Upping Engagement Levels with Franchise Employee Management Software

Jun 28,2019 By javed

Have you ever heard someone say that “your employees are your greatest asset”?

This old business standby gets thrown around a lot, and for good reason: over the long run, nothing beats a team that’s committed, energetic, and engaged. Not technology, not big budgets, not head-starts–a laser-focused workforce trumps them all.

But not all employees are 100% engaged. Plenty of “jobbers” out there are only bringing a part-time commitment to the table, though they may technically be working full-time hours. Gleeson (2017) estimates that only about 15% of the workforce are actually engaged and committed to a given organization’s goals. That leaves a whopping 85% of the workforce droning through the day without any real emotional stake in the brand’s performance. These employees are not your greatest assets; indeed, they can often be liabilities.

Fortunately, employee engagement is something you can control and, with the right tactics and technologies, increase.

To that end, today’s post is all about how to leverage your franchise employee management software to increase employee engagement levels.

But this isn’t going to read like a simple run-down of useful features. Instead, we’re going to look at some engagement-upping best practices published in Forbes, then explain how they’re made simpler and more effective with franchise employee management software.

3 ways franchise employee management software ups engagement levels

These tips were first published in Forbes by author Brent Gleeson. As a former Navy SEAL, he knows a thing or two about the importance of being engaged with your work–for him, it was literally a matter of life and death.

Here’s what Gleeson (2017) recommends–and how FranchiseSoft makes integrating these best practices easy:

“Put everyone in the right role.” When you’re taking on the right role, half the work is already done; after all, it’s easy to mentally engage with work you enjoy and are competent in. Accordingly, Gleeson (2017) stresses the need for smart talent acquisition and vetting during the interview process to get people in the right positions.

But how do you find the extra time for diligence in this regard? The obvious answer is planning and prioritization. But FranchiseSoft has a novel solution: workflow automation. By automating low-value tasks like sending welcome emails or brochures to new leads, or inputting contact information, FranchiseSoft effectively adds hours to your day, freeing you up for higher-level decision making such as putting people into the right roles. Simply put, we automate the low-level stuff so you can put your expertise to use.

“Give them the training.” To build a culture of trust, accountability, and engagement, your staff needs the skills to get the job done. Providing proper training is essential. Our franchise employee management software helps you do just that. We provide streamlined communications for troubleshooting; custom digital training course creation tools with full “student monitoring” capabilities; digital libraries to share and store training materials with a few clicks; and many other features to improve onboarding outcomes.

“Show respect, offer autonomy.” Micromanagement is not the key to employee engagement. While breathing down the necks of your staff may keep them physically on-task, it’s crippling to company morale and creativity. Instead, look for opportunities to show your employees you respect them by assigning them a certain degree of responsibility and autonomy. This tells them they’re valued team members. Further, leaving a degree of flexibility in the task engages their creative mind for problem-solving in ways that rigid step-by-step processes never could.

The classic example of this is giving employees the freedom to create their own schedules, but this is can be a nightmare without proper franchise employee management software. With FranchiseSoft, it’s foolproof–employees get access to shared calendars, which can be modified to the level you authorize. Alerts are automatically sent in the event of overtime hours, overlapping shifts, missed work, and other potential problems. Thus, you get all the autonomy and engagement-building power of employee-run scheduling, but effective retain full control of the calendar.

“Show respect, offer autonomy.” Micromanagement is not the key to employee engagement. While breathing down the necks of your staff may keep them physically on-task, it’s crippling to company morale and creativity. Instead, look for opportunities to show your employees you respect them by assigning them a certain degree of responsibility and autonomy. This tells them they’re valued team members. Further, leaving a degree of flexibility in the task engages their creative mind for problem-solving in ways that rigid step-by-step processes never could.

The classic example of this is giving employees the freedom to create their own schedules, but this is can be a nightmare without proper franchise employee management software. With FranchiseSoft, it’s foolproof–employees get access to shared calendars, which can be modified to the level you authorize. Alerts are automatically sent in the event of overtime hours, overlapping shifts, missed work, and other potential problems. Thus, you get all the autonomy and engagement-building power of employee-run scheduling, but effective retain full control of the calendar.