According to the International Franchise Association, restaurants comprise the nation’s largest franchisors, with an estimated 155,000 quick-service restaurants and 37,000 full-service stores in operation in 2014. Non-restaurant franchises continue to grow as well, posing unique challenges to parent corporations and the entrepreneurs driving these companies’ success on the local level.
For decades, delivering policies and procedures from corporate to individual locations has been an imperative task for organizations—and one that hasn’t always been efficient. A manila envelope lost in the mail or an email attachment sent to a junk folder can set a franchise back days or weeks and affect its bottom line. The explosion of tablet technology is redefining how policies and procedures move between headquarters and the front lines. Not only is the process more efficient, but it’s also revolutionizing how corporate is interacting with individual stores. Here’s how iPad and tablets are becoming the new, and better, way to deliver procedures across franchise locations:
Direct Delivery
Policies and procedures are introduced, revised, updated, improved, or withdrawn dozens of times a year. Originally, the way to get these materials to franchises across the country was by shipping them. The expense of this method is obvious, in manpower, paper, and delivery costs. Then came email, which seemed to offer a better solution—documents can simply be attached and opened on a computer. However, those materials either resided on the computer (and weren’t portable) or needed to be printed out, which is also inefficient and costly. Tablet technology solves these problems by instantly delivering policies and procedures to portable devices at a fraction of the expense. Updates are a snap and automatic, and the content resides on iPad or Surface, thus eliminating the need for a constant Internet connection.
Effective Interactions
Previously, if a manager or employee had a question or comment about policies and procedures, a phone call or email was necessary to relay that feedback to the appropriate person. The process was clunky and often wouldn’t result in a timely response, if a response was given at all (and this is assuming the feedback ever reached its intended person in the first place). With tablet technology, comments and questions can be attached to the content itself, thus eliminating much of the extra explanation required when describing a certain procedure, and also increasing the odds the right person at corporate gets the feedback. Furthermore, video and audio messages can be added to any feedback, and employees at other locations can chime in with their own comments. As these interactions become more effective, collaboration improves, as does productivity.
Policies and Procedures, on the Go
Convenience is a major concern for managers and workers tasked with knowing the policies and procedures that affect them. For example, if a new training manual arrives at a franchise location, and it’s 200 pages long in a three-ring binder, how soon will every relevant employee absorb that information (especially if there’s just one binder)? The odds are, not quickly at all. Tablet technology solves this problem in multiple ways. First, when content is digital and on iPad, it can be consumed anywhere: at home, in the break room, on the train—and by more than one user. Second, the technology is more appealing to employees—especially younger employees—than binders and training manuals, which can be intimidating. Finally, tablet technology opens up an array of alternatives to learning the content; a 15-minute video, for example, can teach the essential concepts of a procedure in much less time (and with greater effect) than those 200 printed pages.
What is your company’s biggest challenge in delivering policies and procedures to its franchise locations?
