August 2007 Franchising World

Executed correctly, distance learning can be a powerful tool to launch an organization to its next level of growth.
By Nancy Bigley, CFE

With remote workforce levels increasing, franchise networks expanding and travel expenses climbing, distance learning and education programs within franchise organizations have become opportunities that can no longer remain idle.  With staff and franchisees often spread from California to New York, as well as overseas, flying into a central location to get educated and calibrated is often no longer a realistic first option. 

Just how big is the educational opportunity?  The National Center on the Educational Quality of the Workforce found that a 10 percent increase in the education of all workers on average results in a productivity increase of 11 percent to the organization.   Many would argue this same study could be applied to a franchise organization.  To test the point, perform a quick sales and profitability analysis of the most engaged and trained operators within your organization verses your most disengaged and less trained operators.  The results will clearly reveal the level of opportunity available within your organization.
 
An article in International Journal of Instructional Technology & Distance Learning, February 2005 issue, by Zane L. Berge and Adrian A. Kendrick, “Can Interest in Distance Training be Sustained in Corporate Organizations,” suggests the implementation of distance training is an effective tool for reducing training cost, saving time and creating a more knowledgeable and productive workforce.  As companies consider how to better leverage resources remotely by creating a distance-learning program, they might  consider the following.

Evaluate Your Existing Development and Educational Program
Reviewing existing development and educational training programs can aid in determining which, if any, could be developed into a distance-learning program. 

Franchisee Organization
New franchisee pre-training:  Many franchise organizations have taken the opportunity prior to the beginning of the onsite training program to educate their new franchisees virtually.   Often there may be one-to-five days of brand orientation, review of basic system processes and completion of start-up paperwork before the true business training begins.  There may be an opportunity to put this material into an online distance-learning program with the goal being successful completion prior to arrival at the training center. 
 
Results of success save the incoming franchisees travel expenses and the corporate staff time and ultimately money.  Additionally, the ability to reduce days and even weeks off a facilitated training program could ultimately result in the ability to move additional groups of franchisees through the program each year.
   
New product or service rollout training:  Growing franchise organizations will likely have new product or service rollouts throughout the year.  Some may be more complex than others.  The key to the success of those new programs lies in the ability of the franchisee and their crews to execute them correctly.  It is impractical for franchisees and their crews to travel to the corporate training facility for every roll out.  Alternatively, it is impractical for corporate staff to travel to each franchise location to conduct training.  Thus, a form of distance learning perhaps combined with on-site follow up may be a more practical solution.
 
Recertification or crew training:  All franchise organizations have a specific standard within their franchise agreements that require one, if not all of the franchisees on the franchise agreement to attend the current training program.  The challenge becomes what gets missed when those franchisees in turn train others to run their day-to-day operations. Much can get taught incorrectly or missed completely. 
 
Additionally, as franchisees enter into their mature years with the organization, what they learned in their infancy with the brand may have become obsolete.  The ability to create a recertification program or crew training program remotely that covers the basics of the current business operations can lead to an increase in the brand’s overall sales and profitability.

Corporate Organization
According to a February 2007 study by WorldatWork, a not-for-profit organization of human resource professionals, the trend for remote workers is increasing at a steady pace each year. This dynamic provides an opportunity for organizations to create more effective distance-learning programs. 

New employee training:  As with new franchisees, often prior to the start of new employee training, pre-training and education can be conducted virtually prior to onsite arrival.  Pre-training will save time and money for the organization and allow an employee to arrive for training more prepared.  Retention of new material tends to be higher for students when they have at least a baseline understanding of the subject matter.

New product or service rollout training: The burden to ensure proper execution of a new product or service in a franchise organization will in many cases lie with the field teams.  Many of them may be remote, thus an effective distance education and communication program can be extremely valuable.  Virtual training combined with regionally-clustered meetings can be an effective way to educate and calibrate teams while keeping costs low for the organization.

Organization strategy meetings: To achieve the greatest success against an organization’s strategy, every member of the team must know the strategy and understand his role in that strategy’s success.  Accomplishing that can be difficult in the best of circumstances.  However, properly planned, communicated and executed remote meetings for organizations with remote teams can be extremely effective and productive for the company and its staff.   Conducting meetings remotely can result in adding days back to a team’s calendar ultimately leading to increased productivity.

Utilizing Technology
A distance learning and education program in most cases will utilize some form of technology.   The following are three of the more commonly-utilized methods of training and communicating.

Online learning sites.  Establishing an online university for your brand that will allow users to learn content from their place of business or home can give organizations a significant advantage in the marketplace.  Many questions will need to be reviewed prior to the launch, such as program interface, content, designer, technology needs, business partners and budget.  Refer to a Franchising World article from August 2006, “Online Training: What You Should Consider Before You Begin,” if this is an avenue your organization may want to pursue. 

Webinars. There are a variety of companies in the marketplace that have created easy-to-use and inexpensive Web interface platforms for online meetings.  Simply do a Google search for “Web conferencing” and a variety of choices will appear.  Prices vary depending on the level of features and reporting capabilities you require.  Some primary elements to look for include:
• Ability to post and view PowerPoint presentations and other documents,
• Ability to capture participant logon and logoff stats,
• Ability to have audio conferencing,
• Ability of participants to type in questions for chair live, and
• Follow-up surveys regarding the meeting.

Conference Calls.  When evaluating different distance-learning methods for your organization, don’t overlook the simplicity of the conference call.  A Google search for “audio conferencing” will highlight several business partners that can assist for a reasonable fee.  There are some easy tips that can be utilized to make a conference call more advantageous for your audience.
 
Begin by sending out an online survey well in advance of the meeting to determine any questions participants may have regarding the topic.  Zoomarang.com is an excellent and inexpensive resource to check into. 
 
Incorporate answers to the questions into presentation materials and e-mail presentation materials to participants in advance of the meeting.  This will allow participants to follow along with the chair during the call leading to higher-content retention levels. 
 
After the call is completed, send another online survey to participants to ensure the goals of the training were achieved.  This will continue to ensure the learning process improves.

Measuring Effectiveness
The American Society of Training and Development has assessed that the investment made in developing workers has contributed to more than half of the nations increase in production over the last 30 years. Thus, success criteria should be established to ensure an organization can accurately measure the value of any distance-learning program that is established. 
 
For staff, progression against key metrics and the overall success of meeting goals and objectives is important.  For franchisees and their crew, increases in sales and profitability are usually the easiest metrics to evaluate, as well as guest- satisfaction ratings.  Whatever criteria is selected, ensure progress is regularly-evaluated so modifications to the program can be made quickly if success criteria is not being achieved.
 
Whether or not an organization should move forward with a distance learning and education program will depend on the opportunities envisioned and the commitment of the team to implement the program.  It is not a strategy to be taken lightly as it will require a lot of planning, funding and support throughout the organization.  However, executed correctly, distance learning can be a powerful tool to launch an organization to its next level of growth.

Nancy Bigley, CFE, is director of operations of Dunkin’ Brands, Inc.  She can be reached at 760-322-9353 or nancy.bigley@dunkinbrands.com.