THE SOLUTION OFFERED BY RECRUITEX
The challenges statements described moved us to develop a solution that aims to address the shortcomings inherent in the lead generation and processing process while adding value to all stakeholders (Franchisors, prospective franchisees and funders). Engineering the solution was completed in association with Entrepreneurial Assessment Professionals and cloud based system engineering specialists. The result of our efforts throughout 2017 is the launch of a solution referred to as Recruitex in January 2018.
An important underlying principle relating to the solution is the concept of requiring candidates to be able to successfully navigate their way through a procedural process as part of their assessment for franchise fit. Although the process may seem to a candidate to be quite cumbersome, the process is not hard, but it is long and thorough. The process is in and of itself an assessment because if a candidate cannot or will not follow the instructions relating to the application process, the chances of him/her following the instructions of the franchisor's business system are slim. Experienced franchisors appreciate the direct relation between a properly compiled and detailed application process and adherence to the prescriptions of their business system.
While the detailed functionality of Recruitex is best explained through a live demonstration, the key features and functionality of the process is explained below.
CORE FUNCTIONALITY
The Recruitex solution incorporates a number of functional 'modules' aligned to effectively manage and process leads (prospective franchisees), regardless of origin, through a process of multi-level assessment and full application and disclosure by prospective franchisees, in an information sharing manner.
The Recruitex process starts by the platform hosting a ‘freshly prepared’ public franchise prospectus document, explaining the franchise opportunity in detail and the application process. Linking from the primary website of the franchisor, this page will serve as the landing page to where all other incoming leads, generated by any website, social media platform or scanned QR code, will be directed. From the landing page onwards, all pages carry the branding of the franchise as if embedded in the franchise’s primary website. The candidate will believe he or she never leaves the website of the franchisor.
Recruitex removes the burden on the franchise owner, and/or on his/her team when it comes to qualifying all the leads that come in from prospective franchisees by:
1) Sifting through all of the applicants so that only good-quality applicants are put forward, thus cutting down on the time, energy and effort that the owner and/or his/her team has to spend on this process.
2) Ensuring that every applicant undergoes a thorough entrepreneurial inclination assessment, that has been carefully designed for the franchise market, so as to check whether each applicant is a strategic fit for your franchise.
3) Collects all of the necessary documentation, checks the documents collected and asks the applicant to re-submit if the documentation is not up to scratch.
4) Performs the necessary credit checks on all qualifying applicants, including police and tax clearances, if necessary.
5) Stores all applicant data so that it can be retrieved at a later stage, should a franchisor need it.
6) Produces statistics on the effectiveness of advertising - so that the franchise owner can evaluate this spend.
Value Add Extra Information
- Recruitex also allows the franchisor to compile and include a custom questionnaire on brand specific questions not included elsewhere.
- The Recruitex solution hosts a central registry/dashboard on all leads with reference to the progress on every lead with links to all supporting information and documents.
- Through the Recruitex platform all sources of every lead, regardless if generated through print or digital media, is identifiable which is essential to campaign planning and budgeting. Event, billboard or print publication sourced leads will be identified and tracked via QR codes.
- The franchisor may opt to engage Recruitex to conduct an in-depth interview of any applicant by a trained industrial psychologist in terms of a prospect application review and fundability investigation in addition to the range of verification checks. The cost will vary depending on the franchisor’s requirements, and will be shared between applicant and franchisor. If the franchisor takes our top package this fee is included.
HOW TO JUSTIFY THE SUBSCRIPTION COST
RecruitEx is a unique and industry specific software solution, which has been developed to address certain risks and typical inefficiencies associated to the recruitment of franchisees. RecruitEx is not an advertising platform and there is no similar product or service to be able to compare the cost to.
In order for any franchisor to be able to make a business decision on the value of the platform, the following considerations should be taken into account as they all represent a direct or indirect cost or benefit to any franchisor:
The cost associated with allowing a franchisee into the network that should never have been there in the first place.
Hindsight is a perfect science and it is often very clear after the event why a franchisee should never have been approved.
The wasted cost as the result or delayed or rejected financial applications
Due to insufficient information or incomplete research on the financial profile of a candidate.
Wasting money on advertising that does not deliver
Advertising spent on the wrong media simply because the number of converted leads could not be related to the actual spent on such media. Pure numbers of unqualified leads only is not a true measure.
The solution provides for an option to participating franchisors to exchange qualified leads
Assessed candidates can be shared between brands and business systems in case the original brand enquired on cannot accommodate a franchisee for reasons such as insufficient own contribution in relation to set-up cost, geographical saturation or limited skills profile.
Wasted cost of your brand development manager’s time
for sifting through endless enquiries and entertaining discussions and introductory meetings before sufficient profile research has been performed on candidates.
Commercial and development funders attach a fair amount of risk mitigation value to the Recruitex solution
which will positively impact on their credit decisions.
The solution incorporates a comprehensive cloud based lead management system providing access to any authorised person on the detail, status and progress relating to every lead.
The exact monetary effect relating to the arguments presented in justifying the cost, can be deemed subjective and
open to argument in terms of relevance to your business but the quantum remains meaningful.