Hiring The Right People

Many franchises - such as food, hospitality and delivery franchises - need staff to meet demand, but others - including service-based franchises such as cleaning, dog walking and vending machine management - can initially be started by a franchisee without the need for staff. However, if your service is proving popular and you decide you need to grow or you wish to take a step back without affecting your earnings, you will need to hire staff.

While getting the right staff is important for any business to maintain customer satisfaction, adding a new person to your team of one can seem like a very daunting move as everything that they do will ultimately reflect on you. Therefore, taking the time to get this right is critical.

It is essential that you hire a person whose values and motivations match your own. You need someone who is as passionate about the brand and about delivering high levels of customer service as you are, and finding this person can be tricky. You will need to understand their needs and be considerate of their motivations and desires to ensure that once you've onboarded the best person for the job, you keep them.

Employing and retaining the best person for the job will require clear communication right from the point of advertising the vacancy. You need to be very clear about the role and its responsibilities, and it never hurts to be up front about the salary and other benefits that you can offer.

When you are interviewing, you need the person who "feels" right. You may feel that their qualifications will be less important than their passion for your product, brand or location, and you can tease this out during the interview. You may find it helpful to have a second, independent person sit in on the interviews to take notes and discuss their thoughts about the candidates with you afterward to help you to make your decision.

Once you have hired the right person, you will need to train them and monitor them to ensure that they are representing your business in a way that you are happy with. Skilled and passionate staff will want to deliver the best service they can. They will welcome your feedback and support and will be happy to make changes to their modus operandi to ensure that both of you benefit from the arrangement.

Hiring the right people for your business can help you to grow, increase your profits and allow you more free time, which are all huge benefits to being your own boss. Remember to keep on top of the legal aspects of having employees and maintain clear lines of communication, and you should be able to find the ideal hire!