Psychometric assessment in recruiting franchisees

What role can psychometric assessment take in recruiting successful franchisees? Peter Farrow from Thomas International gives us the answers.

The recruitment of your employees is a complex and vital process. However recruiting the “right” franchisees to expand your franchise network is crucial and needs to be even more thorough. Get it wrong and the consequences can be far reaching – it can have a negative impact on your brand, goodwill of the business name and your reputation in the market. Business proposals, plans and financial projections are one thing but the personality of the franchisee is often the factor that can make or break success.

Interviews and face-to-face meetings are conducted by most franchisors as part of their franchisee recruitment process, but how do you make the final decision that the person in front of you is right to take on the mantle of your franchise? How do you know that they have what it takes? The role of a franchisee has many facets: they need to have excellent people skills because they are dealing with staff, customers and suppliers; they need to be driven, focused; and goal orientated and they need to be able to take knock-backs as well as having a good business head on their shoulders. It’s a lot to identify in an interview.

Interviewing is a very limited forum in which to build a well-rounded picture of a potential franchisee. It can give an inadequate insight into personality and behaviour as people tend to put on an interview ‘mask’, which can be very hard to get behind.
Understanding what makes them tick cannot always be done over the course of one or two meetings. This is where behavioural assessment can aid the process. Its power lies in being able to paint an extremely accurate and objective picture of a potential franchisee’s strengths and limitations.

Psychometric assessment is a valid and objective way to identify if a potential franchisee has what it takes to succeed. It gets behind the ‘mask’ and plays an important role in confirming a franchisor’s gut instinct. It provides detailed and accurate information as to that person’s strengths and weaknesses, what motivates them, how they react under pressure and how they will interact with customers.

A Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) is not a test as the applicant cannot pass or fail. It does not show good or bad qualities, it simply provides an understanding of how a person prefers to behave at work and the characteristics they will demonstrate. The potential franchisee answers a series of 24 questions in seven to eight minutes and whilst it is quick, it is very thorough with results being an extremely accurate reflection of an individual’s work style.

The franchisor will then receive a report that gives a comprehensive assessment of that person’s working strengths, fears and motivators, and the value they are likely to bring to an organisation. The report will also cover how they are likely to perform under pressure and how they would modify their behaviour.

PPA has received a Certificate of Registration from the British Psychological Society to ensure it meets all psychometric requirements. As well as analysing prospective franchisees a PPA could also help you and your existing staff to become more aware of their work style. It will lead to a greater understanding of why they do what they do and can be used to hone and modify the communication skills of franchise managers’ and support staff. In this PPAs can improve the recruitment process, increase staff retention and enable more effective people management.

Signs Express is the UK and Ireland’s market-leading provider of signage solutions.  It uses Thomas International’s behavioural assessment PPA to help recruit their franchisees. Jan Corbett, Franchise Recruitment Manager at Signs Express, comments:

"We find that PPA can give us a good indication of a prospective franchisee’s personality and methods of working, giving us a unique insight we wouldn’t normally see when meeting someone for the first time. It’s very useful for the franchisee too, because it can help give them confidence in the areas they excel at and allow them to grow in those areas that perhaps need some development. We find the service to be a helpful part of our recruitment process."

Once a PPA has been completed there are a number of different reports available providing feedback about the potential franchisee. For example a Training Needs Analysis will identify likely training deficiencies and detail competencies and weaknesses, whilst a Driver Assessment Report will look at behavioural characteristics linked to high risk driving. The behavioural assessment that you undertake to recruit franchisees should be tailored to ensure you find franchisees with the right skill-set to help you expand your franchise network. The decision-making process involved in recruiting a new franchisee is vitally important and getting it wrong can be disastrous for all parties involved – why leave it to chance?

For more information visit http://www.thomasinternational.net