Jani-King calls upon the franchising industry to ëClean up the Act!'

Many people dream of running their own business, with the associated benefits of "more time on the golf course" or "no boss looking over my shoulder". And quite a few of these are attracted to the franchise sector, where they believe they can buy ready-made success along with an off-the-shelf business model. However, some of these dreams are never destined to become reality, as the individual concerned does not possess the right characteristics to make the business successful. Some of them will never even make it beyond reading the franchisor's prospectus!

Research by Professor John Stanworth of the University of Westminster's International Franchise Research Centre shows that "self-employment is a pipe-dream for quite a large army of people who may subscribe to small business magazines, attend seminars, join business clubs and, in this way, get an arm's-length thrill of ëa share of the action'.

A High Cost to the Industry

This second-hand thrill-seeking is costing franchisors substantial amounts of money as the average franchisor interviews nine people before they find the right candidate, a ratio that would horrify the average salesman converting warm leads. So, why aren't franchisors taking a leaf out of the sales force book and applying more stringent targeting and lead qualification measures to screen out time wasters?

Furthermore, taking on the wrong type of franchisee, those who do not have the right characteristics to succeed in such a demanding enterprise can cost companies more than just £7,000. They can undermine brands which have cost millions to build and even give the whole industry a bad name, with failures moaning publicly about "broken promises".

Franchise companies themselves are not always geared up for a professional approach to recruitment. Professor Stanworth's research indicated four key reasons why franchise businesses aren't always able to "pick winners" from amongst potential franchisees:

• They don't have an HR specialist with knowledge of the right approach to personnel selection and management;
• They rely on "gut" feel;
• They recruit in their own image rather than those with complimentary abilities;
• They forget how important it is for a husband/wife team to be operating effectively.

So what can be done to improve the situation?

Jani-King Leads the Way

Now global franchise chain and "King of Clean" Jani-King is laying down the gauntlet to the rest of the industry by launching a brand new process for how it recruits its franchisees and calling on the rest of the industry to "Clean Up the Act!". Drawing from its experience of Franchising in the UK, Jani-King has developed a recruitment manual to ensure it acquires franchise owners who demonstrate the true qualities of success.

At a recent Claridge's lunch to launch the recruitment manual, Jani-King's Managing Director, Paul Haworth, made the point that "failure of a franchisee's business is not only distressing for the business owner, but also for the franchisor". He also spoke of the importance for the industry to look beyond its own sector and consult with business support organisations such as the Institute of Directors to help franchisees develop their business acumen as their companies grow.

"Franchising is a win-win business where both parties want to see the franchisee making good profits and creating business success. Not only that, but a poorly-performing franchisee can harm the overall franchise brand which then further impacts negatively on other franchisees. We have carefully considered what makes a successful franchise business owner and we aim to reduce our recruitment costs and make our business even more successful through this initiative. We are focusing our franchisee recruitment process on the skills and drivers that are proven critical success factors for Jani-King entrepreneurs, and have structured it so we will remove time-wasters and no-hopers early in the process." /contÖ. Attracting the Right Kind of Franchisee Franchising as a sector is already a success story with a value of over £10.8bn and a growth rate twice that of the UK economy as a whole, according to the bfa/NatWest Franchise Survey 2007. This means there is a great deal of opportunity for the right people who start franchise businesses. However, the sector can easily attract the wrong type of person, usually those who are looking for a new opportunity or lifestyle change without considering the other implications of running their own business, such as the (often long) hours and the need to be a self-starter.

So Professor Stanworth recommends that any franchise business, like Jani-King, looking to improve its recruitment process needs to set up a screening questionnaire to single out people with the right attributes and this is what Jani-King has done.

The University of Westminster's Professor Stanworth also reckons that the franchisee recruitment process can be made more scientific by adopting methods traditionally used by Human Resource professionals when recruiting staff. This involves developing a role description, which sets out such things as the purpose and responsibilities of the job, as well as a specification which lists qualities that are both essential and desirable in the franchisee. These can be used to screen all potential applicants. Jani-King's Paul Haworth commented "we are very excited about our new recruitment process as we believe it will lead to the selection of increased numbers of individuals with the attributes and determination to succeed as franchise owners. It also demonstrates the seriousness with which we regard the Jani-King brand image and corporate reputation."

So, now that Jani-King has set a new benchmark for the franchising industry by adopting a highly professional recruitment process, how long will it be before others follow suit and "Clean Up the Act"?