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As we explored in the second post Watch for New Opportunities During the Recovery in the series, the whole world of business has changed during the coronavirus crisis. But where your franchise and your business are concerned, things will not necessarily be bad during the recovery. They will certainly be different, but not necessarily in a negative way.
In fact during the crisis, certain new realities emerged about the way people work. And those changes could offer you and your franchise new opportunities that you might never have had before.
In my post today, I’ll explore some of those unique opportunities.
Opportunity: More Highly Qualified People Will Be Looking for Employment
Before the crisis, you might have found it extremely difficult to recruit, hire and retain really great people to work in your franchise. Perhaps you were grateful to get employees at all. And once you hired and trained them, you might have discovered that turnover was massive. But that has changed. A number of highly capable and experienced workers will be seeking to re-enter the workforce. Could they become your new employees?
Opportunity: A Revitalized Workforce
Some very capable workers were furloughed or laid off during the virus crisis. Those people will be eagerly looking for new jobs as our country and our economy rebound. Those people will probably be easier to find during the recovery period. And when you hire them, they will be more likely to stay with you for the long run.
The result will be that you will have more power to upgrade your people, upgrade your business, and become a much stronger franchise. And at the same time, you will be helping people by offering them employment with a franchise that is better empowered to succeed and last.
Opportunity: More People Will Be Accustomed to Working from Their Homes
If you think about this trend with the right mindset, you will discover that it offers a number of opportunities and advantages.
You might be able to move more of your job functions into remote locations. For example, you could let at-home people work on marketing, merchandising, supply chain management and other key functions. At the same time, you might be able to reduce the size and expense of the office space you once needed to keep your franchise running strong.
It’s another opportunity that could result from this very difficult period.
Opportunity: People Who Don’t Want to Work Might Not Apply to Work for You
This might seem like a paradoxical observation. But the fact is that some people who were receiving unemployment benefits during the crisis might simply decide not to return to the workforce right away. Perhaps they discovered that they simply didn’t love to work.
That trend could help you recruit and retain a stronger workforce, simply because more of the people you hire could be more motivated to want to really work for you . . . to value the jobs you provide and want to stay with you for the long term.
Opportunity: The Cost of Hiring Will Be Lower
While they have been furloughed or laid off, more people have become accustomed to hunting for jobs online. They have gotten comfortable presenting themselves in Zoom and other shared video contexts. The result is that the effectiveness of online hiring platforms could offer you an opportunity to hire better people at a lower cost-per-hire than ever before.
Opportunity: Employees Will Place More Value on Health Plans and Other Benefits
After the crisis, companies that offer excellent health plans to their employees will become the companies that employees most want to work for. So I would say the best strategy is to contract with the best health plans you can afford. Similarly, company-funded retirement plans will mean more to your employees. So if you want to hire the best employees and assure their retention, the message is clear: invest in benefits.
Opportunities Are Waiting for Companies that Are Able to Think about Staffing in New Ways
As I observed at the start of this article, the coronavirus crises was harrowing and deadly.
There is no point in trying to sugar-coat how bad things have been. But as we all recover, perhaps our franchises can do their part to make the world a better place for our employees, our customers, and for our society too.
We can all get behind that. I wish you and your franchise every success in the very exciting months and years to come.