Strong relationships the key to a productive workplace

Whether your workplace is a small or large organisation, or a multi-unit franchise operation, the principles remain the same. If you're after a productive workplace, the focus needs to be on your employees and more specifically, your relationships with them.

HR professionals should recognise the importance of fostering employee communication. With 35 franchises at Souvlakihut and growing, the relationship management of the various franchisees and store managers becomes even more critical to ensure consistent productivity levels are maintained.

We believe staff (and in our case, franchisee) motivation and performance is fundamental to the success of our business, which can only be achieved through constant contact and communication. These factors form the basis of a healthy relationship, therefore translating to an effective workplace.

It's all about communication
It can be challenging to co-ordinate communication in a franchise network as there are so many people involved, from franchisees and store managers, to development agents. So how do we keep a cohesive corporate culture?

At Souvlakihut, we've found success from an inclusive approach. We want our franchisees to be part of a bigger picture and ensure they contribute to not just the business issues but to our product development, marketing and training.

To encourage a sharing environment, every month we hold alternate franchise meetings and educational workshops. We also ensure personal contact from head office is made at least weekly in order to provide additional support if needed.

We recognise that with people, comes issues, and in order to manage a business successfully we need to work through these collaboratively.

Across-the-board training
With so many varying skill sets and ideas in a franchise network, it is important that constant attention is given to ensure the same level of understanding throughout the organisation. This is where our sharing environment comes into play, as franchisees are able to share and learn from one another rather than just from head office.

On a monthly basis we run a program known as 'mystery shopper', where an anonymous shopper visits each store and rates it on various aspects of the business - from its service levels and cleaning standards, to the quality of food and staff interactions. The stores are then ranked in order and sent their individual rankings to encourage goal setting. It's no secret that a bit of healthy competition does wonders for a business! The program also allows us to monitor the various stores and assist the individual franchisees in any areas they may be lacking in, another important aspect of our communication process and quality control.

At Souvlakihut we also foster career progression opportunities for all our employees, through a three-day leadership management program to breed potential managers and supervisors. Each franchisee selects employees who they believe exhibit leadership traits and have been in the business long enough to understand the operational dynamics. This is a great staff motivation initiative and ensures that all our employees strive to perform well in their roles.

We also supply external resources and materials as additional learning material, whether it be information on HR, teambuilding or leadership to our franchisees to help them build a strong team of workers at all of our stores.

Our biggest challenge is ensuring we have a clear understanding of the skill level of our franchisees and this comes down to communication and ongoing contact and support. For example, there may be certain issues franchisees are unable to see within their own business that we as the management team may pick up in a skills audit. We can then focus on these areas either through onsite training, in the management course or through the franchisee training program.

It takes two
At the end of the day, communication is a two-way street. We are still a relatively young business and so can benefit from additional knowledge from our franchisees from their past experience.

We've recently started operating an online intranet system called SOCRATES to encourage two-way communication, where franchisees and all employees can share thoughts, ideas and experiences with each other. Similar to a non-franchised organisation, HR professionals and business owners need to listen and engage with their employees to ensure staff satisfaction.

At Souvlakihut we understand that we need to grow in a constantly evolving environment. Relationships are an important foundation of any business; with that is the acknowledgment that communication and business success come hand in hand.

About the author
Bruno Ceraso is the general manager of Souvlakihut, a casual Greek restaurant founded in 2004 that has now grown to 35 stores across the Eastern seaboard, with a target to reach 60 stores by the end of 2010 and 300 by 2012. For more information email: bruno@souvlakihut.com.au or visit www.souvlakihut.com.au .