Franchising has seen good growth in South Africa, with a 43% increase in franchises operating between 2019 and 2024. That means more employment opportunities, but it also means more and more franchisees who need to be trained on the ins and outs of established systems.
Traditional training methods are costly and time-consuming for franchises, which is why most invest in a scalable Learning Management System (LMS) to get new owners and employees up to speed. But, as with any training initiative, the quality of the learning experience defines the Return On Training Investment (ROTI).
Here’s a high-level overview of what it takes to make a lasting impact on training for franchises.
Examples of eLearning for franchises and enterprises
At New Leaf Technologies, we have extensive experience in rolling out learning management systems for franchises. For example, we rolled out a series of programs, including an employee induction program and a variety of industry-relevant courses for PNA. After implementing the aNewSpring Learning Experience Platform, we were able to provide centralised training content to ensure everything was accessible to employees across locations, leading to cost savings by reducing the need for external instructors and physical training facilities.
For the City Lodge Hotel Group, we helped integrate their Human Capital Management (HCM) platform into the aNewSpring learning management platform. We developed bespoke content for the Group and provided them with relevant, ready-made content from our extensive courseware library. They enrolled their learners in over 26,000 training activities and achieved a 91% completion rate across all training programmes.
Core components of a franchise training program
Regardless of the type of franchise you own, some core components of any franchise training program should be standard. These are:
Onboarding: Onboarding new franchisees is a continuous process that requires ongoing support and engagement. This is when franchises provide new franchisees with the tools and resources they need to run their business smoothly and successfully—such as manuals, compliance information, software, systems, and processes.
Standard Operating Procedure Training: To ensure franchises across the group operate to the same brand and quality standards, you need to provide the same training materials across teams and locations. This could include visual brand identity, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and guidelines for etiquette and communication. It ensures consistent brand image, product quality, and service level across franchises, regardless of locale.
Reskilling and upskilling: Annual refresher training and skills updates ensure your group is up to date with product and market developments in your franchise industry. Frequent reskilling and upskilling also increase motivation, knowledge retention, engagement, and job performance.
Compliance training: This is essential to ensure all franchisees are aware of the legislative, regulatory or policy requirements for their industry, and to mitigate risk for the franchise.
Reporting and analytics: Accessing comprehensive data tied to your franchise training is essential for identifying correlations between training programs and business performance. Our Training Intelligence system provides real-time visual reporting dashboards based on data from training processes, learner engagement, and performance outcomes. With a tool like this, you’ll be able to propagate LMS-generated data directly into your CRM to make strategic, data-driven decisions. It can be used to design, implement, and refine training initiatives that are better aligned with organisational objectives.
Frictionless integration: Connecting the franchisee’s operational stack to learning is a strategic imperative which helps to resolve training administration problems and streamline L&D functions. Your LMS can integrate with other applications, tools, and software used by the organisation. This includes Human Resources (HR) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, payment providers, and communication tools.
Leveraging your LMS for efficient franchise training
A centralised learning management system for franchises will offer consistent training across multiple locations and will be scalable to accommodate a rush of learners as new franchisees come on board.
On a more granular level, franchisors can tailor training content to specific roles, departments, or learner groups. Together these factors enable franchise owners to create training programs that address both corporate-level standards and offer local operational flexibility.
An adaptive learning platform can deliver personalised learning experiences and pathways to multiple students at a time, increasing engagement and improving learner outcomes. Content is delivered in various formats, including gamification, videos, interactive modules, immersive learning, and simulations.
A variety of assessments that track progress, combined with real-time feedback and report-generating, ensure no one is left behind and franchisees benefit from the same level of knowledge across the group.
As leading LMSs are mobile-friendly, distributed teams can engage in learning activities to fit their schedule, accommodating different work arrangements and time constraints, and enabling them to learn “in the flow of work.”
Depending on the industry, some training will occur online only, and others via a blended learning program where some classes are attended in person or on-site and other components are completed online. The aNewSpring platform is geared to help you manage either or both of these types of learning.
Join the ranks of PNA and City Lodge with a scalable franchise training solution
A well-structured franchise training program ensures franchisees can effectively replicate the franchise business model while maintaining brand consistency across all locations. This consistency is key to operational excellence, which in turn leads to improved employee retention and productivity and ensures long-term success for the entire franchise network.
If you are a franchisor interested in knowing what eLearning can do for franchises and how our solutions and services can help you train and upskill your teams, get in touch, and let’s see what we can do together.
