Insights: Franchising

If you have pursued a career in HR for some years, you’ll know that it is a no one-size-fits-all kind of profession.

Many experienced HR professionals have climbed the ladder within a corporate setting, perhaps starting off with basic administration, before working on more specific functions like recruitment, retention, operations, employee relations, compensation and benefits, learning and development and eventually senior leadership roles.

Whatever path you have chosen, the chances are you have developed a collection of invaluable skills, plus experiences and values, which make you ideally suited to starting your own business as a franchisee.

1. You are a people person

You have spent your career to date working with people – both peers in your organisation, but more specifically as an HR specialist, in nurturing the employees. You probably know better than most what makes people tick, how to build rapport, how to guide people through a process and how to convince the boardroom.

As an HR franchisee you can put your people person skills to excellent use – far beyond the functional nature of being in HR – although that will naturally be useful. You will have a huge head start in building relationships with potential clients, other franchisees, your franchisor and the local business community.

2. You understand the value of training and development

As an HR specialist, you are sure to understand the value of training and development. You’ve probably even instigated learning and development programmes yourself, and advised countless colleagues on what they need to do to progress their careers.

Choosing to become a franchisee is very different to striking out on your own. You are investing in the knowledge, processes and branding of a business that has been there and done it, knows the path to success and has a methodology for sharing it with people who want to join and emulate it themselves.

For example, at The HR Dept we provide a host of support in including sales and mindset training, marketing materials, coaching and support and much more.

3. You are a seasoned problem solver

From managing conflict to communicating unpopular messaging to a workforce, you will have seen it all over the years. We find that the experience gained from working out the right approach each time, and learning from adversity, makes HR professionals excellent problem solvers. In turn, this makes them very well-placed to run their own business using a franchise model, because problem solving is such a transferrable skill.

As an HR franchisee, you will most certainly have to apply your problem-solving skills to your clients needs, in much the same way as you did within your employed background. The real joy, though, is getting to focus these skills on your own business, year-by-year directly benefitting from all the experience you have. Being a franchisee is not for everyone, but it is a great choice for so many HR professionals.

Hard work and commitment… but real growth and reward

Few things of value are easily attained, and growing any kind of business from scratch is exactly the same: personal investment, decision making, the unexpected, one step backwards to take two forwards…

You may always have wanted to escape the company politics (who doesn’t!), and work for yourself; but worried about all the areas you don’t know like marketing, social media and sales.

With an HR franchise, you are not starting from scratch. This does not make it easy; but using our model and the skills you have built up gives you shortcuts and the knowledge that you are always on the right path, even though you have not walked it yet.

Find out more about an HR franchise

We have over 60 franchisees (we call them licensees) operating 120 territories across the UK and Ireland with a master franchise in Australia too. With territories still available, we’re looking to help more HR professionals become their own boss with The HR Dept.

If you have the above skillset and experience and would like to start your own business, get in touch with us to find out how we could help you realise your dream.