Empowering employees

Finally you have managed to get the franchise that you had been dreaming about for quite a long. Take heed however, as only taking up the franchise may not necessarily guarantee that it will be a success. Some franchisees who have been good in the beginning turn out to be unsuccessful due to their inability to delegate responsibilities among the staff. Some franchisees feel it imperative to do everything themselves, be it setting up of the outlet, purchasing from the vendors, attending customers, stocking, accounting and so on. Would it not be better to dispense with some of the responsibilities to the dependable staff?  A franchisee can look for more avenues for expanding if he shares some of the work with his staff.

Why delegate responsibilities?

It is very important to have a team of personnel if you want to grow the business. The first step is to come out of ‘I can handle everything syndrome’. Start trusting people with some of the duties and imagine how your franchise can grow if you leave the nitty-gritty to the staff. Mentioned below area few tips to understand the importance of delegating:

• The franchisee can plan to expand further if some tasks are handled by his employees.
• Employees become loyal to the business if given responsibilities and try to efficiently handle the work.
• It can reduce your workload to a great extent.
• You will derive satisfaction seeing your business grow and your employees taking up responsibilities.

It is true that entrusting responsibilities to inefficient staff can hamper the business. Therefore, the first step should be to hire dependable and qualified staff. Due to inexperience, the franchisee may not know how to handle his staff, thereby messing up his business. Here are some ways to make the employees work diligently for your business, so that you can assign some of your responsibilities:

• Appreciating the employees who are good at their work can make them do better. Commend them whenever they perform better, as they will know that their work is being noticed and admired. By contrast, if an employee works hard, and his efforts are not recognised, he may dump his efforts.
• Pass on all the training and knowledge you have received from the franchisor to your employees. They can only be entrusted with the responsibilities if they have been well trained and well informed.
• Try keeping your work environment healthy and positive. There should be no politics and bad feelings among the workers. This can be achieved by allotting them their respective duties so that they do not need to compete and pull each other down to prove better than the others.
• Motivating the employees with progress and incentives may do wonders. If an employee thinks that there is no opportunity of promotion then he may not put his best efforts to win your confidence. If they know that good employees are rewarded with advancements, they are more likely to improve.
• Last but not the least, is making employees feel better through nice behaviour. Avoid shouting and taking off anger on the employees if the business is not doing well. Organise lunch parties and get-togethers as happier employees perform better.

The franchisor relies on the franchisee for expanding his business and the franchisee should try to live up to his expectations. This can only be achieved if he has reliable staff and is able to delegate responsibilities properly. Start working on it from now onwards!