Franchise Business 101: Twelve Tips for Boosting Employee Morale

Employees are the foundation of any business. Without a strong team of dedicated employees, even if you have a great product or service and creative marketing strategies, you will find yourself struggling.

Keeping your employees happy and engaged especially in the fast pace, high stress environment of franchise business. Concerned about a high turnover rate? Consider this guide, Franchise Business 101: 12 Tips for Boosting Employee Morale:

1. Ask for More Input into Employee Appreciation Activities

Holding appreciation events for your employees is a common strategy for boosting employee morale, but this well-meaning idea can miss its mark if it is not something your employees will truly enjoy. Instead of having your Human Resources team and interpersonal communications manager shape these events, ask all your employees for input. Have everyone submit anonymous nominations and choose the most popular ideas. And don’t forget to do something special for them on National Employee Appreciation Day, which is March 2nd this year.

2. Find More Efficient Ways of Communicating

From lack of communication to too many emails that important information is lost, communication is always a major concern in franchise businesses. As much as is practical, try to make most important employee communication like procedural changes and company news occur face to face so employees can ask questions.

And if your employees seem to be drowning in unnecessary emails, see if there is a message app like Slack that can cut back on the emails and find more efficient ways of communicating.

3. How Can You Tell When Your Employees Are Unhappy?

While it is not always easy to gauge the mood at your franchise business, if you stay self-aware and keep your ear to the ground for signs of rumbling, you can get a good sense of how your employees truly feel. Common signs of low morale are eye rolls behind superior’s backs, high turnover rates, lack of collaboration and less friendly chatter among employees.

4. Weed Out the Bad Seeds

When you have employees who exhibit troubling behavior, fighting with their colleagues, refusing accountability for their actions, playing the blame game or acting in a sexist or racist ways, it can poison a workplace. No one wants to dread going to work every day. It becomes too stressful and can affect an employee’s physical and mental health. Get rid of the negative energy and promote a friendly, supportive environment.

5. Keep Open Lines of Communication

Your employees need to feel like they have a voice. That their needs are being addressed. So besides asking for input for employee appreciation events, you need to devise ways to keep open lines of communication from the top to the bottom. Make sure all supervisors are always checking in with the staff they are in charge of and make sure you are actively listening to the needs and concerns of your supervisors as well.

6. Offer Thorough Training

Nothing is more frustrating than to not to feel properly trained for the work you are expected to do. You want to deliver the best to your employer, but if they refuse to answer your questions and don’t clarify their expectations, you can feel like you are being set up to fail. This feeling will lead to a lot of employee dissatisfaction. Prevent this from happening by making sure everyone is thoroughly trained on their position.

7. Provide a Clear Track for Promotion

We all have ambitions. We want to believe that if we work hard, we will be rewarded with a promotion. Your employees need to see that there is a clear track for them to move up the ladder in your franchise business. During employee evaluation periods, off each employee practical steps they can take to improve their work product and become eligible for promotion.

8. Make Sure Employees Are Taking Their Breaks

Employee burnout is a real problem. Dedicated employees are a wonderful asset, but you need to make sure that they are not burning themselves out. Often times when business is crazy, employees will work through their lunch breaks and other breaks. While you appreciate how hard they work, you need to make sure they are taking care of themselves properly too.

9. Offer More Time Off

Another big factor in employee burnout is working for too many days straight without time off. In the franchise world especially, this can happen a lot because the work week is not just Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. Establish a procedure that makes sure that every employee gets enough time off and that a handful of employees are not covering for everyone else.

10. Celebrate Long-time Employees

The state of today’s economy doesn’t seem to support staying in one job for years and years so it is so important to recognize work anniversaries at your franchise business. It is truly a testament to the hard work of the employee and to your commitment as the employer to your team so it is definitely worth celebrating.

These honors are especially important to the quieter, steadfast employees who tend to not win the other types of awards you might give out.

11. Recognize What Is Going on in Your Employee’s Lives

All employees want to feel like their employer really cares about them and not just the work they produce. They want you to recognize what is going on in their personal lives. A good way to do this is to celebrate birthdays and other personal milestones and to offer support when they are going through tough times like illnesses and death of a loved one.

12. Offer Some Little Extra Perks

When someone is deciding on a new employer, the decision isn’t always about salary. To be competitive in recruiting the top players in your field, you need to offer extra perks to draw them in. Whether it is a gym on site or discounts for a nearby gym or free daycare, these extra perks could be what helps you draw people in and keep them.

When you really think about, you probably spend more time with your co-workers than you do with your family so it is important to foster healthy relationships. For more franchise business tips, contact Zac’s Burgers.

Zacs Food Truck

Zac's Burgers is presently not selling franchises and does not have a certified franchise disclosure document.  Zac's is offering licensing opportunities, however, potential licensees must meet all federal and state requirements.

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