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The pursuing excerpt is from Mark Siebert's book Franchise Your Business. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iTunes
To create a sound training program, you request to commencement pinch an knowing of your franchisee. Is this caller franchisee personification pinch industry-specific knowledge? Specific skills, specified arsenic income aliases guidance abilities? Or will you request to dainty your franchisee arsenic if they were learning perfectly everything for the first time?
Ultimately, your training programme must beryllium bully capable to guarantee that the least-skilled caller franchisee will correspond the marque to the modular of value associated pinch the concept.
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The champion franchisors are immense advocates of training and put heavy successful it. Even though the training conducted by newer franchise companies is often reasonably informal, the champion caller franchisors make it a privilege to create much general programs arsenic soon arsenic possible. These programs will prescribe successful item precisely what each franchisee and their unit must master. By specifying precisely what must beryllium taught and really the instruction will beryllium conducted connected an hour-by-hour basis, these training programs supply knowledge successful a mode that will foster consistency.
Once a caller franchisor decides connected the taxable matter, they must past determine really to behaviour the training. Generally, this training takes respective forms:
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Training astatine the franchisor's headquarters
For astir franchisors, the hands-on information of training starts astatine their location office. This training tin past for respective days aliases weeks and, for newer franchisors, is often held successful edifice convention rooms aliases impermanent agency accommodation to support costs nether control.
Generally speaking, location agency training starts pinch a circuit of the prototype cognition and firm offices, and an preamble of unit and their roles. Once the formal training convention begins, astir franchisors attraction connected subjects champion taught successful a schoolroom setting. Among the dozens of topics usually included successful this information of training are firm history and philosophy, tract selection, lease negotiation, pre-opening procedures, regular operations, security requirements, vendor relationships, and reporting requirements. This conception of training often involves hands-on training wrong your franchise prototype (or possibly a typical training prototype constructed for that purpose).
Franchise training classes should beryllium lively and interactive. A substance of training formats specified arsenic video (for example, showing a cardinal supplier's facility), lecture, discussion, and hands-on activity (such arsenic merchandise mentation aliases really to supply the franchise services) creates an inviting training situation for franchisees. Moreover, various studies person shown that franchisees clasp much accusation erstwhile the trainer uses a assortment of training methodologies combining visual, auditory, and tactile learning. We often urge that our clients impact their guidance unit successful the location agency training convention arsenic well. Exposing aggregate unit members to franchisees energizes the process and helps build franchisee relationships passim the organization.
Home agency training, for illustration each training, should beryllium accompanied by testing, evaluation, and different procedures to guarantee that franchisees are so tin of apical performance.
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On-site training
The adjacent measurement often involves spending respective days to a fewer weeks (or more, depending connected the complexity of your operation) assisting franchisees and their unit astatine the franchisee's location.
As pinch location agency training, you should create a elaborate training schedule for this stage. Training should attraction connected assisting the franchisee successful becoming much acquainted and comfortable pinch the day-to-day cognition of the business. Franchisees caller to the manufacture will person different questions and expectations than franchisees pinch anterior acquisition successful related businesses. One of the cardinal objectives of the on-site trainer is to place and prioritize the franchisee's needs during the first time aliases 2 truthful she tin tailor the remaining training schedule to champion meet those needs.
On-site training is an important hold of the franchisor's pre-opening training program. New franchisees tin easy go overwhelmed and tin sometimes momentarily hide everything that has been taught to them. Having the franchisor's representatives astatine the tract — often successful the shape of an opening squad — tin easiness this modulation and guarantee that customers get a bully first impression of the marque and the franchisee's operations. An opening squad helps franchisees break into day-to-day operations slowly, truthful they don't consciousness they're jumping into the heavy extremity alone, without assistance from the franchisor.
Within respective days of the completion of on-site training, you should supply the franchisee pinch an wide written evaluation of his aliases her capacity successful the training program. The information should reference some the franchisee's strengths and areas successful which the franchisee needs further work, and it should see a circumstantial action scheme pinch a clear database of objectives for the coming weeks and months.
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Ongoing training
For the champion franchisors, training doesn't extremity erstwhile the startup play is over. It's a captious ongoing portion of the franchise relationship. For a franchisor to beryllium competitory successful the agelong run, its franchisees must stay existent pinch manufacture trends and accommodate to changes successful the market, incorporating caller products, services, marketing, and operating procedures into their businesses.
With this successful mind, each franchise statement should incorporate not only first training requirements but besides circumstantial requirements for ongoing training. To minimize the erosion of system standards complete clip owed to a deficiency of training, you whitethorn want to see requiring periodic recertification connected halfway competency issues for franchisees and their cardinal unit members. Such a programme mightiness see regularly scheduled refresher training for these apical positions, arsenic good arsenic elaborate training for each unit connected immoderate caller products, services, aliases procedures that are introduced from clip to time.
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