Ensuring you get the best out of your network should be the number one priority. In fact, creating an environment where your franchisees feel happy, supported and motivated to help your business grow increases the likelihood of being successful. However, this is far easier said than done. Paul Lewis, the MD of Pitman Training, believes that by investing in training for your franchise support team, franchisees and their teams, recognising hard work and innovating, your people will feel valued and appreciated, which in turn will drastically improve their performance. He gives his five top tips on how to improve your people’s performance.
Innovate your business
The world’s leading franchises were built on innovative business models and have had to constantly adapt to stay at the top of their game. So, if you want to add value to your franchise brand and decrease admin time for your support team, franchisees or their employees, ultimately leading to increased profits, innovation is the answer. To generate innovative ideas for your business, I would suggest promoting employee participation and trust when making decisions. Your franchisees are often on the front line, so who better to come up with ideas than them? Once you decide on an idea and are confident it has potential, you can pilot a prototype across your network and use feedback to work out any kinks before scaling the idea up.
Understand mental health needs
Mental and physical health issues are enormous blocks on productivity so, as a franchisor, it is your job to recognise these issues and tackle them head-on. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to people’s mental health. So, be empathetic that no two people have the same home environment, pressures, sleeping patterns and general needs. For example, anxiety can cause a franchisee to lose concentration, making it difficult to multi-task and carry out day-to-day work activities. It could also affect someone’s mental stamina, making task deadlines challenging to meet.
To combat these issues, I recommend that a franchisor ensures a prospect fully understands the reality of starting a new business before becoming a franchisee. Franchisors should also ensure they are giving franchisees employment law support to avoid putting themselves at risk. However, perhaps the most important thing to do when looking to improve someone’s mental health is letting them know they have someone to talk to. At Pitman, we make it a priority to visit every one of our centres where we can have an open discussion around wellbeing. This can go a long way in improving the teams’ mental health and, in turn, their work and productivity.
Install an open-door policy and open channel of communication
An open-door policy is not just an approach that allows people to communicate personal issues with their head office support team when they are uncomfortable discussing those issues with their franchisor directly. Good businesses use open-door policies to encourage freedom of expression, respect and cooperation between management and employee. By having an open-door policy, you will increase the productivity of your franchise network by allowing people to discuss their concerns with their line managers or support team at any time.
Find a tailor-made training programme for each person
If you want to get the most out of your people and unlock their full potential, training is the way to go. Training not only helps people develop new skills, but it can also enhance their existing skills and support them in taking the next step. It will also help them be more motivated, add value and ultimately contribute to the success of your team and the growth of your organisation. Unfortunately, training is generally given the most attention when people are first onboarded, but it should not stop there. At Pitman, we practice what we preach by offering ongoing training to help keep people productive and motivated, allowing them to develop and improve performance over time.
Recognise your top performers and reward them
Finally, a great way to incentivise your people is to reward them for all their hard work. Especially after all the hard work done throughout the pandemic, rewarding your top-performers is not just a good idea; it is a no-brainer. Incentivising performance entices people to be at their best and helps to create a culture of friendly competition in which each person encourages their colleagues to maximise their performance. A few creative ways to reward your top performers – whether in the franchise support team, franchisees or their employees – for their hard work include personalised gifts, awarding them time off, giving bonuses or accolades and awards.
This article comes courtesy of Pitman Training a leading independent training provider, offering world-class office and IT skills in modern training centres to thousands of students across the UK and around the world. As a management franchise, franchise partners don’t need any teaching experience as they recruit a team to support delivery of self-paced vocational courses, making a real difference to the lives of people in their local areas.
