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With two-thirds of all Americans eager to start their own business, many different business models are growing in popularity. Franchising is fast increasing—in the United States, more than 750,000 businesses operate on the franchise model.
Starting a new franchise can be exciting and rewarding, but it’s important to fully understand the best way to recruit a great staff to succeed. New franchises will have a more challenging time getting off the ground if they can’t find and retain a stellar staff. You can often benefit from corporate help with recruiting as a franchisee, but it’s still important to understand recruiting basics.
Here are ten key aspects that all new franchises should understand regarding recruiting.
- Identify Your Ideal Candidates
- Familiarize Yourself With Applicant Tracking Systems
- Understand Recruiting Best Practices
- Work on Your Employer Brand
- Have a Job Distribution Plan
- Provide Training and Support
- Foster a Positive Work Culture
- Understand Hourly Employees
- Use Social Media
- Follow Legal Requirements
What All New Franchises Must Understand About Recruiting
Identify Your Ideal Candidates
Before you start the recruitment process, it’s essential to have a clear idea of the qualities and characteristics you’re looking for in a candidate. This will help you narrow your search and find the right fit for your franchise.
Creating a candidate persona for your various roles can help you determine your ideal candidate and how to market to them. Feel free to use the candidate persona template below to create your own personas.
Familiarize Yourself With Applicant Tracking Systems
Applicant tracking systems (ATS) help streamline and strengthen the recruiting process.
Your franchise should use applicant tracking systems to centralize and optimize recruiting for your locations.
Streamline the Hiring Process
An ATS allows franchises to automate many of the tasks in the hiring process, such as posting job openings, parsing resumes, and scheduling interviews, allowing you to focus on other aspects of growing your business. 86.1% of hiring managers say ATS usage increased the speed at which they hire, and 78% said it’s improved the quality of their hires.
Increase Efficiency
An ATS can track the status of job applicants, schedule interviews, and communicate with candidates all in one place. This can help improve efficiency and reduce the chance of errors or miscommunication.
Find Better Quality Hires
The top challenge facing franchises today is labor quality. 78% of recruiters who use an ATS say it’s improved the quality of their hires.
Ensure Compliance
An ATS can help franchises comply with legal requirements around hiring, such as equal opportunity employment laws and data protection regulations.
Overall an ATS can help franchisees save time, improve efficiency, hire better-quality employees, and ensure compliance.
Many franchises take their recruiting to the next level with branded hiring software. A branded hiring solution provides a strong candidate experience and is especially valuable if you have or are planning on having multiple locations of your franchise. Check out a demo of the HiringThing branded hiring solution below if you’d like to learn more.
Understand Recruiting Best Practices
Franchises should understand recruiting best practices since having the right employees is essential for the success of any business, including franchises. Recruiting best practices are methods and strategies that have proven effective in finding, attracting, and retaining top talent. It will also help your franchise stand out in a crowded job market. Today’s candidates have many options when it comes to finding employment. By implementing effective recruiting practices, franchises can differentiate themselves from other employers and attract top talent.
Check out our Guide to Increasing Your Applicant Traffic for a complete rundown of what the best recruiters do to grow their brands.
Work on Your Employer Brand
A strong employer brand can help attract top talent to your franchise. Employer brand refers to the image and reputation a company portrays to potential and current employees. It encompasses a company’s values, mission, culture, and overall working experience. Make sure to highlight your organization's unique benefits and culture in your recruitment efforts.
Have a Job Distribution Plan
It’s not enough to post a job. Franchisees should familiarize themselves with the best places to post jobs.
Job Boards
Job boards are powerful tools for anyone looking to fill open positions or build out talent pipelines—51% of today’s job seekers utilize job boards as part of their career search. We also recommend familiarizing yourself with niche job boards like Culinary Agents, who specialize in hospitality positions.
Consider Sponsored Job Posts
Sponsored job posts can take your applicant traffic to the next level. Indeed reports that employers are 4.5x more likely to make a hire when they sponsor their job post, and ZipRecruiter finds sponsored posts receive 11x more applicants than organic posts.
Advertise in Your Location
Customers often make the best employees. Advertise open positions right in your location. Say you’re a fast food franchise. Imagine how great it would be to have a happy customer receive a meal, see a position open, and use a QR code to apply right there from your dining area.
Utilize Referrals
Employee referrals can be a valuable source of new hires. Consider offering incentives for current employees who refer qualified candidates to your franchise.
Provide Training and Support
New employees, especially those new to the franchise industry, will likely need some training and support as they get up to speed. Make sure to provide the resources and guidance they need to succeed.
Additionally, offering growth and development opportunities can help keep your team motivated and engaged. Consider offering training programs and opportunities for advancement within the franchise. A lack of career development is the top reason today’s employees leave their positions, even hourly roles.
Foster a Positive Work Culture
A positive work culture is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. Create a welcoming and inclusive environment where employees feel valued and supported. This will help with employee retention and recruiting.
Understand Hourly Employees
Hourly employees comprise 60% of the U.S. labor force, yet the turnover rate is three and a half times higher than salaried employees. Hourly employees approach work differently than salaried employees, but often recruiting best practices and literature are built for salaried workers.
We created Tips for Engaging Hourly Employees to help organizations effectively market their open roles to this demographic and successfully retain them after an excellent recruiting experience.
Use Social Media
Social media can be a powerful tool for recruiting, especially if you have a strong online presence. Use platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to advertise job openings and reach a wider pool of potential candidates.
79% of today’s job seekers use social media in their job search—social media is a great place to post your open positions. It’s also a great place to showcase your employer brand. Your corporate franchise can help you launch a social media presence.
Follow Legal Requirements
It’s essential to follow all legal requirements when recruiting, including fair hiring practices and non-discrimination policies. Make sure to familiarize yourself with your region's relevant laws and regulations.
HiringThing’s franchise rollout package includes joint liability coverage.
Related Resources
- Tips for Engaging Hourly Employees
- How to Find Higher-Quality Hourly Employees
- How Franchises Can Retain Top Talent
- Franchises Need an ATS
About HiringThing
HiringThing is a modern recruiting and employee onboarding platform as a service that creates seamless talent experiences. Our white label solutions and open API enable technology and service providers to offer hiring and onboarding to their clients. Approachable and adaptable, the platform empowers anyone, anywhere to build their dream team.
