Learn How To Hire For Multi-Unit Franchise Business
Once you get the hang of running a franchise business unit, you will feel that there is no limit to what you can do. And certainly, there is no limit to the number of franchise units that you can operate. Are you projecting income multiplications already? Then read on to learn how to run successful multi-unit franchises. World over, a majority of the franchise units belong to a multi-unit business. More and more franchises are becoming open to entrepreneurs that have demonstrated success repeatedly by operating different franchise units in different locations. The challenges in running such a business are identified but with an increasing number of multi-unit businesses, the belief that a franchise business needs singular attention is fading away slowly. A single unit franchise is run by the franchise himself but when it comes to managing more than one unit that can be in different locations, it gets much more complicated. The owner cannot be present everywhere at the same time. Though technology has developed remarkably and almost everything can be remotely operated, human resources are still needed to make decisions and solve problems.
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A coffee maker will make the coffee and customers will serve themselves but we still need people to refill, collect money, place orders for supplies and repair the machine when it breaks down. You can imagine the human resource involvement necessary in a luxury diner or even a quick service restaurant. Now multiply that many times over and you will need the large scale of human resources that will be necessary to operate multi-unit franchise businesses. Organising resources: It only makes sense that some of the managerial functions should be centralized and the on-site requirements only are staffed individually. Even so, personnel should be ready to interact with and if need be work for the other units in the business. Functions such as Human Resource Management can easily be centralized. On the other hand, the housekeeping staff can be based at the unit level but it should be willing to cooperate and provide services at other units whenever the need arises. It is not easy to find staff that is so flexible or efficient. Even at the managerial levels, managers will need to be highly skilled in order to efficiently manage different units that may have different businesses. These job responsibilities will need specific training. The challenge will be to retain employees that have been trained over a period of time and have gained an understanding of all the businesses. Type of business: The system becomes a bit less complicated if all the units are under the same franchise brand but if all the units belong to different brands and companies, it can become very difficult to manage. Franchise units have fixed formats so there is not a lot of decision making to do but only ensure that the business runs smoothly and service quality is maintained. Organisation culture: Cooperating between all the units, having a healthy competition between them, using learnings from each unit to improve overall profitability, and visualizing career goals over and above a single unit are aspects of a culture within an organization. If an organization is able to promote such a culture, it will be able to develop a synergy between the units that will fuel the drive towards the business’s profit goals. If such business wants to function profitably, it will have to devise a strategy to sort out the productive employees from those that are not a good www.frantastic.in 2
fit in the culture and retain its best employees for a long period of time. It would be advantageous for such a business to have inputs from human resource development experts on a regular basis. Hierarchy: First of all, the business should make a formal hierarchy within the organization so that there is no confusion regarding anything and uniform communication is maintained. Thereafter, one should identify the skills, knowledge, experience, and values required at each of the levels. Selection of candidate: The hiring process should stick to the profile definitions as far as possible. Competitive remuneration and incentives may be required to attract the managerial talent that is required but it would be worth it. The selection of the candidate should focus on multitasking, diverse experience, openness to learn and unlearn, mobility, collaborative skills, the experience of managing a team, and also based on the individual's motivation and goals. All these attributes are going to be required when one has to function over multiple entities that have different operations and objectives. If many or most of the franchise units under the business are service oriented, developing human resources as per need is going to be the major factor affecting the bottom-line of the business. Once a person joins the business, he should be willing to undergo the numerous training that a multi-unit franchise business has to participate in. Each of the parent companies of the franchise will training that are actually essential for the business.
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Training: Apart from this training for operations, advertising or accounts that are to support the business, there has to be in-house training for the employees. The purpose of such training is to enable the employees to work in coordination with all the units and cross function as per need. Depending upon their positions and roles, the managerial cadre will need training in leadership. Induction: Once an employee is inducted into the role, he should be given time to understand the complexities of the business. He should also be given www.frantastic.in 4
opportunities to learn and prove himself. There may be a need for constructive and continuous feedback for a certain time. After such a period, the employee can be assessed on various parameters such as performance, leadership qualities, proactiveness, and cooperation. If it is observed that the employee is not a good fit in the organizational culture, it should be brought to the notice of the employee. An open conversation regarding the problems and issues faced should take place. If the employee is still not able to adapt to the requirements of the business, the decision to remove him should be prompt. Career growth: The message that is given to the employees should be clear. All the same, there should be no insecurity among the employees. They should feel assured that if they are doing the job well and as per the requirements of the business, there is no cause for worry. Recognition: Employees that work well should be recognized on a regular basis to keep up their motivations. Each employees career aspirations should be discussed and a career development plan should be charted out. There may not be enough space for actual, hierarchical promotions within the organization but there should be timely increments. The incentives and bonus systems must not be based on an individual unit performance level but based on a collective basis that considers the overall growth of the business organization. The incentives earned by employees should be enough to keep them motivated at all levels. The goals should neither be very easy not very high and also consider the significant differences that the units will have due to varying business models. In all, a business with multiple units will have to ensure that it recruits employees with a high motivational level, induct them well into the business, and retain them over a long period of time. A business that will have such multi-talented managers will definitely be able to juggle all the functions responsibly and profitably.
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