The success of a franchise hinges not just on its brand, products, and services, but also on its employees’ competencies, behaviours, and performance. This is why it’s so important to continuously upskill and reskill franchise employees with the necessary know-how to run and grow a franchise unit effectively.
Plus, if you try to replicate a franchisor’s business without efficient onboarding and training, it will take ages (and lots of money) to set up the business and reach the projected profit level.
Let’s explore five impactful strategies for mastering franchise training, inspired by insights we gained working with PNA, Wellness Warehouse and other local and international franchises.
1. Develop Comprehensive Training Initiatives That Drive Competence
Effective franchise training is complex, considering all the topics and diverse roles that must be covered and delivered to a geographically dispersed workforce.
At a basic level, you’ll be looking at initial training for new hires, ongoing training or upskilling for current employees, and specialised training for those taking on new roles or responsibilities. In this context, your franchise training ecosystem should address both the technical skills required for the job and the soft skills related to, e.g., effective leadership, customer interaction and team collaboration.
While these skills differ from franchise to franchise, key topics include:
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
- Compliance and regulatory training
- Franchise goals, vision and strategy
- Brand values and communication
- Style of customer service
- Product or service knowledge and positioning
- Product or service handling
- Franchise and internal policies (hiring, HR roles, etc.)
- Staff, team and shift management
- Accounting and financial practices
- Customer service best practices
- Sales and reporting procedures
- POS and other operational IT systems
- Business acumen and soft skills
We’re sure many more could be added to this list, but this should give you a good idea of what to consider when building a franchisee training program.
Tips for Success
Standardise your training content and overall learning experience: Ensure all training reflects the franchise’s core values, goals, and practices. When all employees receive the same level of training and have access to the same resources, the quality and consistency of work across the franchise improves.
Incorporate various learning experience formats: Use a mix of in-person or virtual-instructor-led workshops, eLearning activities, courses, and hands-on training sessions. This ensures you cater to different learning styles, desired performance outcomes, and varying demographics and roles.
2. Leverage Technology for Training Delivery
Educational technology has revolutionised how training is delivered, making it more accessible and efficient. This is especially important in South Africa, where traditional educational opportunities are mostly out of reach for the average employee.
A modern and scalable learning management system (LMS) like the aNewSpring mobile learning app allows franchisees to access training materials anytime, anywhere, including in the flow of work. This flexibility is particularly useful for franchises spread across geographic locations, where localisation and context are important for enhancing the learning experience and overall training effectiveness.
Tips for Success
Choose the best platform: Selecting the right LMS or learning experience platform (LXP) that supports multimedia content, SCORM, quizzes, and progress tracking isn’t easy. For insight into how to find the right solution for your franchise organisation, read Questions to Ask Before Buying an LMS.
Keep content engaging and edutaining: Incorporate videos, interactive modules, and gamification into your learning material to keep employees engaged and motivated. Stimulating and visual learning experiences improve knowledge retention, closing the gap between the unknown and competency.
3. Implement an Internal Mentorship Program
Mentorship programs can enhance and accelerate the training experience by providing personalised guidance and support. During mentoring, people learn from one another, providing opportunities for skill and knowledge transfer. It also leverages the power of storytelling and comradery and builds a positive learning culture.
Tips for Success
Choose qualified mentors: Choose experienced mentors who exemplify the franchise’s standards and values. If this isn’t always possible, you can productise success stories of how individual franchise employees developed their careers through interviews with key mentors. As a bonus, you’ll create reusable content for when mentors are in short supply.
Provide mentorship, leadership and management training: Equip mentors with the skills they need to coach and support their mentees effectively. These mentors will need to be the ones inspiring new joiners.
4. Monitor, Evaluate and Iterate Training Effectiveness
Assess the effectiveness of your learning and development program regularly to ensure it meets the franchise’s evolving needs. Gather feedback from trainees, track their performance, and use this data to adjust training content and delivery methods.
New Leaf Technologies’ Training Intelligence System provides the perfect solution by monitoring and analysing large amounts of training data across various metrics and franchise locations. Customised, easy-to-read reports are generated in real-time, allowing you to combine data from different franchises to get a clear picture of training impact across the entire group.
Tips for Success
Collect feedback after each training session: Use surveys, 360 feedback and feedback forms to gain insight into how you can improve your training and prevent attrition. Lean into the Kirkpatrick or Phillips ROI training evaluation models to ensure you ask the right questions and capture the right information.
Analyse performance data: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) such as customer satisfaction scores, sales figures, and employee retention rates to gauge the impact of training and ensure your skill development initiatives align with organisational goals.
5. Encourage a Culture Of Continuous Learning
When opportunities for training and career advancement are easily accessible — and fun to boot — you are on your way to fostering a culture of continuous learning. Actively promote the values of curiosity, resilience and adaptability to encourage a growth mindset among employees, and assure them that challenges and setbacks are merely opportunities for learning and growth.
Show them the clear paths for their personal career progression through success stories, leaderboards and creating roadmaps for each skill track. The result is higher retention rates, reduced turnover costs and innovation that can positively impact the franchise.
Tips for Success
Offer incentives for learning: Recognise and reward employees who actively participate in training programs and demonstrate their new skills. The incentives don’t have to be monetary; there are loads of creative ways to achieve this, such as through appreciation videos or peer recognition programs.
Promote career growth: Provide clear pathways for career progression within the franchise, highlighting the skills and competencies required for each role. Map out a training matrix that links to job functions to help you spot skill gaps and plan future training.
Master Franchise Training Through Reskilling and Upskilling
Training needs and budgets will vary between franchises, but it remains an utmost priority. It’s often one of the main reasons a franchisee would have joined the franchise in the first place, and they’ll be keen to take advantage of the franchisor’s knowledge and experience and replicate the model as quickly as possible so they can be up and running and start generating revenue.
Can you really afford not to have robust, effective training programs that equip franchise employees with the skills and competencies needed to remain competitive and profitable?
As they say, the proof is in the pudding. For instance, we recently worked with national retailer PNA and helped them achieve remarkable results through training using the aNewSpring Learning Experience Platform.
We’re also proud to have helped South Africa’s largest health, wellness and organic food retailer Wellness Warehouse receive global recognition for their Learning and Development program. The company was shortlisted in the Best Use Of Learning Data Analytics To Impact Learner And Business Performance category at the Learning Technologies Awards 2024, held in London this year.
We’d love to help you achieve similar results! Get in touch to see how our eLearning solutions and learning experience design services can help you master franchisee training in record time, and without breaking the bank.
