Jean Grossman and Laura Scavone

Daniel Blaser (00:06):

Hello, and welcome to On the Clock, presented by workstream. If you care about hiring, managing, and paying hourly workers, this podcast is for you. I'm Daniel Blazer, and today we're clocking in with Jean Grossman, president at MAs and Laura Cone, chief People Officer at Smoothie King. We discuss the factors that create a good relationship between franchisees and franchisors and how technology fits into the mix. We also talk about how franchisees and franchisors can better collaborate around hiring and retention. Enjoy. Thank you to both of you for being here, and I'm really excited to chat today. I'd love to hear, to kick things off, what makes the franchise space so special? Why is it the place that you want to be at this chapter in your career? Laura, let's start with you.

Laura Scavone (01:00):

For me, personally watching franchisees, even just at the very, I get to see it from the very beginning. I see from that very first discovery day when they come into the office to learn more about our brand and just the passion, excitement, and the, their purpose and the, the reason why behind their wanting to start businesses is what I connect with because I am being in hr, I care about passion, I care about drive, and that's all I see. Like, you're not going to be a successful franchisee if you don't possess those skillset. So I think that's why I've connected so well with the franchise space is just that, those pieces of it that come to life.

Daniel Blaser (01:35):

Yeah, I like that. How about you, Jean?

Jean Grossman (01:38):

Yeah, I think it gives you the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than yourself. So even if you're on the corporate side, you have, you usually have a business unit that you run, and that's kind of your, your main focus. Here, you know, with me, I have the opportunity to work with hundreds and hundreds of franchisees. I love, you know, I get stories weekly from clients that we've cleaned their homes or frontline employees about how they made a difference in people's lives. And I think just being a part of that is something that you don't get when you're kind of in your own zone. So I, I love it. I, I mean, I've been doing it for a long time and I wouldn't do anything else.

Daniel Blaser (02:21):

Yeah, I like that a lot. My next question, I've had a lot of conversations between franchisees, franchisors, and one word that I keep hearing as far as how you would describe the ideal relationship between both parties is the word partnership. Do you agree with that being the right descriptor? Why or why not? And maybe we start with you this time, Jean.

Jean Grossman (02:48):

Yeah, I, I think me, my legal team would get on top of me for calling a franchisee a partner because,

Daniel Blaser (02:54):

You know, legally Yeah, yeah,

Jean Grossman (02:56):

Legally, but I think everybody coming into that, it, it, it's the right vernacular, right? Because this is a relationship and it's a give and take, and it's not gonna be 50 50 all the time, but together first, I know it's corny, but together we're better, right? And so coming up with those resolutions to issues that are wide, I can't do that on my own. Right? There's so I think partnership, relationship, you know, all, all those kind of things are, are the right word. I think you get into the other side of the equation if you manage the business by the franchise disclosure document or you say you have to do it because you know it's your con in your contract or things like that. I think the most successful brands probably say yeah, it's a partnership.

Laura Scavone (03:47):

Yeah, I, I would agree with that. And I've, I've said this before, but I, I firmly believe that one can't exist without the other. You've got franchisees that are entrepreneurs, some of them quite literally putting every single penny they've ever earned into this brand to, because their driving goal and driving spirit is to be an entrepreneur and a business owner. So they partner with the franchisor to make that happen. And then vice versa, franchisors don't exist without the franchisees. So it's almost, I don't even know the word to describe it, but it's a whole nother level of partnership and almost a dependency, if you will, because one can't exist without the other in that brand.

Daniel Blaser (04:24):

Yeah, it reminds me of watching a nature documentary and talking about a symbiotic relationship. Right. alright, next question. So as you know, work Stream is all about recruiting, hiring, retaining hourly workers. What is the best way for franchisees and franchisors to partner, if we wanna use that word again, around those responsibilities of the business?

Laura Scavone (04:50):

The biggest piece is education. Like I said before, I think that a franchisee has to understand what you're bringing to the table, what the value is and what the solution is. I, I don't, they, they don't comprehend it. And so I think that's a huge piece of being successful is getting them there to understand. Even like take workstream for example, the thing like even just the electronic onboarding that you offer, like, I don't think franchisees realize what a significant time saver that can be for them. Not only time, but also just compliance, right? You're making sure that the, the documentation is correct. We just talked earlier about I nines and w fours and things like that, even in just then the retention of those documents, like I could go on and on and on. But, so I think the main point is educating them to what this tool's gonna do for them. And then I think once they see that, that's when they become fans. And that's why Smoothing King partnered with you, right? We had these franchisees that were mind blown that once they switched to workstream, how much it changed their life, not only from an efficiency perspective, but also cost from recruiting. Like they, they've talked about how they've never had to boost another role again Indeed. 'cause They can solely rely on work stream as the tool, but they didn't know that until they knew that, right?

Jean Grossman (06:03):

Yeah. I think the expertise in, in most franchise systems around HR compliance, even to your point, how long do you have to keep your documents for? How do they have to be kept locked up, you know, all that kind of stuff. Being able to automate that for franchisees is great. So as a franchisor, it's our responsibility to educate 'em on, Hey, we have this platform that we think is gonna be useful for you and this is why and support you guys in, in that, in that in that way. And I think, you know it, it never goes from zero to a hundred, but it's like, how do you get the franchisees excited? And then frankly in, in my role, I would let the franchisees tell the franchisees why they should use it. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. I mean, they know each other. It's, it's it's the way to go.

Daniel Blaser (06:53):

Alright. So this is kind of a related question, but how about new technology, whether it's a new platform, a new tool is it the franchisor that's identifying those and then sharing them with the franchisee? Is it the other way around? Is it meeting in the middle? What have you seen work the best when it comes to identifying and implementing new Tech?

Jean Grossman (07:17):

Yeah, I think it's understanding what platforms you currently have and where the gaps are. Because we could get bombarded with, especially now with all the new technology and platforms and every franchisee has a favorite. So it's like identifying where the gaps are, whether it's, we have an existing platform that needs to perform better or whatever, but I would say that the majority of ideas of, Hey, we should look into this technology comes from the franchise system, and then we just have to evaluate it with them to make sure it's right for the entire brand and who's gonna benefit from, you know, how they're gonna benefit and make sure that it works for both the vendor and for the franchise award and the franchisee. Yeah,

Laura Scavone (08:02):

You know, I would say a smoothie king, in our example, the franchisees were the one that came to, to me and said, we wanna partner with workstream. And I think the biggest piece for corporate franchisors in, in this space is that you can't just rely on the franchisees. Not that they're wrong, but like to what Jean said, you have to make sure that it's a program or a, a system or a process that applies their will help the entire system. So there's a pretty significant vetting process from the franchisor perspective because we can't get it wrong. I, oh my goodness, if I sign an MSA and I am, I'm endorsing it as the franchisor and then our franchisees have a bad experience that is coming directly back to me. Whether I just gave it to 'em as an option, whether I just said, Hey, you came to me and I, all I did was sign the MSA, it, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, I'm the one that's gonna be held accountable for that. So we do a pretty significant vetting process. We move forward with partner.

Daniel Blaser (08:56):

Alright. I have one more question for both of you. A lot of people that listen to this podcast, maybe some of them are existing franchisees, but I know a lot of them are also, you know, they're working for a franchisee and they have this goal that somewhere down the road they will own their own restaurant, their own, you know, group of restaurants. What advice or recommendations would you give to those people?

Jean Grossman (09:20):

I love Henry Ford. If you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. The thing with owning a franchise business or any business for that matter is, and franchise is great 'cause you have support in, in areas, but really evaluating and looking in the mirror and understanding what you know and what you don't know. Whether it's, I'm really good at marketing, but I'm not great at ops. I'm really good at hr, but I'm not good at business acumen, right? And so going into a franchisor and saying, telling us that to begin with, then we could help support you in the, in the places that you have gaps or if you're hiring a manager, you know, we could help you with identifying the characteristics that you might wanna hire a math wizard or a financial analyst, you know, that's really good at that so that we can bring people together so that you're successful because that's the name of the game, right? So making sure that everybody's successful.

Laura Scavone (10:16):

I agree with that. And you know, if I think of my own world at Smoothie King, I mean, we have team members all the time that raise their hands and say they would love to be a franchisee someday. So the encouragement I give to them is learn everything that they can leverage their resources, especially on the franchisor side. If you, let's say you're an employee of a franchisee and you want, you've got resources through that franchisor that you can leverage to learn and grow as much as you want to then be able to help you build your own, your own business in the future. So just leverage what's at your disposal. Yeah, would be my recommendation.

Daniel Blaser (10:55):

Thank you for listening to On the Clock. For more info, visit workstream.us/podcast. Until next time, we're clocking out.