Recruitment Guardrails: Structure improves predictability for signings and revenue

In franchise recruitment, we all want to move swiftly toward our signing and revenue goals. Of course, a straight line is the shortest and fastest distance between today and our goals. Yet, without a structured recruitment system, this path often becomes a winding road filled with unnecessary detours and obstacles.

This is the reality for brands navigating the recruitment cycle without guardrails, the strategic boundaries that keep the process on track.

This lack of direction leads to thrashing, a cycle of highs and lows in signings and revenue that can disorient even the most seasoned recruitment team. This instability affects the brand’s momentum and brings about a sense of unpredictability that can be frustrating at all levels of the organization. The wider your guardrails, the further you’ll sway back and forth between signings and revenue.

Ups and downs

The reality is that a straight line would be perfect, like batting 1.000 or bowling a 300. Since life doesn’t work that way, the trick lies in establishing systems that reduce the back-and-forth motion and help you move forward more linearly and efficiently.

To put it another way, use a system that tells you how far away you are from that perfectly straight line.

Bracing for impact

The consequences of not having any guardrails in place are felt deeply within the organization. At the C-suite level, CEOs and directors face the stress of fluctuating revenue and the volatility of their recruitment efforts. For the recruitment team, this instability translates into unpredictable highs and lows in performance, making it difficult to plan for the future. Recruiters who rely on signings for their personal income may find that they’re bouncing back and forth from feast to famine, which isn’t a great way to make a living.

This cycle of uncertainty can leave everyone involved feeling uneasy and out of sync. The whiplash gets even worse when you think of the millions of dollars spent on lead generation, staff, team, discovery days, and all that goes into recruiting and finding new franchisees.

The long-term implication of being guardrail to guardrail—not having any process and standard for adjusting when there’s a problem—is failing to return shareholder value, whether you own 100% of the company, are publicly traded, or are owned by a private equity firm.

Stability

You want a world where your brand operates within a stable framework, recruitment’s ups and downs are minimized, and you can confidently make plans for the next 90–120 days. This is the promise of a well-implemented system.

With this system, annual budgeting becomes less daunting, C-suite executives are happy with accurate forecasting, and the HR team can approach recruitment team hiring with a clear strategy.

The result? A brand that moves forward confidently and a team that feels secure in its path to success. If we don’t throw gutter balls, we might not become a professional bowler, but we’ll see our averages go way up. Guardrails keep us from consistently rolling gutter balls.

Without guardrails, you risk wasting money, experiencing high turnover, and failing to achieve your brand vision.

Implementing the right recruitment system can bring efficiency, effectiveness, and excitement to the recruitment process, aligning it with the brand’s goals and keeping your brand in the right lane.

Let’s go to work! 

Art Coley is CEO of CGI Franchise. Using the proven Recruitment Operating System (ROS), he and the ROS Support Team help franchise companies implement and execute a predictable, repeatable, and sustainable franchisee recruitment program. The company is based in Temple, Texas, and works with brands worldwide. Contact him at 281-658-9409 or [email protected].