Recruitment is a complex task for any business and can be particularly so for franchisees who need to manage the expectations of the brand and the franchisor with their own requirements and demands.

Recruit Shop’s managing director Saxon Marsden-Huggins has some tips on how to help your franchisees recruit for their franchise business.

1. Learn from others

Whether or not you assist with recruitment, it is still important for franchisees to learn from you and other franchisees.

 Can you provide recruitment tools?  Encourage your franchisees to speak with other franchisees in the network and see if they have seen any unique needs.

2. Focus on culture

Starting a franchise can be difficult, but franchisees have the chance to determine what the work environment is like on a day to day basis, and good work culture is a huge draw card for potential employees. 

While there might be rules to adhere to, the franchisee’s daily interactions with staff depend on the culture they create.

So when recruiting to fill the next vacancy franchisees should be sure to communicate to potential candidates what it’s like to work for that particular store and what gets the team out of bed each morning. 

3. Have a strategy

Franchisees are often in a hurry to hire, and have a tendency to recruit quickly based on a few qualities but lack of time to hire is one of the biggest problems, and can lead to poor staff and high turnover.

It is much more effective for franchisees to have a strategy, including a way to analyse candidates objectively and come up with a plan that is focused on what a successful applicant looks like.

Before they recruit, it’s a good habit for them to sit down and make a list of attributes, skills and experience they want their next employee to have, and then to assess each candidate thoroughly based on that. 

4. Advertise the vacancy on multiple channels

A “Help Wanted” sign on the door is a good way to get some applications, but franchisees will want to attract more than just those that drive by in need of a job. You and they want highly skilled workers.

Do you have an affordable recruitment company to recommend? Are franchisees having success with unique and interesting job boards? Consider active recruitment through Twitter or LinkedIn to ensure franchisees don’t miss out on great online candidate applications.

5. Create a candidate pool

During the first few years of a running a franchise, business owners can experience high turnover, and in some cases may not even know how many people they need to recruit over the next 12 months.

The best thing to do to avoid reactive, split second decisions is for franchisees to start creating a candidate pool where with details of keen applicants on file and email them when a position comes up.

Encourage franchisees to not just wait for a position to open: good workforce planning requires anticipating how many times they think they will need to recruit.

If you want to run a franchise which invests in the best people and allows yourself and your staff to be successful then it’s key to understand and recognise the recruitment challenges your franchisees face, and instil in your franchisees the need to respond quickly.

Unfortunately recruitment doesn’t get easier without help, it has to come from conscious business attention.

• Recruit Shop offers recruitment services to small businesses in Australia and New Zealand.