Running a franchise business is a very difficult venture. There are so many hats to wear and you need to wear all of them like a professional and a champ. One of the hardest hats to wear is that of an employer. When you employ a large team of people, you have to know what kinds of conditions will inspire which kinds of behavior. You have to know how to intervene when employees cross boundaries, and you need to know how to make your employees feel valued. Of course, the first step in building a great team is hiring the right people. If you are not currently a great judge of character, you’re going to have to become one. This is the most important skill to have when hiring new employees, and it starts with learning how to identify red flags and how to recognize winning character traits.
- Hire great managers – all great hiring decisions start with a great manager that can handle interviews and pinpoint great employees. If you don’t have a lot of hiring experience, the last thing you want to do is hire managers who don’t either. Ideally, you want to hire managers who believe in the business, have extensive experience, and aren’t afraid to ruffle a few feathers. Of course, they also need to have great people skills and the ability to communicate their appreciation for everyone on the team.
- Make sure that you introduce diversity into your workplace – if you don’t have a diverse workforce, your hiring process will be flawed. Aside from the risk of being sued by those who may believe you are not an equal opportunity employer, you want to be sure that your clientele feel that they can relate to your employees. If they don’t, then they will patronize businesses who do hire people that they relate to.
- Learn from other franchises – you may be able to go on franchiseexpo.com and find franchise businesses that have unique hiring practices. This is one of the best ways to compare and contrast systems that do and don’t work. Your hiring practices will be very different depending on the community that you serve, so you’ll want to be sure to take that into account.
- Widen the net – when it comes down to it, you want to open up your call for employees to a wide network – the wider the network, the better. You want early risers who are willing to take your morning shifts, people who don’t mind working nights, people with little experience who are willing to work for lower wages, and people with extensive experience who will represent your brand with pride and excellence.
- Be very strict with the criteria you are looking for – if you have a model employee that you are searching for, you want to embed those qualities into the hiring process. A lot of people will apply for a job even if they don’t necessarily have enough education, experience, or even if they simply don’t fulfill a lot of the criteria. You want to be sure to ask them difficult questions and thoroughly check their references to confirm that they do, indeed, fulfill all of your hiring criteria.