People

Last time, I introduced the concept of using type casting to hire people who will naturally reflect your brand as a simple and proven method that ensures your people will behave as the natural extension of your brand at every touch point. Hiring to your brand requires that you are already clear about your brand's positioning and have defined the brand personality you want to project in the marketplace.

Here are three more really good examples of companies that have used type casting to extend their brand to the front line.

Patagonia: Going Easy on the Rock
Patagonia is an outdoor clothing and accessories company with a deep commitment to the environment. Its founder started the company to design and sell environmentally friendly mountain climbing pitons...

To say the least, the past few years haven't been the best for business. We've weathered a brutal recession, and most of us aren't out of the woods yet. What's more, it's not only finances that have taken a hit--morale is suffering, too. In the battle for survival, many organizations have developed perpetually stressful atmospheres in which employees are asked to do more with less--often with little thanks. In many cases, it's not that employers want to shaft their people; they simply can't afford not to cut hours and positions, and they definitely don't have the funds for raises and bonuses.

Fortunately, says Todd Patkin, you don't need a single dime to make your people happy at work or to show them just how much you care about them and appreciate their efforts...

When Hollywood directors cast a superstar they count on two things, box office draw and the professional actor's ability to act, by which I mean the ability to stop being Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlize Theron, or Jim Carey and instead become the three dimensional living embodiment of someone else. Watch "Capote," "Monster," or "Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events" and you will see the incredible transformations these actors make in their own personalities to literally become the character, even gaining or losing huge amounts of weight to ensure a complete and congruent representation.

Now think about your own employees, especially those who spend the most time touching customers. How willing (or capable) are they of completely transforming their bodies, minds, souls, and personalities into the ideal personification of your brand?

I'm sure you would agree that most are not capable of these radical transformations and that even if they were, they would be unwilling to spend huge parts of their lives pretending to be someone they are not...

Any experienced multi-unit operator understands that great employees ultimately need opportunities to grow and advance. These are your winners and you want to keep them - and you want to keep them engaged. One way to do this is to create a leadership path for those top-performing employees. There are numerous ways for franchise operators to approach this task. Many have successfully implemented concepts such as employee development programs and mentoring programs.

Earlier this year at the Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in Las Vegas a roundtable luncheon and discussion took place. Dozens of multi-unit operators with years of experience had the opportunity to discuss some of their own ways of grooming employees for leadership roles...

9 tools for nurturing a high performance team

Desi Williamson has led a diverse career as a corporate sales and marketing executive, entrepreneur, motivational coach for the Minnesota Vikings, and now restaurant owner. In 2010, he opened three Dickey's Barbecue restaurants in Minneapolis. Desi's Impact!! Restaurant Group, LLC is providing jobs for people in the community and planning to expand to ten locations in the next five years. His restaurants are topping the list of fastest-growing locations within the Dickey's franchise system and Williamson believes the most important factor in their success (and the success of any business) is their people.

Below are some of the keys that have allowed Williamson's franchises to grow in an environment that's supposedly the worst in decades to start a business, especially a restaurant:

Building a Winning Team

Some two decades into the pizza business with Domino's Pizza, Dave Melton has acquired quite a bit of knowledge when it comes to building a great team around him. The multi-unit franchisee, who has 4 units in Manhattan and 2 in nearby Connecticut, loves to use sports metaphors when he talks about building a great team. Here - from his book Hire the American Dream - are 12 strategies that have worked for him over the years. If you don't already do these things then you might give them a try.

Get to know your teammates
The more you understand about a person, the easier it is to accept his differences. It's easy to be critical and negative about a person you don't understand. Take time and listen to the person with whom you're having trouble...

Management Best Practices

Basic business fundamentals teach that organizations won't experience much prolonged success without strong leadership and management in place. It really does start at the top. Good managers understand that there are certain strategies and techniques that help create a positive working environment for their entire team. Of course the end result of this kind of management is a healthy business with satisfied customers.

Multi-unit franchise operators know that past a few units, they need help overseeing the empire. Unit and area managers often bridge the gap between the day-to-day operations and the franchise operator. They're the eyes and ears on the ground and in the stores. What they see, manage, and report back can be imperative to the ongoing success of the company...

It would be fantastic to have a franchise that is so far and away superior to anything else on the market that there is simply no comparison. In the real world, most of us have competitors that have products and services (shiny objects) that perform reasonably well compared to ours.

So, once you have figured out how to make your own product shine, you need to figure out how to get your customer to take notice of your product instead of the other guy's.

I have assembled nine tactics that I have successfully used over the years with a variety of franchise organizations. Not every tactic works for every product or service. You need to carefully consider both the short term strategy and long term objectives in choosing which tactic to use...

If I were to ask 100 business operators to define customer service, I would guess that 97 of them would say this: Customer service is providing the customer with service that is fast, accurate, and courteous. While those are indeed elements of customer service, there is more to it, so much more.

Customer service is a moving target; it is whatever the customer thinks it is. That includes quality products, convenience, competitive prices, timely responses, reliability, a personal touch, and knowledgeable employees. Customer service means doing what you say you will do and doing it when, if not before, you say you will do it. It is operating on the belief that no transaction is complete unless the service customers receive is sufficient enough to motivate them to return...

For most multi-unit franchisees, the need for dependable hard-working employees is paramount to creating a successful unit. Face it, without top-performing employees, there's really no chance of having a top-performing unit. This makes recruiting employees a top priority. Yet many multi-unit operators still struggle with finding, hiring, and retaining great employees. But there's hope - and at least 10 proven ideas you can try.
At the recent Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in Las Vegas a roundtable luncheon and discussion was conducted. Dozens of multi-unit operators with years of experience had the opportunity to discuss some of their tried and true methods for recruiting great employees. The conversation was candid and spirited and the franchisees seemed eager to share their recruiting successes - as well as failures - in an attempt to spread the wealth of winning recruiting strategies...

Nearly every business owner has, at one time or another, found themselves on the defensive, scrambling and looking for ways to cut costs and pump up the bottom line. But too often this scenario involves terminating employees. That's a move which does reduce payroll but can also have a devastating impact on morale and customer service. In other words, it's a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

Customer service guru John Tschohl, founder and president of the Service Quality Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota, says it doesn't have to be this way. He says what these executives should be doing is looking for ways to reduce day-to-day costs without sacrificing quality or service. "Often, when they decide to do so, they hire high-priced consultants to come in, look over their operations, interview employees, and then develop a glossy report of their findings," he says...

It's often the case that the weaknesses of a system are not obvious until that system is catastrophically overloaded. That's when most breakdowns or failures occur. Overloaded electrical systems start fires, overloaded computer systems crash, and overloaded human beings suffer nervous breakdowns.

In the same vein, today we find that the economic upheaval of the past 30-plus months has exposed the weaknesses and faults in most management-level employee hiring systems--especially in the multi-unit franchise world.

The dearth of job openings and the flood of applicants for each one, combined with the drawbacks of poorly managed "promote from within" policies, have exposed a number of system flaws that inevitably lead to faulty decisions that have a negative impact on the operation's bottom line...

Almost five years ago, in April 2006, nearly 59,000 employees obtained class certification in a lawsuit claiming that Brinker Restaurant Group violated California labor laws by failing to ensure that its non-exempt employees took meal and rest breaks. In July of 2008, the appeals court vacated the class certification based upon a finding that employers need not ensure that meal and rest breaks are taken. The California Supreme Court then vacated the decision and granted review on October 22, 2008. Much to the chagrin of California employers and employees seeking clarity on the issue, the Supreme Court has yet to issue its ruling in Brinker Restaurant Group v. Superior Court.

The Supreme Court's over two year delay in issuing a ruling in Brinker has allowed the Second Appellate District to weigh in as to whether California employers must simply provide non-exempt employees with their statutory meal and rest breaks or if they must take the added step of ensuring that the employees take them...

As we continue to mine Dave Melton's book, Hire the American Dream, I thought it would be interesting to highlight a case study that demonstrates just how successful smart hiring can be. Here Melton describes his experience hiring an immigrant.

Zia Shah has been working in one of Melton's franchises for a decade now. The native Pakistani holds a business degree and plans to one day own his own Domino's Pizza franchise. "Everyone has a dream to come to America," he says of his homeland. "Dreams come true for everybody here."

The optimistic Shah arrived in the United States in 1998 - alone. He had no connections in New York, but an uncle had a friend in New York who happened to know one of Melton's store managers and offered to put Shah in touch with him...

It's often the case that the weaknesses of a system are not obvious until that system is catastrophically overloaded. That's when most breakdowns or failures occur. Overloaded electrical systems start fires, overloaded computer systems crash, and overloaded human beings suffer nervous breakdowns.

In the same vein, today we find that the economic upheaval of the past 30-plus months has exposed the weaknesses and faults in most management-level employee hiring systems--especially in the multi-unit franchise world.

The dearth of job openings and the flood of applicants for each one, combined with the drawbacks of poorly managed "promote from within" policies, have exposed a number of system flaws that inevitably lead to faulty decisions that have a negative impact on the operation's bottom line...

Dominators step forward!

Spread across the following pages of our annual Dominators issue are the rough-hewn tales of seven multi-unit franchisees who have worked smart and played hardball to create large, successful franchise organizations.

These operators are not afraid to take risks if the payoff means a bigger slice of the market pie. We interviewed these seven savvy operators and asked them to share their strategies, philosophies, and personal approaches to running their organizations.

Four of these high-powered individuals were honored in March at our Multi-Unit Franchising Conference in Las Vegas, and rewarded with Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine's first annual Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award...

Top-performing employees exhibit a number of key characteristics critical to Dave Melton's franchise operations strategy. For example, as he has previously explained, they are not only happy and productive, but they also make fabulous team recruiters. But it doesn't stop there. He believes his top team members should even be involved in the interviewing process for new hires.

Melton has spent some time identifying the many ways that his top employees can benefit his business. After three decades in franchising, he oversees six successful Domino's Pizza restaurants in New York City and Connecticut. His stores generate more than $6 million annually. His years behind the wheel of his franchise organization led him to pen a book - Hire the American Dream - that offers unique hands-on insight on a number of franchise operational issues...

First impressions are lasting. Front-line hourly employees are not. Before they've been on the job just six months, more than 50 percent are gone. Some were probably not a good fit for the job in the first place, but some productive, dependable, hard-to-replace employees bolt, too.

So what happens between the new hire's enthusiastic acceptance of a job offer and the day they leave?

In a nutshell, we find that unit-level managers spend their days doing mostly two things: putting out fires and dealing with difficult employees and the problems they create. This leaves the dependable, self-directed people to fend for themselves--because they can. It's the "squeaky wheel" syndrome and there's only so much "oil" to go around...

As we continue to mine Dave Melton's book, Hire the American Dream, I thought it would be interesting to highlight a case study that demonstrates just how successful smart hiring can be. Here Melton describes his experience hiring an immigrant.

Zia Shah has been working in one of Melton's franchises for a decade now. The native Pakistani holds a business degree and plans to one day own his own Domino's Pizza franchise. "Everyone has a dream to come to America," he says of his homeland. "Dreams come true for everybody here."

The optimistic Shah arrived in the United States in 1998 - alone. He had no connections in New York, but an uncle had a friend in New York who happened to know one of Melton's store managers and offered to put Shah in touch with him...

Businesses spend an average of $28.87 per hour for each employee, according to recent figures from the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This figure includes salary plus benefits such as health insurance, vacation time, and workers' compensation. Overall, 69.7 percent ($20.13) goes toward salary and 30.3 percent ($8.74) to benefits, with 1.6 percent ($0.47) of that benefit percentage going to workers' comp.

With labor-related expenses accounting for such a large proportion of franchisee costs--especially in QSR and retail--we asked four multi-unit franchisees for their "front-line" views on how they are managing rising employee-related costs. These case studies, from four distinct brands (Supercuts, Domino's, Firehouse Subs, and Jiffy Lube) show how each franchisee approaches the complex issues surrounding employee costs--and supply practical tips on how each is dealing with them in 2010...