an open-door policy to encourage feedback is a great way to spot any wrinkles in your systems before they get too hard to fix. Sending out anonymous surveys can also help you get honest feedback from team members who may be too shy to speak up. Hold one-on-one check-ins with management to hear firsthand about their experience. Once you get this feedback, act on it as best you can. While not all improvements may be possible, showing the team you heard their requests and offering a reason for not making the changes will help them feel heard and understand the purpose behind the processes.
Solving Conflicts Among Your Franchise’s Team
Inevitably, conflicts will arise. Solving these conflicts early on helps to avoid them from escalating. Mediating conflicts between employees can feel hard and daunting to you as a franchise owner, but it’s an important role to take to keep the overall peace in your franchise.
One thing that helps many franchisees is to have clear policies and expectations for your employees. Making exceptions on these policies for one person but not another can cause an unintentional rift among team members, so it’s important to be clear and firm with expectations.
Hiring and managing a team of employees can be a rewarding experience when approached with an open mind. By hiring the right people, providing the right level of training, and communicating often with your team, you can have a great experience as a franchise owner, while also handing off many tedious tasks to your team members to handle in the day-to-day operations.
Kimberly Crossland is the founder of Roadpreneur and Cruisin' + Campfires, two companies designed to keep families together and living in freedom through travel and entrepreneurship. The goal of both businesses is to inspire meaningful change through the power of a strategic, thoughtful approach to life and business. In her free time, you can find her looking for a new adventure together with her two boys.