Will your franchise succeed? The answer can depend on the people you bring on board. That’s why it’s vitally important that you create a plan to hire good, capable, accommodating employees for your franchise.
The problem: It can be really tough to find qualified people who want to work in entry-level franchise roles.
The good news is that there are simple strategies to overcome this problem. Here, we’ll coach you through some of the steps you can take to find great applicants, ensure they’ll be a good fit for your business, and keep them happy—and engaged in their work—over the long term.
Here are some tips for getting started:
1 | Determine who you need.Before you hire employees for your franchise, make a list of the positions you need to fill. Your franchisor should be able to help you with this step.
Next, be clear about the qualifications you expect your employees to meet. Take time to define the skills, personality traits, and strengths you believe your employees should have to excel in a role and be a good representation of your organization.
Think of additional nice-to-have qualities you’d like to see in your candidates, too. As you begin evaluating candidates, you can refer to this list and move forward with people who demonstrate these traits.
Take action: Obtain any job postings, lists of job duties, and evaluation metrics your franchisor can provide. Use these materials to firm up both the must-have attributes and the nice-to-have qualities that you’d like to see your team exhibit. | ||
2 | Create a job description that hooks.Your franchisor likely has job descriptions for each of the positions you’ll need to fill. You can use these to start your own job postings, but you can usually change them up to add clarity, specify additional must-haves, and excite your applicants about the perks of working for your specific franchise unit.
Take action: Read each description your franchisor provides from the perspective of a job applicant. Determine whether each paints a clear picture of the brand values, role responsibilities, and opportunities for growth, training, and advancement. Retool the descriptions to appeal to applicants with the skills and qualifications you believe as essential for success.
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3 | Know where to look.You can share your job posting in lots of places. Here are a few ideas:
Not all of these options will bring you the candidates you’re looking for. You’ll need to experiment to find what works best in your local market. You can also talk to your franchisor and other franchise unit owners about the sites and strategies they find most effective for finding great candidates.
With your posting, be sure to share an application. This form will help you collect the essential data you need for each candidate. You can find lots of free templates online or build your own with a tool like Jotform or Monday.
Take action: Follow the advice of your fellow franchise unit owners, and experiment with other strategies that might help you connect with a great set of applicants.
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4 | Assess your applicants.How will you hire the right employees for your franchise? A proven process can help.
As applications begin rolling in, you should have a process to evaluate each candidate for fit to the role you’re aiming to fill. Your process might start with eliminating any candidate who doesn’t meet your must-have qualities for success. Then, you might set aside (but not yet eliminate) any candidate who doesn’t possess the nice-to-have qualities you believe are important for the open position.
These two steps may help you find a manageable number of applicants to interview, but if you have an abundance of qualified applicants, you might set some priorities. Look for people who have transferrable skills or experiences in roles that are similar to the one for which you’re hiring, show evidence of being self-starters, or come with glowing recommendations from previous employers. .Take action: Develop a system to help you prioritize your applicants. You can adopt your franchisor’s applicant tracking software or invest in another solution for support in sorting through your candidates, making bias-free selections, and automating the communication of your hiring decisions. Here are a few solutions to consider:  Breezy HR | Modern Recruiting Software Improve your entire hiring process with Breezy’s recruiting software and applicant tracking system. This easy-to-use tool will set you up with a simple means to create a career portal site, advertise your jobs, source and manage candidates, and automate conversations. Use this link to explore Breezy through a free 14-day trial (no credit card required).  Freshteam | Smart HR Software for Growing Businesses Freshteam is a best-in-class tool that can help you take on recruiting, onboarding, time off, and employee information all in one place. Customers love this tool and are reporting real, quantifiable time savings in recruitment, hiring, and onboarding. Visit their site to see if it's a good fit for your business.  Zoho Recruit | Happy Hires. Happier Workplaces. Zoho Recruit’s hiring software can help you source, track, assess, and hire the right candidates faster. Visit their site to learn how you can automate your recruitment process with their popular hiring platform.
.You can learn more about these solutions in our Solution Finder: Applicant Tracking Systems.  Solution Finder: Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) If you employ others—and plan to make more hires as you grow and scale your business—you may consider applicant tracking systems (ATS) to simplify your hiring process. Most ATSs can help you source talent by automating job site postings and supporting the development of recruitment campaigns. Many use artificial intelligence to match prospective employees with […] www.owneractions.com
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5 | Set up video or on-site interviews.Once you’ve identified a reasonable number of candidates, you can schedule interviews to meet each one.
Whether you meet virtually or in-person is up to you. Some owners like to set up video interviews for the initial interviews and arrange on-site interviews for follow-up.
Take action: Call each of your front-running candidates and invite them to attend an interview. Think about including a franchise representative in your interviews with management candidates. Then, plan to include your new management hires in later interviews for employee positions. | ||
6 | Ask the right questions.You can learn a lot about candidates through on-the-spot questions and deep dives into their responses, but you should also prepare a list of questions that will help you to make 1:1 comparisons—and ensure that you avoid questions that are prohibited by federal, state, and local laws.
Take action: Prepare some questions that will help you confirm your candidates’ experiences, test how they might respond to typical on-the-job scenarios, and evaluate how they would think through difficult problems they might face. Here are some sample questions that can help you get started:
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7 | Be specific about the workload, responsibilities, and opportunities to learn and advance.Interviews are a great opportunity to learn about your potential new hires, but you should also devote time to explaining the role, the expectations you have of each employee, and the perks of the role and organization, including opportunities for training, growth, and advancement. The time you invest in this step is important: It can help your candidates assess whether the role is a good fit for them.
Take action: Consider narrating what a typical day in the role would be like. If possible, plan to walk your candidates through the workstations at your site and show them the environment where they’d be working. | ||
8 | Address their concerns.At various points of your interview, you should encourage your candidates to ask questions about the role. Answer their questions thoroughly, and ensure that they understand your answer before moving forward to other parts of your discussion.
Take action: You might not be able to anticipate all of the questions your candidates will ask, but you can log their inquiries and ensure that you touch on those topics in future interviews. | ||
9 | Make your selections.After completing your interviews, you should assess how well each candidate met your qualifications, prepared for the interview, answered your questions, and left you with a favorable impression.
Take action: If you included a franchise representative or manager in your hiring process, you should ask for their opinion on the candidates you met. Work together to eliminate those who show a lack of interest, a negative attitude, or any other red flags that could signify a potential problem in the future. Move forward with candidates who seem dependable and eager to take on the challenges of the work that’s required, provided that they pass their background screening and receive favorable reviews from the references they provide. | ||
10 | Set up programs for training, support, and feedback that’ll help you retain your top talent.How do you plan to retain your best employees? Consider some of these best practices:
Take action: Talk to your franchisor, other franchise unit owners, your new managers, and your new employees about ideas to build engagement. Then, adopt the strategies that are physically and financially feasible.
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Frequently asked questions
Who should I hire first?
It usually makes sense to start with your management team. This will help you set the right tone for the rest of your hiring process and ensure that the people you hire will work well with the managers in place.
Once you’ve hired your management team, lean on them to help you screen applicants, make calls to candidates, and conduct the interview process.
Which experiences matter most?
Some of the most important manager experiences include:
- Similar, customer-facing roles
- Work for a franchise brand or one of your franchisor’s other locations
- Time spent scheduling and supervising shifts
- Experience in managing inventory
- Experience handling customer concerns
Ideally, your employees will have experience working in similar roles, too. Look for transferrable skills, such as working with customers, handling cash, stocking shelves, or following workflows, that might help them succeed in a role within your business.
How much should I pay?
Pay what you can afford, but at a minimum, you should try to keep compensation in line with your competitors. If at all possible, you might consider paying a little more than your competitors to attract their top talent.
How can I leave a favorable impression on my favorite candidates?
Here are a few tactics that work well for many franchise owners:
- Demonstrate your own passion for your business
- Show your competence in the role you hold
- Voice your confidence in a candidate’s ability to succeed
- Explain the perks of the role, which may include time off, incentives, training opportunities, or opportunities for advancement
- Keep lines of communication open so your candidate knows that you’re interested in continuing the process
How do I navigate other hiring concerns, such as setting up employment taxes?
Before you hire your first employee for your franchise unit, be sure to file for a federal tax ID number. Follow this link to visit the IRS website and complete the form.
You must also register with your state’s labor department and learn about your state’s labor requirements. Each state has a website you can visit to begin the process. You can find the contact information for the department in your state in the chart below.
 | Some states have a separate process to ensure proper taxation and withholdings, and this process usually takes place through the department of job and family services. Be sure to ask the representative you speak with about the specific steps that should be taken when hiring a new employee. |
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(334) 206-6020 | (808) 586-8982 | (617) 626-7100 | (505) 841-8437 | (605) 773-3101 |
(907) 465-2784 | (208) 332-8941 | (517) 335-5858 | (800) 447-3992 | (844) 224-5818 |
(602) 542-4661 | (217) 782-6206 | (651) 284-5070 | (800) 625-2267 | (800) 628-5515 |
(501) 682-4500 | (800) 457-8283 | (601) 321-6000 | (800) 366-6888 | (801) 526-9675 |
(916) 654-7241 | (888) 848-7442 | (800) 735-2966 | (888) 405-4039 | (802) 828-4000 |
(303) 318-8000 | (888) 396-3725 | (406) 444-2840 | (405) 521-6100 | (804) 371-2327 |
(860) 263-6000 | (502) 564-3534 | (800) 833-7352 | (503) 947-1394 | (800) 987-0145 |
(302) 761-8482 | (225) 342-3111 | (775) 684-1890 | (833) 722-6778 | (304) 558-8000 |
(850) 245-6000 | (207) 623-7900 | (603) 228-4033 | (888) 870-6461 | (608) 266-3131 |
(800) 436-7442 | (888) 634-4737 | (609) 292-1704 | (803) 737-2400 | (307) 777-6367 |
Finally, visit irs.gov to review the federal requirements you must meet. Through this link, you’ll find essential forms and information that will help you assure tax compliance.
Final advice: Focus on continuous improvement
Every time you post a new position, you should take notes on the quality of responses you receive, the effectiveness of your screening process, and the kinds of questions you could ask to avoid a consistently occurring problem with your process. You should also ask for feedback from the people you hire to learn what they liked about the process, where they felt it fell short, and what they think you could do to improve the experience.
What’s next?
After hiring your team, you can work on other key tasks, including preparing for opening day. We can help you with every part of your preparations. Log into your owner’s portal for articles, checklists, and advice you can use to make your venture a success.
