The knowledge and abilities of your franchise manager can make or break the daily operations of your franchise location. After all, they’re the one in charge of how your location runs. When you’re not there (or even when you are), the daily tasks land on your manager. They’re the boots on the ground, ensuring everything is working like it should. How trainees learn to work, how situations with customers are handled, etc. Even if you’re a hands-on owner, you need someone to rely on, and that’s your manager. How well they’re trained, how they handle stressful situations in a pinch, etc. all reflect on your franchise business, and likely your profits.
Knowing they’re ready to take over will also make your life easier – it will cause less stress if/when you need to take off, and it can allow you to take on other responsibilities, possibly even further expanding your franchise location.
To ensure you’re hiring and training your most experienced manager yet, take a look at these proven steps.
Hire the Cream of the Crop
This one is obvious. Hire the best and you’ll get the best. However, hiring the best is expensive, it’s competitive, and you might always be wondering where their brand loyalty lies. For instance, if someone comes along with a better offer, will they take it? Skilled managers have much to offer, and their services will be highly sought after. But keep in mind that “cream of the crop” doesn’t necessarily mean most experienced or those with the highest level of training. It can also mean someone with the best personality, or who’s the most willing to train and do things your way. Consider personal traits that can come into play when growing your franchise. Including workers who will remain loyal. Training someone from the ground up, or hiring a fresh graduate and molding them into a top-notch manager can be great ways to keep them around for the long haul. You can also ensure your manager will do things the way that you trained them, not the way they think is best.
Determine what business skills are most important to your brand and go after these workers full force to help grow your brand.
Make Training Effective and Lasting
Anyone can sit in a training meeting or attend virtual lessons. But are these effective ways to learn new skills as a franchisee? Or as your franchise’s manager? Everyone has a different style of learning and adapting to your manager’s learning abilities can help you find the best way to educate them, and to ensure the trainings stick. Experiment with different styles and be sure to ask your manager how they best learn. Retention is key, but so is the ability to put new skills to work on the spot. The more comfortable your manager is with each new skill, the better it will be seen in action and inside your franchise location.
When it doubt, switch it up. Give your manager hands-on training, let them attend courses, recommend podcasts, etc. You should also be willing to pay for this training time so they get more out of it and are able to put time aside for continuing education. Don’t forget that hosted training events by your franchising brand are also a great place to learn.
Create a Safe Environment for Your Franchise
When the stakes feel too high, effective learning can’t happen. Of course the stakes are high, it’s your business we’re talking about. But you should be aware of how much pressure you’re passing along to your franchise manager. Be sure they know they can learn at their own pace, and that mistakes are ok. Favorable, no, but not the end of the world. Mistakes are part of learning, and if your franchise manager feels like they can’t take even the slightest misstep, they won’t be able to effectively run your location. Simply have a protocol when mistakes do happen, such as reversing the problem, and then putting steps into place so they don’t happen again.
When using all of the above, you can create an environment in which your franchise manager can safely learn about your business. Allow them to learn and grow in various formats, and a little grace as they’re putting it all into action. This is one of the best ways to help your location thrive and become an even more profitable, more efficient business in years to come.
Create this custom training schedule in order to find and learn with your manager for an ideal way to run your franchise business as a team.